The first race of the World Championships started with the team relay. For the first time in many years Australian had a team on the start line.

    The basic principle of a team relay is that you select your fastest Elite Male and Female, U23 Male and Junior Male and everyone does one lap each. The first team over the line after having each rider complete 1 lap wins.

    Lachlan Norris completed the first lap bringing us home in 14^th which was a great result considering our start position of 18^th.  The mud had settled in to stay after a few days of inconsistent rain.

    The general tactic for most countries was to run their Elite man first, then the junior and Elite Female and bring it home with the U23 man. We had gone for a more direct approach and tried to get the lead early with us 3 boys off the gun. It worked, by the time Dan had brought us back to 6^th after the 2^nd lap I had a great lap and at one point had us in for a bronze medal, before swapping out on a descent leaving us in 4^th.

    After a hellish lap for Dellys, which left her battered and bruised, including one particularly nasty gash on her shin, she drove it home to bring us in to 12^th. A pretty solid result for us. Looking at a lot of the other teams on paper we had excelled ourselves. A good day was had by all, a real team atmosphere, with everyone not in the relay out on the track giving their lungs a good workout, including some 4X and DH’s.