Well another weekend, another race.
And today was the first race iv done since i got here that was in some decent heat i think it was about 25degrees, i even got a bit sun burnt! was also real cool to see 6 other New Zealanders there so it was a bit of a social gathering.
Ok the race was real close to my apartment about 30km away, and was raced over 147km wit the first 70 km flat then a big 10km climb and then a couple more hard climbs thrown in for good measure untill the finish.
So i thought great the first 70km will be easy and i can just sit in until the first hill...wrong! there were really strong crosswinds so i was in the box. It also didnt help that i was just chilling at the back at the start and straight away it went single file and with 160 racing its a long way to the front. For the first 10km i was fighting my way to the front and when i was about half way there was a big crash in front of me which i was lucky not to get caught up in but it left a big gap to the riders in front so I had to waste alot of energy just to get back on. After that i just made sure i was at the front in the windy sections and there were no dramas.
We hit the first climb which was 10km long, the bunch took it pretty easy and was cruisy most the way up just a few attacks at the top which came to nothing. It was the next hill that did the damage it was short maybe 2 or 3km but really steep and when we reached it i was a bit far back from the front maybe 15guys from the front (which was a stupid place to be as it cost me the race) and the first 5 or 6 guys attacked and I had to go around all the guys in front of me and i didnt catch the front guys till about a bit less than 1km to go on the climb and just as i reached them they went again and I couldnt attack with them so over the top i was stuck 10m behind and not able to bridge the gap. Basicaly the race for first got away there and if i had been a bit smarter with my positioning i think i could have made it, but yea excuses excuses I just need to ride my races better tactically.
Back to the race, the group that got away on the 2nd climb stayed away and i finished in the 2nd group in 34th place.
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