Monday, November 7, 2011
Tour of Southland 2011
Just got round to doing a quick update on 'Southland with Team Kia'
So got down there Saturday and meet all the guys and also Robin, Kay and Bobby and all others involved . We started off with a team Barbie to loosen the atmosphere and mix and mingle.
Heading into Prologue day, everyone was extremely nervous but also super pumped up to get the ball rolling in the right direction.
We ended up 8th down 25sec. but we weren't to gutted as we knew it was early stages.
The rest of the tour flew by until the double day where myself and Alex Meenhorst slipped into the late move, this was only setup by George and Joe already up the road.
We set about gaining a solid lead because we knew it could stick. but once the gap started going out we had to be careful not to work with Chris Macic as he was virtual GC.
In the end we came down to the finish as a bunch of 5, I hit out with 50m to the roundabout, i got a small gap and then increased thru the corner but was caught out as the road inclined slightly, but Alex had 3rd wheel and timed his sprint to perfection to take an awesome win! (the first ever for Kia Motors)
The other crucial day was Friday, where powernet took there chances and drove the pace from the get go, myself and George and Alex were all caught on the wrong side of the split and chased but could never get back into contact. So that was tour over for GC hopes.
On the final day, we woke to hail wind and some kind of snowiness. As we drove out to Winton with the heater and music on full we were thinking and hoping the was no ITT, and sure enough it was cancelled.
After sitting around watching movies in the Winton St Johns, we all amped up for the 75km final stage.
I was very keen not to get caught out so drilled it up front from the gun. This turned out to be the best bet as I was in the right spot as splits were going all around.
I felt comfy the whole way back into town and I had Alex to lead me out, unfortunately we didn't rail the last corner and lost speed and positioning so got up for 5th.
To sum everything up, Amazing tour and awesome people involved.
Huge thanks to all my team mates, Robin and Kay, Bobby Murrell and Kia
So got down there Saturday and meet all the guys and also Robin, Kay and Bobby and all others involved . We started off with a team Barbie to loosen the atmosphere and mix and mingle.
Heading into Prologue day, everyone was extremely nervous but also super pumped up to get the ball rolling in the right direction.
We ended up 8th down 25sec. but we weren't to gutted as we knew it was early stages.
The rest of the tour flew by until the double day where myself and Alex Meenhorst slipped into the late move, this was only setup by George and Joe already up the road.
We set about gaining a solid lead because we knew it could stick. but once the gap started going out we had to be careful not to work with Chris Macic as he was virtual GC.
In the end we came down to the finish as a bunch of 5, I hit out with 50m to the roundabout, i got a small gap and then increased thru the corner but was caught out as the road inclined slightly, but Alex had 3rd wheel and timed his sprint to perfection to take an awesome win! (the first ever for Kia Motors)
The other crucial day was Friday, where powernet took there chances and drove the pace from the get go, myself and George and Alex were all caught on the wrong side of the split and chased but could never get back into contact. So that was tour over for GC hopes.
On the final day, we woke to hail wind and some kind of snowiness. As we drove out to Winton with the heater and music on full we were thinking and hoping the was no ITT, and sure enough it was cancelled.
After sitting around watching movies in the Winton St Johns, we all amped up for the 75km final stage.
I was very keen not to get caught out so drilled it up front from the gun. This turned out to be the best bet as I was in the right spot as splits were going all around.
I felt comfy the whole way back into town and I had Alex to lead me out, unfortunately we didn't rail the last corner and lost speed and positioning so got up for 5th.
To sum everything up, Amazing tour and awesome people involved.
Huge thanks to all my team mates, Robin and Kay, Bobby Murrell and Kia
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