stage one-time trial/prolouge.7.5 ks. Manaia
After a decent warm-up on my trusty cat eye machine I rolled off to the start line on the true to itself, quite simply freezing Taranaki morning. Legs feeling great on the start line and ready to go. First section of time trial was on a rough chipped surface for two k’s into a brisk headwind. Hit it pretty hard for this first section and caught my 30 second man within the first k and a half. After this short but painful section, we turned left along the main stretch of the course and the tailwind section. Felt like I was turning over at a good speed along this part but almost completely blew in the final straight where I lost a lot of time, putting me into 13th place on GC..man I was creeping this morning.
After around two hour’s rest and chillax time, stage two was under way. Beginning in Manaia again, the course went out on a large loop totaling 94 kilometers. For some reason the race manager had put the entire New Zealand Under 19 Canberra team in B grade which meant we had to ride with the girlies but would give us a chance to dominate b grade. Ken Bewley, enthusiast of the sport, NZ selector and father of Sam Bewley, recent Bronze medal winner at the Beijing Olympics, divided the team into two groups where we would battle up against each other for GC and stage wins. My team included Sean Joyce, Daniel Smith, Jeff McDowell and Will Cato. After the time trial the other team had their leader, Sam Lindsay in yellow which meant we had a lot of hard work ahead of us in the ominous job of fighting for the overall lead. In this stage, Ken got our team to throw attacks and breaks at the field throughout the race to make the other team work and tire. Therefore I was off the front at 5 k’s in with Daniel Smith, who was third on GC. The other teams duty was to mark all the attacks we threw at them so everytime we went off the front, we would have one or two of the opposition trying to chase us down or just sit on our wheel and not roll through. This got incredibly frustrating but still forced the other team to work and do more than just sit in. I ended up spending about 30 or 40 kilometers of this stage off the front, at time with large gaps and others not so large. The finish was a just bunch sprint and Sean Joyce, our team leader won the stage, I finshed in 5th. I also was second in King of the mountains after this stage.
Day two, stage 3, morning, 71.51kms, out and back course. Stratford. B grade start=9:10 am. Two KOMs, 21.9k’s and 49.6k’s both on Strathmore saddle and one sprint ace at 9.6ks in Toko. The team plan was to hit it out on the front until the bottom of Strathmore Saddle where we Sean would go off the front. This didn’t end up happening however and everyone was doing turns on the front but at a slow pace. After the print ace in Toko, there wasn’t much happening at all and the pace was quite slow so I rolled off the front solo. This solo attack ended up turning me being off the front for the rest of the race. Once a hit the turn around I was still solo and had about a minute and a half on the bunch and 50 seconds to a break of 3 riders. The break of three caught me on Strathmore Saddle but I still picked up 2 hill points and held my climbers jersey. After Strathmore It had turned into a break of seven riders which held off until the end. Moved into 4th on GC after this stage which I was very happy about. Never been off the front for that long, was box as but felt mean and enjoyed the stage a lot. In the last 20 kilometers I was digging pretty deep and was in some chronic box up the final climb coming out of Douglas 10ks to go which had some epic as cross winds. Happy with this mornings stage, just didn’t have enough to win the final sprint.
Day two, afternoon, stage 4, Huiroa Block, sprint ace at 9.6 ks in Toko and KoM at 21.9 on Strathmore Saddle. This arvo I basically just sat in after a solid race in the morning and legs feeling quite like lead. The job was in this stage to get our team into yellow. Daniel Smith went solo form the gun. 15ks through Sean Joyce and Sam Lindsay went off the front on a smaller rise. This meant I had no chance of getting any points so I just sat in and didn’t chase with my two team mates off the front. Daniel Smith managed to stay off the front until the finish and also get into the yellow jersey with the bunch not too far behind. Sean Joyce was close behind in 2nd place as Sam Lindsay hit the wall and went off the back of the group loosing quite a bit of time. Very good stage overall, tomorrow it the hard job of defending the overall lead and also the climbing classification, Myself on 7 points and Lindsay on 6 points close behind.
stage 5-84kms.Tarata Saddle. Felt pretty shite when I woke up and legs sore. Had an average sleep as well. Daniel smith was in yellow so me and my team had the job of riding on the front for the hole day. This was hard especially heading into the head winds towards Inglewood. Once I got into the tailwind section I felt a bit better but still pretty dead. Went off the front 10 ks from first hill sprint but Sam Lindsay got straight on my wheel so just followed him up first KoM but still got rolled. We were now equal on 9 points. On the second hill sprint Sean Joyce was already off the front but Sam still rolled me and bet me in kom by one point which I was quite disappointed about. After this was in break of 7 guys and worked will together till end. Not the best day out but still finished 4th on GC and our hole team ended up getting about 900bucks so got 160 bucks for efforts. Happy with tour in general and worked out that I had done nearly 100ks off the front on the whole tour! Great training and will benefit from it greatly.
