It all started Boxing Day when i flew down to Nelson for the Tour de Vineyards. It was an awesome week of racing where i astounded myself by some solid results. I finished 3rd in two stages wore the Green Jersey for a day (before team mate Daniel Barry took control of the classification!!) and finished 3rd overall.
The stage finish up Takaka was a stand out stage for me as i did what i new i was capable of and hauled my arse most of the way up the hill with the likes of jeremy yates and hayden roulston after having to climb my way from the back of the group in the early section of the climb after getting held up in the feed zone.
I celebrated the New Year with Dan's family and his girlfriend Julia. We had a BBQ with a few other cyclists as well. It was a quiet night but i new that it was for the best with nationals only a week away.
Unfortunately my good legs did not make the journey south to Christchurch. I spent alot of the day yo-yoing off the back of the leaders although this was the case for 97 percent of the race...!!
I decided that id had enough of being behind the leaders up the climb so decided to make an all or nothing move to try and get off the front moments after i had returned to the leaders from spending a lap and a half of the course off the back.
To be honest i think it was a good move. I could not respond to the leaders attacks but still got my time in the spotlight. I didnt finish the race, with three laps to go my dare devil move came back to haunt me and my legs fell off. The race was won by an astounding Michael Vink, but the elite title went to my team mate and good friend James Williamson of whom i spent the following week with in Wanaka.
It was titled 'Man Week' by the infamous James Canny. It consists of a week in Wanaka with a bunch of mates doing what cyclists spend to little time doing, ... Being 'Manly"!
It was an awesome week full of crazy antics, beer drinking, and meat eating. The weather didnt exactly play ball, but we decided that it just made everything we did more 'Manly'!
Nationals climb - attempting solo break.
