The three Bathurst riders took on the fifth and final round of the mountain bike series looking to better their second place finish last year, but adjusted their expectations in the face of some strong competition.

After the seven hours of racing, the three riders had managed 16 laps of the eight kilometre course – just six minutes shy of finishing on the 17th and lead lap in their male threes category and coming through sixth overall from 87 finishers.

Coming home third from the 11 in their category proved a cause for celebration for Simons and his squad.

“What we didn’t count on for the last round of the Singletrack Mind series was a lot of stronger teams turning up. Because of that we got shuffled back one spot to third, but we were rapt with that finish given the quality of teams that turned up,” he said.

“To come there in third for the male threes behind the Orange team of Angus Tobin, Tim Guy and Rod Farrell is great. Gus, in particular, is in super form in the lead-up to the Grafton to Inverell ... The guys who won were a bunch of super athletes.”

It wasn’t a good start for the Bathurst trio as Bell crashed heavily into a tree at over 30 kilometres an hour on the opening lap.

After getting a check-up from the track paramedics and being given the all-clear to continue, he came through the lap in 31 minutes and 15 seconds – four minutes down on the lead.

Watson produced the quickest lap of the day from the team on his first time around with a 24:21 and Bell rebounded from his opening lap incident positively with a 25:34.

Watson put in a huge effort for his last lap of the day, and the team’s 14th, to once again break the 25 minute mark with a 24:48.

Simons, who expressed his concerns before the race about dragging his team-mates back, did no disgrace in keeping all his laps in the 28 and 29 minute marks.

“Jarrod started for us, but had a monumental crash. But once the paramedics cleared him, he kept going. To his credit, he suffered through the rest of the day, but did a great job. To be on the last step of the podium was huge,” Simons said.

“We were also lucky to have Dan Watson on hand, who was on baby call with his fourth child due ... I suffered in my last couple of laps, losing about 15 to 20 seconds each time. I feel my fitness let me down a bit, which isn’t something great coming from the owner of a gym.

“I’m super proud to be able to ride with these guys who are up there with the best in the region’s mountain bike scene.”

It was an excellent day for Bathurst riders – the team of Dean Windsor, Bruce and Jackson Goddard were the next of the male threes teams on the time sheets, a lap back.

The Bathurst female threes team of Renee Covington, Angela Jones and Marian Renshaw were the sole competitors in their category, beating home a male threes team in their nine completed laps.