Vineyards Jan 1st 2010

Well back to an old favourite. I was hoping to get a better placing than previous years. There was some initial confusion over who was going to actually be in our race. In the end all the masters and women were grouped into one race but with the added confusion of separate GC placings, separate womens placings but only 1 sprint and climbers jersey for the men. This made the race pretty negative with no-one letting anyone else away irrespective of whether they were actually in the same GC race or not. Max was also absent even though he had indicated that he would be there which was a bit of a disappointment. Brad was there from Christchurch with a team mate so it looked like it was going to be a hard race.

Stage1
The infamous Hope Circuit was the usual start to the tour. With an earlier start time than normal there was not much wind in order to help string out the bunch. I tried a number of times along the finish line to try and break up the pack and while there were a few victims the bunch pretty much stayed together.

Stage2
A new stage 2 circuit and a rainy day made the 2nd a bit of an unknown quantity. The course was Hope, WaiWest, Moutere, Mot, Ngatimoti, Waiwhero, Central, Moutere, WaiWest, Ranzau. Having spent some time training on this course I was aware of a couple of places where there were some potential opportunities. The field split up on Moutere with Brad, Neil and myself going clear. at the summit it was clear that Brad was working for Neil to get him in the climbers jersey. Ben joined us on the downhill and we worked together for a short period before being caught by a relatively large group. I attacked on the small climb after Mot but was chased down by Mark - not the most helpful thing. The bunch was spread out again going up the Waiwhero with Neil narrowly getting the points from me at the summit. After that the pace slowed with no-one else making any moves - all quite boring really. The end result was a bunch sprint on Ranzau. Thankfully I had only lost bonus time so was still in a good position.

Stage3
I was unsure if I was going to start stage 3 as I had been up until 11:30 with stomach problems. They had started the day before but I had put it down to not eating enough. Rob and Garry had not started the previous stage due to stomach upsets as well so there was obviously something going around - not that this was going to be any comfort.
Our usual climb to Takaka started at an almost pedestrian pace. No attacks until Mark launched one as we joined the main road behind Spooners. There was some chasing from other riders and I put in some attacks along Westbank to try and keep the pace up. As we started up the hill I was right behind Brad at the front. I lasted about 5 corners before my stomach forced me to stop. Pete was there on the side of the road but I probably didn't appear as excited to see him as I might have normally been. A number of riders passed me before I managed to regain some composure and pick up the pace again. I caught Neil before the limeworks and then jumped over to another group. There was a bit of a headwind and the group seemed quite happy to sit on me as we carried on. Just after the Stone sign I picked up the pace again and shed some of the hangers on. One rider tried to jump me near the top but they obviously thought that they had less distance to go than there was. This really made me mad as he had sat on the whole way so I gave it everything and easily crossed the line ahead of them. Brad was waiting at the top and I was surprised to discover that I was 2nd but 3 minutes down. So maybe I might have done better if I had not been ill - I will never know.

Stage4
Hill st and fortunately it was dry. There was no way that I could make up 3 and a half minutes on this course - certainly not the way they had been racing. I was feeling worse than the day before so my plan was to just try and keep my position. As Murray was needing some help with getting the sprint jersey and the first sprint was on lap 1 I attacked straight out of the neutral zone - partly to see how I was going to feel and also to shed any slower riders who were likely to get in the way on the tricky course. Immediately Brad was after me so I knew he was feeling ok. I felt pretty bad so I rode very conservatively until the last lap where I attacked on the hill just like last year. I managed to get a good gap and turned around to see Conway coming across (again like last year). I carried on as there was no point in giving up. Conway sat on and won the stage with me coming second. I congratulated Conway and didn't feel too bad about him sprinting me at the end.
So I managed to come 2nd in the tour which was my best result so far. Obviously I had hoped to do better but 2nd is still a great result.