 |
| Finish of Stage 5 into Glenorchy. |
The tour opened with a 5km Prologue in Cromwell. The super-fast course started with a steep downhill then a very gentle downhill to the finish. I was pretty keen to knock out a good time in this but had an absolute shocker. I got caught up behind a car on the descent then struggled to find a rhythm into the finish. I managed a disappointing 5th however the times were all fairly close.
Stage 1 greeted us with a very fresh, fog covered morning. The 80km stage wound its way down the lake from Remarkables to Five Rivers. Moves were flying off the front then getting reeled back in for the first 30km as expected. With such a small team our only real tactic was to be as aggressive as we could and be represented in every move. I managed to slip into a move near the halfway mark which had a good make up of riders who were willing to work together. I managed to take the Sprint and KOM points throughout the stage as well as the stage win and the Yellow Jersey, so it was a positive first stage!
 |
| Stage 1 finish |
After a quick rest, feed and espresso we were ready to rip into the second stage of the day. Another 80km jaunt from Five Rivers to Manapouri. The stage literally climbed for 40km then descended to the finish. I was in the yellow and once again with such a small team our aim was to race aggressively as we didn't have enough riders to successfully ride the front to defend the jersey. So straight away we were on the attack which was a good move as Dan and I quickly found ourselves up the road with Sam Horgan and Dillon Bennet from Subway. We had to work hard to build a gap over a hard chasing peloton but we managed to establish a gap and it was clear we were going to be away 'til the finish. Sam Horgan unfortunately punctured in the last 3km so wasn't there to contend the final. Luckily Dan and I managed to pull off the Benchmark 1-2 on the stage. A good first day!
.JPG) |
| In the lake after the Stage. Best ice bath ever! |
Day two was an important one as it opened with a 20km TT from Manapouri to Te Anau. It was a tough course with a fair amount of false flat and on the day it was a head wind. My aim of the race was to limit my losses to Sam Horgan. I had 3.15 on him on GC so was confident in not losing the jersey to him however I knew how well he was time trialing. I got a good warm up and rode a good TT and was happy to get second to Sam only 40sec down.
 |
| 20km Time Trial |
The afternoon stage provided us with an epic GC shake up. It was the reverse course to the afternoon stage the day before. So it climbed up to halfway then was downhill to the finish. I started the stage with the aim of sticking to Sam Horgan like glue as I knew he was feeling good and I couldn't really allow him to get up the road without me. In doing so a group slipped up the road with my team mate Dan Barry and Dillon Bennett who was currently 2nd on GC. Because Dan was there I overlooked the danger of the move so Sam and I played silly buggers, not wanting to go across with the each other. When we heard the time gap of 5 minutes at the halfway mark we decided to sit up and roll, very easily, to the finish. We lost 18mins on the stage because of this so were both out of GC contention and were now going to be in the position of helping our team mates try win the tour. Sam had Dillon in the yellow jersey now with my team mate Dan Barry 2 minutes down on him. The gap seemed pretty big, however we were confident that on the final day we would be able to give it a good nudge.
The last day of the tour consisted of two short but hard stages. The first one was from Queenstown to Glenorchy. About 45km with a few short but sharp climbs along the way. The idea was to be super aggressive as we knew Dillon was struggling on the steeper stuff. I found myself up the road pretty quick with two other riders. Just before the climb with the stages KOM points we were about to get caught so I hit it as hard as I could before the bunch got me which made sure I got the points to retain the jersey but also the pace managed to eject Dillon out the back of the bunch which is what we wanted. Unfortunately about 10km up the road he got back on with help from a super strong Sam Horgan. It was good however for us to see he was not comfortable on the climbs. I quickly found myself in another move with the Australian track rider Sean Finning with about 20km to go and we worked well together and managed to get to the finish clear of the field where I edged him out for the stage win. I was pretty happy as it was a crazy hard stage for me so it seemed like a good reward!
The last stage started in Glenorchy and on the Moke Lake hill. I talked to Craig Adair before the stage and he reckoned Dan and I should hit the first hill as hard as we could and see who could follow us. This is exactly what we did. I hit the first major hill full gas and did a big pull then looked back to see only Dan ad two others were on my wheel and the rest of the group including Dillon were dispatched. Success! Dan and I kept hitting it full gas and we bridged a two minute gap to a small group that had snuck away at the start of the stage. I did a couple big pulls on the front as hard as I could to set Dan up before my legs threw in the towel. It was then Dan's job to get to the finish as fast as he could. He ended up finishing 5th on the stage, 3 minutes in front of Dillon which was more than enough to take yellow! We were stoked. The aggression paid off.
All in all it was a bloody good weekend. I learnt a lot about racing aggressively and I gained a lot from the hard racing. I feel like I finished a lot stronger than when I started. Thanks to the Subway team for making the racing hard.. Also to Richard and Natasha Evans from Benchmark Homes for the use of the wicked Mercedes Sprinter Van for the weekend! It was awesome to travel in this luxurious vehicle! Once again thanks to Bruce Wilson for capturing such awesome pictures of the racing!
Next up for the team is Around Brunner followed by the Benchmark Homes Elite Cycling Series this weekend.
Cheers for reading!
W
No comments:
Post a Comment