Touring the Vineyards

Like I said last post – December 27th is the new Jan 1st.

Tour of Vineyards was a success. Started out with a great TT. Now I really hadnt done much TT training, but as I was driving down and had the room, I threw in all the TT kit.. Nothing like a bit of pressure to help whip things along. Ended up 3rd behind reigning NZu23 TT champ – Jason Christie.

It was all good from there. Took out the win on the first road stage after riding across a small gap early race and attacking the formed group in the last lap to win out of the 3 left at the front of the bike race. Jumped into the GC lead.

5th up Takaka. We never caught the early break but I traded blows the whole way up, eventually conceding time to only Jeremy Yates (20 seconds).

Next 2 stages where quite similar. In yellow with no team mates meant just attack. After all, this is the ‘hit out’ pre nationals.. so I went about getting 2 birds with 1 stone. Long story short, 2nd and 4th in the last 2 stages while on the attack and finishing ahead of the bunch both days. Held on to yellow and had a ball of a time just riding to do my best to dismantle the race. www.shuttersport.co.nz has some great pics of the action.

A great way to see out a 2011. Adding great weight to my attempt to trend a tough year in the right direction.. and hit 2012 with a foot on the gas!!