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.