Welcome to the Winton Middle pub team for the 2007 tour of Southland, In the green and white this year are Joe Crooks, Reon Hextall, James Gibson, me and Jeremy Smart. After meeting the boys and the sponsors and half of Winton it was time to get down to business.
Stage 1 was a 4.2km tt, I find it hard getting up for this as I know in the grand scheme of things time lost here is irrelevant to 90% of the riders. Add to the fact that the TT bike, fast wheels, aero hat.... were all sitting back in Auckland it was going to be fun going Eddy Merckx style. Oh yeah and chuck in the hail and wind it was was a fun little test. I still rode the course 100% but put out a pretty weak time, loosing close to 40seconds more than last year.
Stage 2 was an 80km jaunt to Bluff then up the bluff hill, if you haven't been up it then it becomes very difficult to explain. Last year the bunch arrived in tact at the bottom of the hill to race up for stage honours.....not this year though. Within 10km there where groups all over the place as the race was ripped to shreds. The wind was insane and the hail/sleet was intense, it was actually very painful to ride in.
2 things i wont forget from the stage were having to walk a steep section as i cramped and there is no way to get back on your bike until you can get to a car to hold onto to get going, and seeing Joe at the top of the hill. He got into the van and just looked absolutely drained of any life, the realisation of southland had hit him pretty hard and i tried to convince him we couldn't have too many more days like that.
Dale from the pub did say it was the worst she had seen it in her 14 years of following the tour!
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