What do I put into a blog that’s more than several months
overdue? It can’t be any long winded stories or very few will read any of it,
if not all of it. So heres a quick up date to get you up to speed.
After leaving Belgium I remained very sick, but true to any
obsessive cyclist I continued to race and train through it until the point of
injury. I had 2 weeks of very sedate training only just before Tour of
Southland where I would have my debut ride for Genesys Wealth Advisers (who later
went on to be Avanti racing team) my 2014 team. I went into the tour to help my
team mate and friend Joe Cooper win the tour for them. A golden opportunity and
the all clear from Joe left me chasing a dream of mine and winning a stage at
Tour of Southland. Most importantly the first stage finish at the top of
Coronet Peak.
I carried the momentum all the way through to the New
Zealand Elite National Champs Time Trial. I won the Time Trial by a small 12sec. My first National Title on
the road! It was a little unexpected but also something I did feel one day I could
win, I just didn’t expect that day to come so early. I had put such a huge effort
into the ride I had no legs for the following road race. Something I will
certainly look to correct for the next year.
Since then my racing has been very well controlled and
planned out. I raced Tour of Manawatu which was a personal disappointment and
what I felt was a missed opportunity to perform well in. I left the tour
learning a lot and exactly how my team works. It was quickly followed by a trip
to Brisbane for the Oceania Champs. A strong ride in the TT placing 6th
and supporting the team to strong performance in the road race meant that
Avanti Racing won the “Oceania Tour” qualifying us for a spot in the Team Time
Trial at the World Champs in Spain in September. This is certainly something I
would love to be a part of for sure.
After Oceania Champs I had a good chance to build into my
most recent race, Tour de Perth. Good weather and the structure of being home
helped and had brought on what I thought was some good fast legs. However on
the first road stage while covering a attack my gears slipped which threw me
off the bike and on to the ground. Falling heavy and hard and requiring a spare
bike I was left to get my own way to the finish and out of contention. It wasn’t
all bad though, the team performed extremely well throughout the tour. By the
last day Joe Cooper was in the leaders jersey and we also had Mitch Lovelock
Fay in 3rd and Ben Dyball in 5th.
In the final stage Joe had a slim lead of 4sec over 2nd
place and our job was to defend the leaders jersey. A day on the front leading
the peloton around a challenging course was a lot of fun. With the great
support from the team mates and other teams trying to get the better of you it
does become a bit of fun. Although at first it may hurt its cool to thing that
you are leading the charge as you ride the front of the peloton defending the
leaders jersey.
With 6 weeks at home before I start my next trip to Tour of
Japan and Tour of Singkarak I have the chance to really focus on the finer
weaker points of mine that were exposed during my racing this year. It seems
really weird for me to be sitting at home living a “normal” life as for the
first time in 5 years I haven’t needed to pack my bags and ship out to the far
corners of the world and leave everyone behind. This is my chance to make the
most of the adventure with Avanti Racing and see if I can really make that next
step in the sport, but for now its solo training camps at Mt Ruapehu and laps
of the Coromandel for me while the sun still shines.
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