Going into the third race stage I was 1:08 up on second place. This was the first big stage and it would be a chance to make or loose time depending on the performance during this race.
I was planning on just watching second and third place during this race and letting them set the pace.
The race started at the top of the ski tube and headed up even higher before some undulations and a further climb up to the snowy grass plains where there were brumbys running around! On these plains about 30km into the race I was riding with Andy Blair and Andy Fellows. We had a significant gap over the rest of the field and we kept the pace going as we crossed over a few streams before a final climb back onto the main gravel road back to the old transition.
The other boys decided to let me ride off here and I continued the final 35kms to the end of the stage by myself. This was a tough stage as it had so many undulations and significant climbs. I kept thinking that the two Andys would be working together and so I tried to keep the pace on.
The bike seemed to climb really well and the new Race King tyres I were trying out seemed to be rolling quickly.
Coming across the line I was around 6 minutes up on Andy Blair who came in second place.
Hopefully this will make the rest of the week a little less stressful!
Hi Jason
ReplyDeleteThe ride sounds great! Very jealous, so jealous I am downloading the .tcx to my Garmin so I can hopefully follow in you tracks, literally. I was wondering if the trails are on public land and can any Tom, Dick or Harry do the trails?
Good luck (won't be needing that now) with the rest of the course.
Tim
Just saw your post! Anyway, some of trails are public, but they are often linked together by private property. Maybe only stage 1 is fully public?
ReplyDelete