WORDS: KIM HURST IMAGES: LISA NG

For Round 3, Huttcross returned to a piece of parkland unearthed by its founding fathers back in the dawning era of ‘cross in EnZed.

Moonshine’s hallowed turf is best known for its steep stop bank coupled with mud plugging conditions at the faintest sniff of rain. In 2019, a gravel inspired addition joined the family of feature pieces and riverbed pavé was born.

It was a fitting weekend for a spot of pavé with the resumption of Strade Bianche on the post-COVID UCI calendar. Indeed, Belgian cyclocross protagonist, Wout van Aert, stomped all over the race of the white roads in unfamiliar weather.

Closer to home the customary Northerly headwind (that often makes its presence particularly felt on the return journey of the stop bank) was a DNS for 2020. On an unaccustomed bluebird day, a thigh busting effort was still required to mow through the grass homeward bound.

Moonshine’s wide-open landscape granted a full UCI length (if not always width) parcours. Holeshot baggers were greatly recompensed on a day that witnessed frantic watt dropping and chicane bottlenecking as the biggest CX race in Aotearoa swept into the first corner.

Faithful followers of the tape-hungry track chomped through a sequence of technical turns before detouring to the riverbed pavé of Te Awa Kairangi for some rougher riding. Or rougher running. Or both.

The double set of barriers prompted a Hard Yes to negotiation on foot for most voters. Those who grabbed air time provided a spectacle for the crowd with Man of the Match going to the timekeeper who participated in some soil sampling mid-bunnyhop.

Smiles spread widely. Even down to the bell lap. However, the widest smile of all came from a toddler who got to press the buttons on a police car.

Cyclocross is fcking cool but sometimes lights and sirens are cooler.