Sunday today and the last day of HellFire Cup for 2015. The final insult to the legs is the 3KM morning stage up the “Elevator”. This hill is difficult to walk let alone ride an there will be lots and lots of people walking this one. The prize though is a sweet descent down the other side and through a few technical features and back around to the start line.

We are sent off in small seeded groups and I was targeting to ride the whole hill so Liz and I organised for me to wait at the top and she would walk / ride it at her own pace. Apart from being baulked by some muppet trying to stay in front of me I got to the top without having to walk any of it. The last 100M pinch was touch and go but I made it to the top Ok. I waited and had the GoPro recording all the carnage over the top till Liz arrived and we headed down the other side. The descent was a bit loose on a couple of corners but we made it to the log roll-overs and rock garden ok.

I arrived at the rock garden to a large traffic jam of people baulking at the rock garden or struggling to get over the log feature. One guy crashed into the log feature and broke his bike into two pieces. Given I had zero speed when I started down the rock garden I was surprised I got as far as I did only stalling at the very end and putting the foot out. Ah well at least I had a crack which is more than I can say for many others. There was a large crowd here yelling and hollering with many cameras waiting to capture all the action. We crossed the line together after 15 minutes of gut busting climb followed by some fun descent.

A short gap between stage 7 and the last stage 8 so everything was wound up by lunch time for the big BBQ and presentations and to allow interstate people to pack up and catch flights. Stage 8 was a simple 3KM loop in pairs with some “fun park features” thrown in. There was a beer stop here and a bit of fun was had by a few competitors. We dressed in flanny for the last stage. The elites were held back till an hour after we did stage 8 so we could all get cleaned up and cheer them on. One of the elites broke his chain on the start and had to run the course to protect their first place in the results.

A big BBQ was put on and the beers and wine started to flow. Liz and I got our medals for coming 2nd in Masters Mixed and I won a spot prize – a new back pack. The $6k bike would have been nice to win. The guy sitting next to me left and his name was called out, a bugger for him (wonder if he found out)! Packing for some, lots of socialising but we decided to stay the night and drive back Monday so it was party time. Quite a few people hung around Sunday night and it was a good time. Not sure how a few of them got up early and went to work as they seemed quite under the weather late Sunday night.

We had a quiet Monday morning chillaxing and eventually got the camper and camp-site packed up. We headed over and helped Duncan and his crew pack up some of the marquees and power infrastructure (many hands make light work).  About lunch time we headed off to Dunalley for some awesome fish and chips just like after the 24HR. We had lunch with a seal in the canal and a silly dog who kept swimming out and playful attacking the seal who brushed him off with a deep growl each time. Kept the tourists amused for ages but made our lunch a bit crowded this time. Got a coffee on the way through Copping and headed home. We arrived home late in the afternoon and cleaned everything up and realised it was back to work and normality after a great 5 days of riding and socialising.

HellFire Cup is every 2 years now so 2017 till the next one – we will be there it’s a great event on and off the track.

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