Time to fire up the blog again as 2013 is going to be an
exciting season.
This year I will be racing for Terra footwear Bicycleline
and be based in Zottegem, Belgium.
The season has already kicked off to a good start, with a
successful Tour of Southland I had a little bit of time off to spend travelling
the South Island. After that I was able to build the form from Southland up
towards Nationals.
From the experience gained and learnt from my season last
year I had big goals for Nationals, both in the Time Trial and Road Race. I
invested a lot of more time on my time trial bike than I have in the past and
worked on a lot of aspects off the bike like Nutrition, Bike Position and Gym
work.
Finally the time arrived and I was off to Nationals. The
time trial is a very straight and plain 40km race with only 1 corner on the way
out the same corner to navigate on the way home. Although I wasn’t overly
pleased with my own personal performance I still placed a respectable 3rd,
gaining my first National Road Medal.
Two days later was the 180km Road Race on the same course it
has been on for the last 3 years. There is one prominent climb that withers
down the field and it never seems to get easier, each year we only seem to go
up there faster. I was feeling a lot stronger today than I did on the day of
the time trial, but the nerves were a lot greater due to how unpredictable one
day road races can be. I had a race plan to keep myself protected as much as
possible and make my move towards the end of the race. I battled all the way to
the finish and in the bunch kick placed 6th u23.
To finish the nationals road race is an achievement in
itself, with over 80 starters we had one of the highest number of finishers
with a total of 20 riders making it to the end. The race is notorious
for its high attrition rate.
For me now I am focusing on another little break and working
to raise funds for my time in Europe. Then I will be keeping my riding pretty
basic and least likely going to do any racing. My riding will be based around “collecting
k’s” and build my legs up for what will be a long but good season of racing in
Europe.