Benchmark 2 (Feb 22nd)

Round 2 and a chance for improvement from the previous races.  My job this time was to pick up the water bottles - certainly a more realistic target.  Our main focus was to try and get George in the winning move and with the large field and what was going to be a fast pace this wasn't going to be easy.

The start of the race was neutralised over a small hill and then we started up a relatively flat completely straight peice of road (German Road) which rose slightly at the end.  Even on this stretch there was a crash when someone touched wheels.  I picked the biggest guy I could find for some shelter and would ride behind them until I could jump up to another big guy.  

Midway through the rise Jeannie dropped her chain and had to stop.  I'm not sure why she needed to change into the small chain ring as it wasn't very steep and she is a good climber.  Anyway Felix and I stopped.  Felix carried on to help George and I worked to bring Jeannie back to the group which were now speeding down towards the Ashley Gorge.  We were trying to jump from car to car and picked up Tom H along the way.  He helped us and we got back on to the back of the group as they climbed up out of the gorge.  Because there was a double yellow line (and you get disqualified for crossing one if you are caught) we were unable to move up through the pack.  Someone at the front must have turned on the pace because as soon as we caught up the people in front of us were all stretched out as they tried to hold on along the undulations after the river.  So we were dropped again and ended up forming a small group of about 12.  Jeannie said that she needed to catch back on so I did a long hard pull on the front.  When I eased up to allow the next person through there was no one there so I had to wait for Jeannie and the rest of the group to catch up.  I'm not sure what happened as I had made an effort to slowly accellerate and was on the hard left to give the most amount of shelter from the wind which was coming from the left.

Our group spent the rest of the race rolling through.  We eventually picked up some other riders but they were too tired to contribute.  On the climb towards the finish Jeannie dropped her chain again!  With the help of  aBenchmark rider we managed to get her back up the hill and through the group.  She ended up 2nd woman overall which tied her on points for the series - so it wasnt all a waste of time.  George had managed to get 4th so that was pretty good.  One day I will get to do one of these races and finish with the main group!

Tour de Moutere (Feb 14th)

The Tour de Moutere was a completely different course from earlier editions of this race.  We started first with a short 5km TT (Waimea Estate - end of River Road) in which I placed 4th or 5th or 6th - I never did find out as there appeared to be some confusion over the times.  At one point Henry was given a faster time than me even though I had passed him.  I had gone out pretty hard at the start and felt wasted at the end.  I later discovered that I had posted my highest recorded heart rate ever of 188bpm.  The previous highest was 184 a couple of years ago.

Stage 2 went from River Road to the top of Harleys.  Our group broke up over the Moutere with me just missing the front break.  We chased for a while but it was mainly only myself, Dave and Felix contributing.

The final stage went from the Motueka side of Harleys to the Show Grounds.  I was gapped off along Stringer Straight but Chris N while helping chase down a small group that had escaped.  I did my turn and then looked for the next person to come through only to find that there was no one there.  All of a sudden a small group of Chris & Jim etc charged through along the centre of the road.  I couldn't get back on so led in a group of B graders who were happy to sit in and then sprint at the end.  - Nice!

I didn't stop and just carried on home - not my best work!

Lakes 2 Sea (Feb 6th)

Wanting to make up for the previous weeks fiasco I decided to ride to the start of the Lakes 2 Sea.  It was a bit cool in the morning but the forecast was for fine weather and it looked like it was going to be good.  I arrived at the lake with plenty of time and managed to find someone to take my excess gear back down to the finish line.

The race started at a moderate pace.  Given that the first real part is all downhill there were very few attacks - the only successful (initially) being Dean Fulton who disappeared early on in classic Dean style.  A couple of guys tried to bridge but couldn't make it across.  The climb up Kerrs split the group up as expected.  I rode near the front so I could try and respond to any increase in pace which was fairly relaxed.  Even so, we lost a number of people on the climb.  I rounded the top of the hill in 2nd position and took off down the other side with Ashley Whitehead.  We were joined at the bottom by some others and ended up with a group of about 14.  

