But it has only been just over 3 weeks.
To be honest it is always strange coming home and seeing all the familiar faces, it normally takes a week or so to settle back in. I didn't really give myself much of a chance to recover from Jet Lag and the change in weather because I was racing the Nelson round of the Benchmark Homes Elite Cycling series.
It was even harder for Sean who just jumped off his long haul flight that Friday afternoon !! (hard man)
The Race:
It was always going to be a hard 1 to control, just because of the lack of riders. Mine and Sean's job was to keep bringing back the break away attempts for as long as we could. This was to keep Crusty as fresh as possible for the finale....
But nothing ever goes to plan so we ended up slipping Sean in the break and it was basically left to me, with the help of a few others to contain it.
We ended up all detonating ourselves ! and Crusty only grabbing 14th (but took the leaders Jersey)
Nelson Cycle Festival Criterium
This was the 3rd year that I have done this race and it is always pretty fun. Always technically challenging and fast. I wasn't going to race but Mum convinced me. When Sean and I rolled up we were surprised at how many Christchurch riders had shown up.
In the end it was a lot of 'cat & mouse' between the Christchurch guys and us 2 brothers.
And Ian Smallman took the win just going clear at the end and I tried to pin him back but took 2nd.
Cust
This weekend just gone was my final big race before Southland, and a good chance for me to open up the legs and test the form. Team Tasman Wheelers went into the final round with Chris 'Crusty' Nicholson in the famed leaders orange. but with a number of really strong riders hot on his heels...
We had a pretty strong squad though and we thought that we could deliver the goods if it came down to a bunch kick.
Race Day:
After an extensive team meeting the night before and a few stove top coffees that morning we were ready to rumble.
Once again things didn't go 100% to plan with Dan Barry slipping himself into the days early move.
And Sean having his crank arm just drop off !
We didn't panic too much and put a few of the young guys upfront. They soon got tired of that, so I decided we would start jumping around with attacks. This seemed to work well, but then Dean and then Myself got let go.
I bridged to the days break and caught up with Dean. I immediately tried to 'sit on' not everyone there was happy with that though. So I got a hard time trying to bridge little gaps and being attacked on the climbs.
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| Benchmark Final Round- Cust (Photo Credit:Bruce Wilson) |
It was lucky that the Subway group came across to our break in the final lap. This increased the pace and left only 3 out front with around 20km to go.
I was starting to get pretty tired and got tailed off when someone dropped the wheel in the cross winds and spent the rest of the race in the convoy...
Just in front of me in the Peloton it was getting scrappy with all the series leaders ready for the sprint.
Robin took the Sprint and Chris was 3rd. With those 2 on even points in was down to whoever had the best result in the last round so Robin took the overall win.
Getting excited to head down to Invers now.....
Kieran
