With race 9 being canceled due the recent heavy rain we were quickly making our way towards the end of the series. With race 10 Dave made an early break (after Dominion) and was joined by Tom Ashley. The two soon had a reasonable lead with the remaining riders happy to let them go for a while. I tried to get away a couple of times along the start of Central road but was soon caught again by the bunch. A sudden increase in pace along the Central road climb put a few riders on the back foot but it all came back together as we joined back on to the Moutere highway. It was here that we got the message from Malcolm that Dave and Tom were behind us. This caused some initial puzzlement as we hadn't actually passed them. It transpired that they had taken a wrong turn in Mot and had effectively been riding a course of their own making ( and entertaining report on the whole affair can be found here: http://sqwheelers.blogspot.com/2009/08/star-and-garter-winter-series-goes-down.html?zx=db76758523f3e63c
I attacked on the Moutere mainly to see if I could get anyone else interested and also to see if we could thin the bunch out a bit. There was no response although Dave bridged on the descent but was soon joined by the rest. Tom Hodges attacked along the end of Waimea and was let go. We chased a bit from Brightwater but as usual there were a large number who were "saving themselves". I attacked again along Hope and was joined by Henry who was unable to take a turn. Once the group caught us I rode on the front to try and keep the pace high for Dave. Along Ranzau I rode as hard as possible to give him a good lead out. Thankfully I managed to get 2nd - we were too far off to catch Tom who did really well.
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