Woollastons Warmup

The Woollastons Warmup was an opportunity to race on the circuit that is going to be used for the Nelson round of the Benchmark series.  The plan had been to duplicate the course and distance however due to the crappy weather Malcolm reduced our planned 8 laps down to 6.  Realistically he could have just gone with 3 laps and ended up with a similar result.

Chris C was a little late arriving but amused the A graders by handing me a bread & butter knife that Hannah had left at their place on the start line.  I have no idea what exactly I was going to do with it at the start of the race and it was hardly going to be sharp enough to be any use if it came down to a sprint.  Thankfully Paul Dowell gave it to his partner for "safekeeping".   Numbers were down a little on previous races but there was still a fairly large field in A grade.

Things started off slowly with the first lap being at almost cyclo tourist pace.  Dean Fulton attacked on the 2nd lap on the rise into Upper Moutere.  I bridged across and we completed a lap by ourselves.  It was hard work on the undulating circuit and there was really no opportunity to recover.  There is also not that much shelter that can be obtained through drafting - except for a couple of straights when you are riding into the wind.  Along the flat just after the Cemetry corner we were joined by Robin, George and Brent Harris.  Robin wanted us to go hard out for another 2 km - personally this was hardly possible and I should have sat on with Brent instead of trying to lap out with Robin, George and Dean.  Anyway it became a bit too much on the climb into Upper Moutere so I slipped of the group and continued at my own pace.

Just before the Moutere Hill I was joined by Chris C, Paul Dowell, Garry, Henry, Murray and Tom H.  The rest of A grade was nowhere to be seen and I thought it was possible that we might actually be able to catch up so I kept the pressure on.  Paul tried to organise us into a coherent unit but there were too many people sitting on and so it pretty unfruitful.  For the rest of the race it was either Chris or myself on the front.  Chris N commented later that it looked like a Nelson Alarms pursuit team (our race numbers are 23 and 24 so that and the matching uniform added to the impression).  

It started to get really wet and windy which meant you had to be carefull.  On the 2nd to last lap we saw that Gethan had fallen on the Dominion Road intersection.  He was lying on the ground, wrapped in blanket.  Thankfully the ambulance was on the way but it was a reminder of how quickly your day can change.  2 laps later and the rain had ceased.

Chris was riding really well and so I was keen to get him into what would be at least 5th place.  He wasn't too worried but I was determined to have at least one of us get a place given we were doing all the work.  On the last lap things got more tatical I tried gapping Chris off the front but Paul was wise to it and closed the gap.  I made my way to the back of the group and sat in.  I thought that the climb up Old Coach Road wouldn't give me enough of a lead over anyone else who was capable of chasing - mainly Henry who had done virtually nothing and can climb quite well.  So I went early at the run-in to the Old Coach turnoff.  I guess the rest expected me to try later so the element of suprise seemed to work but it was hard work.  Henry was behind me for a bit but by halfway up the climb he had dropped off.  Garry was also chasing and it was still a long way to the line and he would have a good chance of catching me so I had to really pour on the gas along the top.

Thankfully I managed to hold them off and placed 5th.  Henry and Garry came 6th & 7th and Chris led the rest of the group in.

We discovered again that the rest of A grade (apart from Ritchie V) had pulled out.  I'm not sure what is happening with A grade but this is probably the 3rd race I've done (and certainly the 2nd on this circuit) where the group haven't all finished.  I'm a little suprised and I guess a bit disappointed.  

I've never felt comfortable pulling out of a race.  I've done it 3 times - twice due to punctures.  Once was in the rain and I punctured 10km from the finish and was picked up by a support car.  Once was on an attempt to do the Takaka Hill TT where I punctured 3 times and ran out of tubes and once where I was dropped early on in the Nelson Marlborough Club champs and had been planning to do the TT the next day.  I was in the wrong place and was caught out and decided to stop and conserve my energy for TT.  Its this last one that I feel most uneasy about and I'm still not convinced that it was the right thing to do.  In the TT I had some mechanincal issues and came 2nd (not hard out of 3 starters) but dropping out of the road race somehow felt like cheating.