Yesterday I returned from another awesome trip to Cairns for a UCI World Cup round. This time, it was the UCI World Cup – Round 2 Cairns 2016 and it has been 2 years since the last time this event has been in Australia. Of course, we took our bikes with us on our ‘family holiday’ (Mum = me, Dad = husband, and ‘the kids’ = our bikes) and we rode Atherton Tablelands and surrounds with different mates each time – great to be out on old familiar trails and see what has changed.
Incredible racing
Last time we went to this event, it was wet, muddy and extremely hard work for all – but this, time the weather was beautiful, the track was primo and the racing was incredibly exciting. As usual, the racing format was Downhill on Saturday and Cross-Country on Sunday. Because I was not the World Cup working this time, I got to catch up with a heap of my beloved crew, chat to teams and riders, and cheer on the side lines until I lost my voice (which didn’t take very long).
Both days racing was thrilling for different reasons. The Downhill was exciting because we had four Aussies in the top 10, with Sik Mik (3rd) and Brosnan (2nd) absolutely killing it – the top 3 within the same second! The crowd on the side lines created a super festive atmosphere and I haven’t had such a rocking great time track-side for a while.
If you want to get a taste of how fast and breathtaking the downhill track was, check out Sik Mik’s race run here.
Me and my bikie besties
One of the highlights for me was definitely the social accessibility of the event. Aside from meeting Bruni and Gwin for a long chat (no photos as it was ‘serious’ business), I got my tourist on and went on a ‘search and photograph’ mission – the end result is below. I got to catch up with some old superstar mates from Enduro, XC and DH as well as meeting some a slew of new riders!! Sweet!! Happy days!!