What a Windy Weekend

My Tour of the South West  journey began with packing the car on Thursday night, with a 6am departure Friday morning from Adelaide. I wanted to wake up as late as possible and simply jump in the car and leave. The tour marked my first open tour that I was racing A grade, up against many guys that will be going on to race the NRS series. With my trip to Queensland coming up soon I knew I had to put in a good weekends racing before heading north.

Stage 1

The first stage was a 102km road race around a 17km circuit with K.O.M. and intermediate sprints each lap. Starting at 10:30am the day was already beginning to warm up, with the wind starting to pick up as well. As all 109 riders lined up in the marshalling area, it was made clear that the race would be

on as soon as the countdown started, sure enough it was. With the neutral zone lasting 100m there was no time to get settled, the peloton was whittled down to about 50 guys in the first 6km. The first time up the K.O.M. was flat out, down and around the corner and the bunch hit the crosswind and everyone was everywhere looking for somewhere to hide from the 50kph wind gusts. I wasn't the only person who ended up on the grass from being blown across the road. Crossing the line after the first lap and the peloton now looked more like a break away with only twenty or so guys left. Most of the work was being done by the African Wildlife Safari team, Eric Sheppard (Search2Retain-Health), Brenton Jones (Huon Genesys) and Scott Mcphee (Euride Racing). Lap after lap the story was the same thing, easy in the headwind and tailwind but as soon as there was a crosswind everyone was in the gutter fighting to stay on the wheel in front. Coming into the bell lap we were caught again by a group of 25 other riders, only a few kilometres later the move was made and two groups of four went up the road, so I made the decision and put myself in the gutter and went hard and didn't stop until i was on the back of the group. with only nine of us away I was confident that I could hold on as we headed towards the finish. with 5km to go a group of 6 riders came across and that was it the pace was on so no one else would be able to make it. as we headed past the 4km to go Eric Sheppard and James Butler (Target Trek) jumped off the front, the African Wildlife Safari team jumped on the front and the pace picked up with 1km to go and it was just a matter of survival to make it to the finish line. In the end I finished 8th across the line 22 seconds behind the eventual winner Eric Sheppard. A bloody hard race that barely let up all day but there was still a TT to get ready for in the afternoon.

Strava Data from the road race:

http://app.strava.com/activities/50930797

Stage 2

The second stage of the day was a 12.7km individual time trial, with such a tough stage in the morning the only people pushing the pace were those who were in contention for overall honours and time trial specialists. Unfortunately for me the wind had picked up to a steady 45kph with gusts that reportedly reached 70kph, this was also my first race on my new Cervelo P5 three. With a rear disc wheel and wanting to use an Enve Smart 6 front wheel unfortunately almost being blown off the road setting up the bike so I decided to go with a Bontrager Aelous D3.

My warm up consisted of trying to recover as much as possible and get warm for the race ahead. Flat out from the gun was the way to go with such a short TT and just hold on, the wind was howling so I just had to hold on and keep pushing. After only 1500 meters my legs started to cramp and I knew

I was in trouble. Eventually reaching the tailwind section and the pace picked up hitting a maximum speed of 70kph and then turn into a crosswind that felt more like a headwind. around a few more bends and uphill to the finish line. feeling pretty dirty with myself for how I performed I set about warming down and then heading to the beach to have a swim and cool the muscles down. In this stage I finished 14th and managed to move up one position to 7th overall one minute and two seconds behind Eric Sheppard.

Strava data from the TT:

http://app.strava.com/activities/50930784

Stage 3

Sunday morning was a slow and lazy start to the day with racing not starting until 2pm. This gave me time in the morning to catch up with some of the guys riding masters A grade who were part of the original coffee shop bunch I rode into the city with every weekend while I was just starting out.

The race started off the same as every other stage, flat out. With the course laid out over 1.2km and 400m of climbing at 6% each lap this was going to be a tough race. the first few laps I spent dodging wheels after being caught up at the back. when the pace settled I dropped to the back and stopped battling for single positions in the middle of the bunch and decided to ride my own race. by moving to the back I was able to lose a few metres in the straight and hold more pace than the guys in front of me through the corner and up the hill. With six laps to go I took a bit of extra pace into the corner and moved up into 5th wheel behind Shannon Johnson, the only problem was everyone else wanted to be there as well. A few pushes and bumps later and we were both sitting 20th wheel, I tried to hold the wheel but just got pushed backwards with three laps to go where I just decided to sit on the back and finish with the bunch and out of trouble which I did and claimed my 7th place on GC. 

Strava data from the crit:

http://app.strava.com/activities/51286526

I would firstly like to thank the sponsors of the Tour of the South West and all of the teams and riders who participated on the weekend as well as the sponsors that continue to help me make racing possible. Secondly to my dad for making the drive down to Warrnambool so we could spend some more time together. Last but not least I'd like to thank Mikaela my girlfriend for doing a majority of the driving from Adelaide and back, as any cyclist knows the drive home after a weekend of racing can take a long time when stopping to sleep, and having someone to help makes life so much easier.

The whole weekend was an experience that has shown me what racing at the national level is going to be like. I honestly cannot wait until I have the opportunity to perform in the sport I love on an even bigger stage.