Yeah, it's not unusual to get the odd northern hemisphere racer turn up in their winter to have a run. Claire raced the Champs last year as well, set the fastest time in the women, but didn't get on the podium, due to her having retained her Canadian citizenship while living here. Foreign riders are always welcomed at our races. The women's field in particular all get on very well, and Claire seems to be very included with the other girls.

Yeah, you can get Minion 40s as cheap as $40 here, especially at races. This is by far the most common DH tyre in Aus racing, they work well in our (usually, but not so much lately) dry conditions

UCI has fixed the jersey rule, Sam should manage to stay on his bike this year.