After a hearty meal, the riders were greeted to a damp start for the night stage at Cwmrheader.
A prologue starting ramp awaited riders, this gave them a brief assisted start, prior to the double track forest ascent, of approx 5km, followed by singletrack loose broken slick slate descent. 1st RAF rider away was Dan in 20th position and he powered his way to the top of the climb catching several of the 10 second riders ahead of him. 11 places further behind him was Sam, a great initial seeding run ensured he started well up the order, a further 10 places behind was Rob followed shortly by Gav.
At just over the half way point of the stage, Dan appeared within a group of riders obviously desperate to pass these riders before the next piece of singletrack. Unfortunately for Dan the rider in front of him did not let him pass, eager to pass, Dan took a few risks and pushed past on the outside of the singletrack shortly after this manoeuvre, Dan exited over his handlebars! Determined not to let the rider repass, Dan remounted his bike and just kept ahead of said rider.
Sam had a relatively clear run and after being caught by a few riders on the climb he retook these riders and others on the descent. With a low cloud at the top of the stage Rob was having difficulty with his glasses fogging and decided to ease off on the downhill and maintained his place. Gav powered past 2 riders on the climb and fought past another 2 on the way down but was unfortunately bolt for the lower half of the run otherwise spoiling another good run.
