This was the best stage of the event. At the start line at the Xanadu Winery near Margaret River all the talk was on the singletrack section known as the Pines and how much fun it would be.
The 57km stage started with an 8km neutralised section through the town of Margaret River where we were greeted by a large crowd of supporters before darting into the Pines section where we then tackled 16 km of sweet flowing singletrack at full race pace. All the trails had Star Wars themes so we tackled The Phantom Menace, Return of the Jedi and Jedi Uphill to name but a few.
The Pines Singletrack from my Strava file
Once through the singletrack section we progressed on a mixture of fire roads / roads and through some extremely smelly creeks to the finish line at Colonial Brewery. The weather on day 3 turned for the worse and the last 15km were completed in the rain. I also had my only mechanical of the race when one of the bolts from my cleat came loose and finally fell out. I completed the last 10KM with only once clipped in foot and it made the ride a little more difficult but I still managed to stay in roughly the same position at the finish line.
Colonial Brewery
No visit to the Colonial Brewery would be complete without a beer so our post ride carb loading consisted of a few !
PROMPT CYCLE CULTURE 