I find it hard to pry myself away from the fireside this time of year. Hobart in June is far, far removed from ‘balmy’. The evenings are worse of course, the air with a frosty bite to it. The type of cold that stings your eyes. I was already ugg-boot clad and fireside when I remembered the ‘Dash of Honour II’ was due to commence in an hours time.. For a moment I considered ‘forgetting’ and explaining my absence at a later date, but remembering the fun filled tales of the previous event I donned some winter woollies and headed out the door.
Steam rose above twenty cyclists already gathered on the cobbled avenue of Cenotaph and I rolled over to join them on my 20″ whip. Pretty good turnout considering the single digit temperature. Too cold to hang about, Liam Correy kicked off the event in short order, quickly explaining the rules; ‘First to 100 laps wins, 1 beer adds 1o laps to your tally’. Simple. The bunch (which included a 26″ sidehack) set off at a cracking pace.. obviously there were some serious contenders. Not being so serious myself, I rolled out an earnest 10 laps then stopped to drink beer, scab a lift on the sidehack and cheer on the race leaders. Who was leading? Dunno, but Killick, Tim, Jono and a guy I vaguely remember from hazy nights in Mobius all had their heads down spinning furiously. Who won? Can’t say I paid that much attention as I was having to much fun socialising. There were a few claims of ‘doping’ at the event end, but in the vein of Jacques Anquetil, ‘You don’t win the Dash of Honour on mineral water’.
