Sharpie At Teh Pointy End - First Elite Race

After wrapping up the senior men title a couple of weeks back in Belmont I popped into Pro Elite for a ride with the big dogs. I was fairly nervous, but as I really had nothing to lose and a whole heap to gain I was keen as mustard to get going. Lining up for the start I had thoughts of dropping out the arse end of the pack and being subjected to Davo’s punter lines for the first 30 minutes. Not so.

I got into Rimu 8th in the queue. I saw someone take a wrong turn up towards Ridgeline Extension, so managed to gain a place there. Awesome. Out onto the 4wd I followed Jase “The Ace” Goldie before creeping past him and 2 others. I latched onto Hiskey’s wheel and managed to stay in touch down Swigg/Starfish, up Koru and Sally Alley and down/up Missing Link until the bottom of Aratihi. At this point I waved Jase through, took a drink and carried on up. Jase and Hiskey put around a minute on me up Aratihi – I was hurting, and sweating like a rapist. I hadn’t expected it to be so hot up there. Towards the top I spotted Bigg Gav on his way up. Damn. Down Upper Leaping Lizard (Awesome fun) and into rest he got very close. I pulled aside and let him through a wee bit after the Nikau turn off. Had an OK run down Lower Leaping Lizard by my standards – I’m a bit of a punter on the down hill sections still. Near the bottom I was all on my own and thought I was nailing my lines when Kurt Lancaster came steaming past me. Mad respect to that man, he was HAULING down there – made me look like a real n00b. I stuck with him up the climb, and got pretty close – close enough for a pass. Just as I was thinking of calling I heard a grunt from behind me… I assumed it was someone fast calling to pass me, so pulled aside. It was Carl Patton. He hadn’t called to pass, he was just grunting. Ah well. Michael Naylor was hot on his heels, so he snuck past at the same time. At this point I figure I’d lost around 30 seconds between pulling over, letting 4 people past and getting back up to speed. I suppose because it was my first race I was being super polite (Not like me, I know…) and gave my position away very easily just incase I was holding people up. Lesson learned. I certainly won’t be doing that again.

Anywho, back to the racing. Out of Possum and into Nikau, my legs felt a little dead. I kept the pedals turning over, but not making any headway. The guy in front started eeking out a small gap, and by the time we started Aratihi he had about 20 seconds on me. Around a third of the way into Aratihi the second time my legs came back to life. Heading into Zac’s for the first time I felt there was still a fair bit of racing to do. On the 4wd climb back to the top I eyeballed the 2 in front of me. While I could see them they were about 1 minute in front. On the second pass I’d gained a little time back, but not enough to make a difference. Turning into Ridgeline I had a bit of a m0ng – wrong gear, couldn’t get clipped in, wobbling about the place… eventually got going, and had a fairly uneventful run down. Tom Bradshaw caught me on Ridgeline Extension after I was held up by a slower rider. Again, I let him through. GAH. He put about 10 seconds on me down Swigg and Starfish, and I put in a bit of an effort on the road to claw him back in, to no avail.

I ended up 9th. I’m not happy with 9th, but I’m encouraged by it. Just over three and a half minutes off the podium in a 110 minute race. Not too bad for someone who was 108kg just 24 months ago.I’m super lucky in having Mark “Cabin” Leishman as my new coach too. I haven’t ever done any training, so I’m looking forward to getting faster for an attack on the North Island Cup and Nationals early next year. Next up for me is the Rotorua round of the Mid North Island Cup in 3 weeks time – I’ll always find an excuse to go riding in vegas ;-)

Just a quick spam: Thanks heaps to Penny Farthing Cycles for their support. We have a great arrangement, where I get paid every 2 weeks to ride for them. All they ask in return is that I show up at the shop (For autographs etc) for about 40 hours each week. Nice. Also, thanks to Scott for hooking a brother up with super-light super-nice bikes and of course my lovely wife for putting up with my constant bike talk/riding/stubbies/etc.