We caught Dean just before the Golden Downs camp and started to climb up the Reay.  Again the pace put some people in trouble and our group was reduced to 10.  It was down the Wai-iti valley and the run in towards Rabbit Island that the attacks started.  The main protaganists were Ashley and Dave.  Each one was bought back after a short chase.  Coming along River Road Thomas and Dave broke away and quickly gained a small gap.  We chased but with a breeze coming up and being so close to the end - no one wanted to sacrifice themselves to bring them back.  Along the Causeway road we caught Dave.  Thomas was just ahead but a vehicle that seemed confused about what to do got in between the two groups.  Thomas held on for the win with Murray squeezing around the car to take 2nd.  The rest of us had sat up, figuring that it was unsafe to sprint with an undecided car in the rode.  Plus we were not supposed to cross the centre line - something that you had to do in order to pass the car - still with Malcolm  - "rules are just rough guidelines on what might be a good idea if someone else was running and event".

Thats the end of my rant.

Benchmark Race 1 (Feb 1st)

At around 166km the first Benchmark race was going to be hard from the start.  The comissionaire started on a positive note telling us that there would a large number of attritions.  While the morning had started out cooler it soon became apparant that we were in for another hot day.

My role from the team briefing was to case down the breaks for the first 5km (I recently discovered that this wasn't actually my role and that the real message had been lost in translation and that if there were some easy breaks going early then I should be in them - a subtle difference of about 25kph).  I start the race with David, riding on the bumper of the start car.  There was quite a large neutral zone (around 8km) and a large field of around 110 who managed to occupy both lanes of the road.  

Once racing commenced the pace was on from the start with riders sprinting off up the road.  I managed to go with the first 2 attacks but then got swamped and boxed in on the left hand side.  It was pretty chaotic!  We turned at Cust to go towards Summer Hill.  The wind had picked up and so we were now in a cross wind riding on the white line on the wrong side of the road.  A rider swerved into me and I moved further right which pushed a guy 2 bikes behind me off onto the grass.  Looking back I could see that Lana was struggling in the cross wind so I rode further to the left to provide some assistance.  She struggled to keep up and before we knew it a gap had opened up in front and we were dropped.  Tracey Clarke was also dropped so the 3 of us rode together up Summer Hill.

Along German road we picked up 3 more women and a couple of guys.  The guys lasted about 200m before pulling out while the rest of us continued on.  The peloton was still in sight but we weren't going to catch them in the wind.  At Oxford there was a little bit of confusion over where the course went.  Thankfully someone knew what road we were supposed to take as there were very few marshals on the course.  We looped around back to Oxford.  I had used up one bottle now and so had Lana and we still had 90km to go.  I grabbed her bottle and said I would stop at the garage to get some water and then try and catch her up.  I got the water and then rode at about 45kph all the way to Cust before catching them.  The other 3 women had decided to pull out so it was back to Lana, Tracey and me.

We looped back around German road and then headed through the Ashley and on to Loburn.  It was really hot and windy now and Lana was beginning to struggle.  We stopped at the Loburn school to get some water again and then with the help of Traceys navigational skills we managed to make it to the finish.  There was no one actually at the finish line which was hardly suprising given that we were about 58 minutes down on the winner.  

When we got back to the car Malcolm said that he had been concerned about us.  When I asked him why he said it was because we didn't have any water.  He was obviously not concerned enough to actually come and look for us which is what Tracey's Thule team vehicle had done.  

Still the team had some good news - Jeannie had won and Karen placed 3rd.  Even Lana got a point for being 5th in the end.

If you read about my first Benchmark race last year then at least I managed to finish with someone this time!

Time Trial Terror (Benchmark TTT - Jan 31st)

The first Benchmark race for the series was a 40km team time trial.  The results of the TTT didn't actually account for any placing for the series but it did determine where your vehicle was placed in the race convoy.   Not all of the teams entered the TTT but Malcolm was keen to get as much exposure as possible so there we were at the start line.

