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.
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