Vulcaniser MTB Race

Last year the Vulcaniser MTB race was cancelled due to heavy rain and while this year the race was all go as we were making our way up the farm track to race venue we experienced a little bit of wet ground! This made for an exciting arrival but while this was all good it brought to my mind that the track would no doubt be wet also and with only having summer tyres bolted on it was sure going to be all fun and games during the race!
Finally once I got my gear on and registered and found out they were only using half the course due to the second half of the track being extremely wet I set off to see what the track was really like...
After I did my lap and got back to the car with 3 minor crashes achieved I wasn't in too good a state of mind and with the only having the one pair on tyres I decided to make it a 'fun' race and not charge out and risk crashing.
Race start came around soon enough and as I arrived slightly late there was no room on the front row so I started near the back. Once we took off I hammered it up the side getting near the front until I rubbed up against someones wheel leaving me to quickly dismount. Finally I managed to start passing other riders and then I came to the dreaded downhill mud bath. With watching some riders go down during practise including me, I remembered a certain technique to follow and that was controlled pace, lots of rear brake and not much of the front. To my surprise I got down without coming off! This then took me onto the climb of the lap and about this time the 'race face' came on' and it was time to start racing!
Lap two came by and about this time a nice line was forming in the downhill which made it even better and I was actually enjoying the conditions! Finally with some more passing done I brought myself up to second place and had clear ground ahead completing my last two laps only seconds a lap slower than winner Anton Cooper who had come well prepared with mud tyres set up!