The team consisted of myself, Dave, Caleb, Keiron, and Gary (who was bought in just for the TT).  It was pretty hot and windy at Sefton and we didn't get any opportunity to warmup or ride as a team beforehand.  We were also last to start as we were the defending team from last year.

Things didn't really go that well from the start.  Firstly the starting riders were not riding close enough to the white line so in the strong cross wind when you came off from your pull you had nowhere to shelter as you were in the gutter.  Being the tallest not the strongest I was buffeting around like a kite.  The heat radiating from the road was really getting me and after about 6 turns it was all getting a bit much.  As we only had 5 riders and the time was based on your 5th rider the team really had to wait for me (other teams had a full set of riders and so could ditch the weakest).  I struggled to hang onto the the back of the others.  Dave was really trying to encourage me but I felt had it.  I emptied what little water I had down the back of my neck which helped a bit.  We got to the turnaround and started back.  There was a little bit of a tail wind but mainly it was too the side.  Keiron would come and do a big pull which would really put me under pressure and then would sit on the back - hes not really known for consistency.  About 3/4 of the way through the TTT I started to feel a bit better and managed to take a couple of turns.  Finally the end was in sight and we crossed the line in 0:57:13 which put us in 2nd place in the Division 2 teams.  Not really too bad considering how slowly they had to go for me.

Dave, Caleb and me rode back to where we were staying which was exciting in itself with Dave crashing into me (thankfully neither of us went down) and then us getting lost.  

I was hoping that the next days race would go a little smoother.

SG Race - Wakefield - Spooners (24th Jan)

It was good to see Hamish front up for what would have to be one of the harder races on the calendar.  The weather was hot - really really hot.  We started out at a moderate pace with only a small number of us driving it along.  Ashley Whitehead broke free up the Spooners climb but stayed only about 50m ahead.  It up the climb that we dropped a number of riders.  You could feel the heat from the sun radiating of the cutting walls as we got close to the steepest part of Spooners.

I just maintained a good pace up the climb and along with Mike, Jim and Mark we broke away from the rest of the group and bridged up to Ashley.  The 5 of us worked together and turned into the road that would take us back towards the Reay.  There was a head wind here and the going was hard.  Ashley would suddenly surge which was making things difficult.  It was during one of these surges just after I had taken a turn where I was dropped along with Mark.  The two of us chased but we weren't really making much ground.  As we got to the Golden Downs turnoff Mark started to fade and his pace dropped.  I towed him up to the Reay figuring that he would be more use to me on the chase in from the top than to try solo.  On the way down we picked up a few B grade riders and managed to occasionally get them to lap through but it was like hearding cats.   It would be successful for about 2km and then someone would want to sit in and not come through.  At Belgrove and down towards Wai-iti we could still see the other 3 and so I started doing some really big turns.  By the time we got closer to Wakefield we were really starting to catch up but it wasn't going to be enough.  I started my sprint early (well at the usual place) just after a car came past.  I had a good lead on the group but was pipped at the line by Grant Jones who had sat it for ages!  Nice payment for leading him out at Renwick!  Gary gave him a hard time about it which was amusing - and saved me from doing it.  Anyway the others were still a bit further back and Grant was in a different grade so in the end I placed 4th.

Hamish came in a little later (we had passed him just at the turnoff after Spooners) and we trundled down the the local swimming hole in the river - nice use of local knowledge.

SG Champs - 17th Jan

The Star & Garter club champs followed the now familar course of Coastals, Seaton, Cemetry Corner, Moutere, Waimea West and finished in Ranzau Road.  One of the keys to doing well in this race is to not get caught out early on - as its a combined mass start.

There was a fairly strong northerly but things held together pretty much until Seaton Valley where  we lost a few.  It was around here that Robin Reid broke away.  As the results are worked out by age there was no reason for me to worry about that.  We lost a few more along the road to moutere but still had a fairly good group of around 14.

