GoldRiver XXV - the first day of dustmas

Owen Partaik - leader, day one

Day one of the GoldRiver XXV started early. Really early.

4am early.

Do you know how loud the bloody birds sing at dawn this time of year?

Leisurely first breakfast of muesli and half-strength coffee followed by second breakfast at Uptown Cappuccino.

Event crew set off first for Wonderful, Wosstastic Woss Vegas, followed by the Gaia riders after a respectful pause and the competition riders after a further pause.

Do you remember I said the competition field would quickly stratify itself? Well so it transpired.

Four retirements by the end of day one. Three injuries (sore shoulders after taking a dive) and a mechanical (collapsed rear wheel bearing) whittled the competition field down which was further stratified by a number of smartphone failures.

At the end of day one - 17 gps timing gates, the leaderboard looks like this:

Leader after day 1 Owen Partaik

Day 2 has an entirely different route of 300km.

The sorting continues…

Jdb 29/6/26