Do Wallabies Live in Tall Trees?

Here's an email cut/paste from original Tall Tree racer David Stachon. He took the big green Niner to New Zealand for a year last summer but will return shortly. He's been keeping busy sightseeing with his family, road racing and even jumping into one of those ironman triathlon thingees... He recently did an enduro style mountain bike race in Rotorua:

It was pretty much like old times....had to leave Saturday at 10am, do a 3.5 hour drive, a pre-ride, stay in a crummy motel, and race on Sunday.

I can't say things went to plan...

1) I borrowed a guy's floor pump in the parking lot and put in 32psi ...which is normally perfect for me; however, I was being bashed around like crazy. It was way too high.....so being me, I waited until I was half-way down a 15 minute downhill to do something about it (because I was going nuts). I got off the bike, leaned over the front wheel to open the valve and my forearm pressed against the brake rotor. I managed to nicely scald myself. It actually looks pretty cool now because you can literally see the rotor design burned into my arm in dark red.

2) Following the burning, I continued down the fast downhill. A few minutes later, a wallaby hopped across the trail causing me to lock-up and swerve and eventually end up in the rhubarb. I wasn't hurt, but I bent my derailleur hanger and my shifting was pretty f'd. (with about an hour left to ride)

...point "2" actually made my whole weekend. Sure, the bike was broken, but how often in life does a mtb'r crash because of a wallaby! ...and, there was no way I was going to hit it because it may have started boxing me. Surprisingly, spotting a wallaby in the wild in NZ would be about as rare as spotting a bear in Gatineau. Sure, they are there…but seeing one on a ride doesn’t happen very often.

..overall, of the "Masters" riders I came in 3rd. (which is pretty decent because there were about 40 of us) Ironically, I finished the race with another guy on a 'niner. (not the same model we have though....and naturally, he was a single-speeder...man, I'm useless in single-track these days)

That's about as exciting as it gets for me. It's quite cold right now in Auckland so I'm looking forward to summer in O-town.

Anything new with you?