It was in the cross wind at the bottom of the hill where things got a little more tricky as finding shelter was a bit difficult.  As we turned to follow the Waimea West straight Dean produced a massive turn of speed and I found myself struggling to hold on.  We were doing about 62kph and there was no way that I was going to do a lap at that pace.  I looked around the group to see what other V2 guys there were.  I think there was only Mark McGinley left so I just had to keep an eye on him.  Chris Nicholson had registered as a Senior so hopefully thats what his grade would be and Rob had just moved up to V3.  Turning back into the wind towards Richmond we worked together to try and bring back Robin but I think several of the guys were thinking about their own placings instead of the over all win.  In the sprint I managed to get just behind Ross and Chris - there was no way that I would get past them but I was the first V2 which made me the new V2 Champ! - not that it means anything!  Rob took out the V3 and Ross took the V1.

Vineyards 2009

Well a new year and a new chance to redeem myself after last years peformance.  This year there was no team structure which meant it was up to the individual to make the race.  Max wasn't riding this year so there was no clear favourite from the SG Club.

Stage 1 saw the race stay together and come down to a bunch sprint which was expected.  Thankfully the pace wasn't too high and I managed to stay with the group.  The sprint was won by Ben Evans.

Stage 2 saw an early break get away before the sprints which consisted of mainly sprinters.  We picked them all up again up Spooners where a small group of about 7 eased away on the climb.  We all worked together down the valley and for a while it looked like we might be in the long haul.  Unfortunately we were joined just at the Korere turn off by a chasing group who had used the following cars to get back.  Going up the valley Henry and Mark broke away.  They were joined by Brad McFarlane after Kikawa.  I chased with Ben Evans Having decided to not go with Brad (probably a mistake in the end!), Darron and a Benchmark rider.  We started to close in but had left it too late.  I placed 4th and was pretty happy to only be 1 minute down.  Brad was now in Yellow.

Stage 3 was my undoing!  Any early break went before the sprints again and this time conisted of Ross, Mark and Brian.  With Brad in the defending position no-one seemed interested in chasing.  We dropped some riders going up the Reay but there was still a fairly large group that worked down the valley until about Stanley Brook.  After that Ben sat in and wouldn't come through.  Darron started missing out turns and it motivated the others to sit in.  With no time gaps to the leaders it was impossible to know what was happening or how much time we were down.  I pulled through quite a bit but at the bottom of the hill we heard that the leaders were over 8 minutes ahead.  I couldn't match the pace of the Darron and Ben at the start of the climb and started slipping back through the group.  I had missed my bottles at Stanley Brook and had been on a water conservation plan since then which possibly didn't help.  It was hard work and eventually I joined a small group of Henry, Ben Thomas and a Benchmark guy just past the Limeworks.  We passed Brad at the caves and Ross a little later but I was pretty toasted.  Mark won the stage and had a 4 minute lead on the rest of the group so he was unlikely to lose this on the final stage.

Stage 4  For a change I didn't feel too worried about this last stage which is usually one that I disklike the most.  The pace wasn't too bad.  Brad and Darron broke away on about the 2nd lap.  I wasn't going to chase them but chased down any move the Ben Evans made to join them.  I was happy to help protect Marks lead - certainly from Ben and it was unlikely that he would lose enough time from Brad and Darron.  At the start of the last climb on the last lap I decided to try and get away and attacked.  I had a handy gap coming along Hill St with only 1 rider coming across (Conway Taylor).  He made it too me and it came down to a sprint for the line with me just managing to hold on by about half a bike length to take 3rd.  I was quite suprised (mainly suprised that I even thought of attempting it).   Overall apart from the meltdown on the Takaka stage the rest of the tour had been ok.  I placed 8th in the end - actually if the timing on the last stage had been done correctly I would have placed 7th - still it was in the top 10 so that wasn't too bad.