Centre Club Champs Road Race - Seddon Oct 4th

This year the Centre Club Champs were held on the Seaview Circuit at Seddon.  The course started near the pub then quickly climbed up to a ridge and headed out to the coast.  Oddly enough this year the race was run as a graded race instead of in age categories like normal.  Apparantly this was to make the race harder - although the course took care making the race hard it was probably a good idea given that there would have only been about 3 riders in M1.

The weather was windy and with forecasts of gusts of up to 120kph and almost the entire course running at right angles to the wind it became quickly obvious that this was going to be a very hard race.  'A' grade had 80km of this undulating 20km out and back circuit.

As we got to the top of the ridge on the first lap (probably 1km into the race) there was a sudden gust that blew us from one side of the road to the other.  It was very scary and I almost decided to call it quits then and there.  Trying to find shelter in this cross wind was tricky and it would have to be one of my weak points.  At about the 7km mark the race turned into the wind and we were down to our small chaing ring and 19kph.  Grant was on the front and I moved up and did a long pull at the end of which the course turned back into a cross wind.  We were spread out right across the road and having just taken a turn I was struggling to get a sheltered position.  I was also concerned that another gust would just collapse the group and we would all hit the deck so I was probably a little more hesitant than normal.  At about the 8km mark I was dropped.  After the turn around I managed to get myself back to the group but still struggled to find shelter and really had no additional power to force myself into a better position.  I dangled in and out of the group about 3 times before we got to the downhill section to the start/finish turnaround.  This was a really blustery section and my cautiousness caused me to lose contact with the group.  At the turn around I thought about catching up again going up the hill but realised that each time we came back down I would be doing the same thing.  In the end I decided to keep safe and ride my own pace.  I held the distance to the group for the first 3 or 4 laps but eventually finished about 5 minutes behind which wasn't too bad for 80km.  I would have finished in the top 10 as well (there were not many people in the race!).