The Michaelhouse Classic

Sunday was race day, so Sharon and I loaded the bikes onto the car and headed for Michaelhouse. This was a race I’d never done before and the route profile looked menacing – Fourteen kilometers of pure climbing following by 6 kilometers of downhill. Sharon had thankfully not seen the profile so I assured her it was an easy race *insert evil laugh here*.

We got off to a slow start as we climbed out of the school. Sharon was taking some strain but she pushed through like a trooper. The climbing was tough but the views were spectacular (although I’m not sure Sharon noticed) and we reached the 14km mark before she had too much time to complain. Then the fun started with 6kms of downhill ahead of us, including a few sections of single track.

The first stretch of single track went well…but sadly I can’t say the same for the second. Sharon was flying through the trees when we reached a steeper section of track. She slowed down and took it cautiously, but clearly this wasn’t enough and she had her first bail on a mountain bike. Not only did she fall, but she got tangled with her bike and was unable to get up. Thankfully I was right behind her and I quickly got her untangled and off the track. She was a little shaken up but was ready to go again.

There were a lot of people on the track which made it difficult to rejoin. I spotted a gap and told her to go quickly. Sharon jumped onto her bike, joined the downhill section, pulled her brakes, and went over her handlebars landing on her face. And just to top things off, her bike flipped over and landed on top of her. It didn’t look good and I was expecting the worst. I was off my bike quickly, ripped the bike off Sharon, and got her to the side of the track again. Amazingly she was fine (other than being a bit shaky) and we were back on our way in under a minute. She did however make it very clear that this was entirely my fault for rushing her?!

Anyway, we took the rest of the race at a more casual pace and amazingly still managed to finish in less than 2 hours. It was only at this point that we noticed the huge dent in Sharon’s helmet from the fall. Clearly she hit either a tree stump or a rock, either way, thank God she was wearing a helmet.

The rest of the afternoon was spent chilling at home being forced to give lots of love to a very bruised Sharon.