a view from the podium

Sunday was the first outing for the Bike360 racing team at the Pokeno heels and wheels race in a very foggy Pokeno. So foggy and small is Pokeno that when we first drove through we somehow ended back on the motor way not entirely sure if we were heading north or south, but thats a story for another day.

The race was 56km which is pretty short, but was on a pretty testing course with a decent 4km climb after 15ks and then rollers and false flats most of the rest of the way. So the plan was for me to get away before the climb and then for Gordy to come across on the climb, then ride away. So as the race started, the was no flag drop it was just race out of the carpark, the attacks started as I knew i would need all of 15km to try and get some time for the climb. Eventually on about the 4th time I got a gap and it went out to about 40seconds at the bottom...job #1 done...now to climb!

Well the climbing wasn't a complete disaster, got caught just before the top by the lead 2, gordy and 1 other, but couldn't go with them so jumped in the second group. By this stage there were only 10guys left in the race with a chance, not bad from the 40odd who started the climb together.

Spent a good portion of the remainder of the race trying to jump across the gap to the leaders without much luck as each time I jumped the reaction from the chase group seemed to bring the leaders a little too close for my liking. So I thought lets at least make sure of the last spot on the podium, but as the 2 in front become 1, the 1-2 for Bike360 was looking on. And so coming into the sprint I took up a good position and then let rip, relativly speaking as my sprint isn't that huge, but took it pretty comofrtably. It was a strange sprint through as there was no flag, no 200m to go signs and a line on the road followed by a phantom finish line a further 100meters down the road where most of the people were gathered, so it ended up being a slightly longer sprint as I wanted to be safe.

All in all it was a pretty good day at the office especially considering I was still sreuggling to get a huge amount of air into the lungs, but was good to put on a show as Dave, the shop owner, and his family had come out to watch so it always a best to take care of business when the boss is out watching.