most states had to cancel their interschools mountain bike competitions (including nsw, where nat had raced before) for the obvious reason that few responsible school representatives would have wanted to underwrite a potential superspreader event. lucky for us living in tassie we don’t have any (known) covid cases and are therefore free to congregate, especially when it comes to young people and outdoor events.
clearly mountain biking is what you could call an inherently socially distanced sport. and living in st helens we do have a good number of up and coming group of riders who spend quite a bit of time in the saddle and on the trails, so the school sent a bus full of teenage boys and girls to launceston.
there are only a few small flies in that particular ointment: firstly many tassie towns now have quite decent trails and living in st helens isn’t as much an advantage as one would hope it was. and that is actually not a bad thing at all (except if you come from st helens and would not mind showing those rich city kids how it’s done).
secondly ‘young people these days’ have grown up with the luxury of pain-free uplifts, aka shuttle buses, and while that has clearly helped them gain impressive downhill skills, some of them found they didn’t quite have the legs for the obligatory xc challenge. the ‘downhill’ timed stage they had pinned their hopes on turned out to be another xc type run, and as a result it wasn’t so much fearlessness in the face of near vertical lines or death defying jump lines but stamina that won the day: not necessarily the strength of the st helens kids.
if that sounds unfair i’d note, as one of the organisers did during the briefing, that participants came with a wide variety of skills, from almost pro riders to kids who looked like they hadn’t been on a bike for years. nobody wants to see children getting hurt, so while many boys & girls would have loved something more exciting i understand why this was a good choice. nat clearly didn’t care for the xc race either, but put on a brave face and started as if she was racing the olympics; that powerlines climb did hurt, though.
the most important thing, however: all kids clearly had a lot of fun, and it was amazing to see them enjoy the trails and their bikes together. there were no harsh words or disrespectful attitudes. there were also, importantly, no serious injuries (only a few scrapes) and we heard the kids got a special treat by going to a fast food restaurant on the way home. kris & i had to a cup of coffee and a croissant instead – to each their own i guess.
nat was also thrilled to meet her friends from hobart again. don’t you love racing?