From Claire Buchar via: canadiandhgirls.com

I was so stoked to be in the mountains again! Not like Whistler but I’ll take what I can get over here… Thredbo resort is the only lift access mountain bike park in Australia. However, there is only one track and it’s a long one! Located in the Snowy Mountains, about 3 hours from Canberra, Thredbo was the host of the 3rd National Round. Pictures by Tony Pincan

It pretty much rained consistently all weekend, making for a very muddy and physically exhausting race. It was awesome to ride in those conditions over here on one of the driest continents in the world. It just kept raining! By race day the track was absolutely wrecked, so wrecked that they only allowed us one practice run each on race day morning.

I managed to hunt down one spike and a swamp thing for race day and Chris opted to raced on his intermediate muds, Schwalbe Muddy Mary’s. We were a bit ill prepared.

I was so stoked to have Jill Kintner there at the race, (who by the way is absolutely ripping DH and loving it), to push me! It was a very long and extremely pedally track and with the added mud, you had to be strong, powerful and fit. I had a decent run with a few mistakes and crazy moments(everyone had their own adventure to tell) but I was just happy with how I pushed along for the whole 8 minutes and 52 seconds! Talk about Enduro. Or XC on a DH bike?

Chris, unfortunately, did not have the greatest run but still did amazing for having pretty much dry tires while all the top guys had spikes. His time came in at 7 minutes and 23 seconds. He was disappointed and we both know he is capable of a lot more but that’s just the way the cookie crumbled this weekend.

But we both stood on the podium again.

Elite Men

1. Ben Cory – 7:15.66
2. Bryn Atkinson – 7:18.79
3. Shaun O’Connor – 7:21.84
4. Chris Kovarik – 7:23.11
5. Amiel Cavalier – 7:26.42

Elite Women

1. Claire Buchar – 8:52.61
2. Jill Kintner – 8:58.73
3. Julia Boer – 9:08.14
4. Sarsha Huntington – 9:31.36
5. Leonie Picton – 9:31.68

See full results at www.rotorburn.com

I could only find a few average photos so far, most photographers were hiding out of the rain or shooting with one hand holding the camera and the other an umbrella. Heres a few from before the track got to muddy just to give you a feel.