These are some links to blogs with event stories and below are some race stories people have sent in. Please feel free to email me your stories.

Stories. by Stephen Van Dyke (big George) of the Fat Tyre Flyer committee and member of the Total Rush Pink Team >HERE<

Stories. by John Groves - His Personal Blog

Race report by Ash Thomas of Felt Enduro Racing team, also 2nd placed Elite male. FELT BLOG

Stories. below emailed in by Paul Steel, Thanks Paul

A very well organised event and certainly very little litter. I saw only 2 sports bar wrappers for the day and would have picked them up but for an injury to my ribs making it too painful to bend down.By comparison the Otway was a 'pigsty ', on that one I only stopped picking up empty gel sacs when the pockets of my jersy were full and half eaten sports bars started turning to liquid in the afternoon sun ( other than this aspect the Otway was great). Thanks to Bruce who stopped to check I was OK a couple of times. An Xray has shown fractured 5th and 6th ribs on the right side.I didn't find any problems with the course markings but had to change to 70 so didn't see the back 20k.The way the winner of the bike was determined was brilliant and certainly an incentive to finish. It's a shame not more juniors entered as I would have loved to see my 14yo nephew Nelson race against some fellas his age, particularly as the short course was easily achievable for younger riders. This is an aspect I love to see you continue as the shorter distances will encourage the juniors to continue .And on possibly a biased note would also like to see a bit more recognition and spot type prizes for the youngsters ( at the expense of us older blokes). The volunteers did a fantastic job. To all the blokes who thought they may have done a little better .....you possibly did, my time of 5h47m was for the 70 not the 90, as I had to change after my stack and even in the 70 I cheated because I had to stick to Main Mountain Rd and avoid all the singletrack in the last 20km. So what's it like to ride with 2 broken ribs? Well it is uncomfortable and initially it felt like being winded after a horse has kicked you in the chest. My stack happened at that nice big pile of logs at about the 7 km mark, I was expecting a nice little ramp on the other side rather than the drop and as I was riding a Santa Cruz Heckler I should have easily coped but  can only blame lack of concentration and finese ! As long as I stayed on the bike and span it wasn't too bad but getting on and off did hurt, towards the end the bumps were starting to jar a bit but this is nothing in comparison to what Monday was like! My GP said it will be very bad for three days, bad for a week a bit less bad the next and so on until all should be healed at 6 weeks.Well he  has certainly been right about the first 3  days and I'm pleased to say this is my first bad day, a big improvement! I hope to be recovered in time for the next event but if not maybe myself and my FWD Hilux can volunteer our services.

Paul Steel
PS  Knowing that I'll be classified as Super Masters for the next event can I repectfully request you gene test the first 3 finishes in this category, they looked way too young and fit for their age!