Photos Digby Shaw Words Owen Hughes

The penultimate weekend of Huttcross, and the final for Ngati Tama park, went down as the most mentally demanding thus far of the five prior clashes of human, machine, and nature. And what a clash it was! As day broke and exploded with an offensive ferocity, the usual early morning bi-weekly rabble took stock of their deteriorating surroundings, opting for every trick in the weatherproofing book to keep the course in place.

The contract between wet and mild of previous rounds was broken, to be replaced by the raw power of gale-driven rain. Ngati Tama wasn’t going to let her antagonists go without a fight, dragging riders and their equipment through grinding mud, forcing them from her stop-banks with a wintery blast thus far unseen. While previously competitors had found adversaries in one another, they now had a third uninvited meteorological challenger.

A slightly diminished C grade lined up, cast adrift in a sea of mud and turf by the race warden’s siren. While those at the sharp end of the field made light work of the onerous conditions, the younger of pack could be seen clambering, hand-over-foot, head-over-bike, time all but forgotten in their own private race of attrition against the biting cold and smatterings of rain.

While the final vestiges of human effort were deposited in the sticky mud, the precipitation eased, leading many in the B field to hope that they may yet be able to ingratiate their efforts unhindered by the weather. It wasn’t to be. A rambunctious start was paid in mechanical currency. The repulsive sound of rear derailleurs meeting their end could be heard from all corners, the quagmire picking unwary assailants at random.

The elite of the lower North Island cyclocross populous set off under now clear skies, in a final attempt to leave Ngati Tama park vanquished. No svelte outfit, luminous socks, Bowie-esque shoes nor abstruse bicycle technology could overcome the tempest sewn in the early hours of the morning, however.

Several riders managed to pull clear, struggling against the very ground they trod, a small drove of otherwise broken bodies and machinery in the leaders wake bought the day to a close. Ngati Tama remains victorious, leaving the Moonshine National Champs-Huttcross double-header the last remaining venue for atonement in two weeks time.