As the days wear on it becomes increasingly difficult to get up and g'd for racing and increasingly easier to enter the realm of negative thought. But the four of us left racing had to be grateful for still being able to race, because being unable to start due to something outside of your control is shit-house!! (Ross's puncture the day before meaning he was a non-starter today).
Robyn our team manager helped us out superbly in preparation for our individual efforts in the time trial - cleaning bikes, arranging different wheels, aero bars and a warm-up takes a substantial amount of time and energy.
The conditions were shifty (turning around the corners in the course would normally result in a fair amount of sideways movement from a strong gust of wind), so it was difficult to 'smash' yourself. I think we were all pretty happy with our results:
Odlin - 6th @ 39 seconds behind the winner, Hayden Roulston's time,
Josh - 33rd @ 1'43 seconds,
Andrew - 53rd @ 2'11 seconds,
and Don - 68th @ 2'45 seconds
If it was hard to get g'd for the tt than it's doubly hard to get bouncing-off-the-walls for a hairpin-inclusive-crit in the afternoon - more redbull and coffee! and so...
Josh loves them, Don's unfortunately sick, Andrew's enjoying having his wah around and I'm neither here nor there. The first twenty minutes is flat out, in which time Josh slides and flats his rear wheel but gets back on after his 2 laps out, Don helps him out with a rear wheel but then drifts back after starting again and Andrew lasts a bit longer than Don.
It's vital in criteriums, and particularly when a hairpin corner is involved, to stay at the front of the bunch if you want to last til the end. I discovered that moving up to the front of the bunch becomes a lot easier when everyone gets worn out. Of course it's a fine line between waiting to fight for a better position and waiting too long for people to wear out and then getting drifted off the main group!
Both Josh and I finished in the 21 riders that finished at the front of the race thus maintaining our top 20 placings on general classification.
A pretty good tour for Petone water -
General Classification
Josh - 18th @ 19:07
Paul - 20th @ 20:27
Don - 47th @ 39:49
Andrew - 55th @ 43:33
Ross - DNF after puncturing stage 5
Teams Classification - 9th @ 54:19 (from 18 teams)
Stage results:
Stage 3 - Josh 3rd
Stage 4 - Paul 9th
Stage 6 - Paul 6th
And the special award I got for being the Tour's Most Aggressive Rider!
And finally - Top Team Manager Award: Ms Robyn Wong (presented a coveted Team Petone 2007 Wairarapa and Wellington cycle classic jersey by an undisclosed double Olympic champion).
Odlin
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