As last years holder of this title I decided that I had better turn up and try to defend it. The weather was overcast but not too cold which was a bonus. The field was fairly small but there were some good riders there like George and Cameron.
The initial pace was fairly relaxed although Danial charged off up the first climb but was soon bought back. I attacked on the climb before Seaton Valley to see if we would thin out the group a bit. Chris C and Aaron attacked up Seaton and as I wasn't going to chase Chris I just rode tempo and let the gap open. Murray bought Chris back to the group but Aaron was still out ahead. The rest of the remaining group didn't seem too interested in chasing him and as he was contesting for a different grade I wasn't going to expend too much energy in chasing. After the 2nd lap at the top of the Dominion road intersection I increased the pace a little and soon found that I was out on my own. Chris and Ritchie joined me and we rode together over the Moutere Hill. We were caught on the run in to the Redwood Road turn off. George and Cameron attacked and Chris got on their wheel. I expected that someone would close the gap so I hesitated a bit. I soon realised that no one was going to react so I bridged across.
Chris had originally planned to lead me out but as we started in to the sprint George bumped me off his wheel (not really a suprise for anyone who rides with George) . I was still recovering from the effort in bridging and so I found myself fading. So Chris crossed the line just ahead of me and became the masters champion.
I was pretty pleased for Chris as he really was the stronger rider and deserved to win plus it sort of kept it in the family. He is certainly riding well at the moment.
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