tour de vineyards, elite nationals

Over the new years I was down in Nelson for the tour de vineyards as a build up for the elite nationals and it seemed to go alright considering id only been doing base miles.
I got in a break in the first stage which was a flat circuit race and managed to get a bit of time over the main bunch, but the good thing was I felt great and was able to do a lot of work and still have the legs to put in some attacks at the end trying to get away from my bunch but in the end was 8th or something in the sprint.
The 2nd stage had the finish at the top of takaka hill (14km climb) not much happened before the except a break got away about 20km from the hill and a few of the top guys got a good gap before the hill. But when we got to the hill I managed to have a good ride and catch them all except for Hayden Roulsten, I was in 4th till I faded a bit near the top and was just caught by a group at the top and had to settle for 7th. This put me in 6th on GC.
Next two days nothing much changed except a break got away on the 3rd stage and was aloud to get heaps of time and I lost a place on GC so I finished up in 7th.

So nationals rolled round 4 days after and it was a real cool race with awesome weather and a huge crowd turned out to watch.
My plan was to just sit in as the race was 180km and went up dyers pass (1.5km steep hill) 12 times. The race started out fairly slow and a break of about 10 got away within the first 4 laps but all of the main contenders were still in the bunch so I thought it would all come back together. I felt great for most the race as the field shrunk every time we went up the hill and by the 6th lap the main bunch was down to 15 with the bunch of 10 up the road.
Unfortunately on the 10th time up the hill I blew and was dropped, by this time there were less than 10 left in the group. I was disapointed as I only needed to hang in 2 laps more and I would have been in the top 5 U23, but easier said than done.
Well anyways before I leave for France id just like to thank Avanti Plus in Botany for all the help they have given me and especially Mike for letting me use one of his many bikes, its greatly appreciated!!