SG Race 8 : Wollastons Circuit 8th Aug

There was a huge turn out for Race 8 of the series as it was held on the Wollastons circuit with a number of riders from Christchurch and Hokitika taking the opportunity to come and ride the course.  It was also good to catch up with some of the riders we had met in Queenstown.

I was moved into Race 2 as it was closer to my National distance (96km).  It was a large field of around 48.  It was a bit of an odd race.  I was expecting some move from Tony Catterick or Brent Harris but it never came.  The climbs didn't seem long enough to get drop anybody and the long downhill section meant that the whole group pretty much stayed together.  I tried to get away in numerous places but it never lasted and it appeared that no-one else was interested in breaking away.  In the end I did my usual lead out and early sprint and was suprised to find myself across the line first - who would have figured that would happen?

SG Race 7 Mot, Ngatimoti, Central, Redwoods

Those of you expecting another account of one of my doomed attacks are sadly going to be disappointed this time.  For a change I sat in and the pace was so relaxed that we were caught by some of the B grade race along the Moutere Highway.  I made a couple of attempts to ease off the front befoe the airport but they were fairly short lived.

As we started along the Mot valley towards Ngatimoti there is a short climb and it was here that I gave it a bit of a nudge to see if anyone was interested.  I was joined by Caleb and we settled down into a good rhythm keeping a steady pace.  Tom Hodges bridged across and the 3 of us set to work. By the Ngatimoti turn off we had a 30sec lead.  At the Central Road turnoff we were out to just over a minute.  It was starting to get harder and I did wonder if I was going to keep up.  Thankfully Caleb and Tom where also beginning to tire so I managed to stick with it.  By the top of Moutere we had dropped back to 30 sec (the times were given to us my Malcolm so its hard to know their accuracy).  Along the flat from the bottom of the hill I did some hard turns - to try and keep the pace over 40kph.  In the end I came 3rd - I led out the sprint as the others had not tried to drop me in the hills and I was more interested in staying away - plus my points for the series is so low it wasn't going to make any difference.  By my calculations we averaged 38kph which is not bad going.