Well as some may know I decided to tackle the Tour of Southland this year. This was to give me a chance to tick it off my list and also would be a fantastic builder for the upcoming 2012/13 mtb season.
So once I decided to cement my spot in the training begun. The goal for my first 7day tour was just to finish it and try learn as much as possible. The training got done and next thing I knew we were loading the car up and travelling the 7hours south!
Once we arrived I met the guys who would be in my team as we were a composite team put together with individual entrants. We had a pretty good bunch of guys so I knew the week would be pretty good.
It all kicked off with the prolouge around queens park. This was the first time we had ridden together so was pretty rugged! We managed to keep it together and get it done.
The first real stage was the 160k to Lumsden. The aim for the stages was to try stick with the bunch as much as possible and try avoid the inevitable split of the peleton. I managed to get through the stage unscathed, although I got a good idea of the speed we would be going at which was a shock to the system.
The rest of the stages involved so crazy crosswinds combined with some pretty good scenery. Although all I really saw the the gutter and the rider ahead of me. On some of the stages I got caught out in the split and spent some time chasing during the tour. As the tour went on I started to fatigue and the body got pretty tight!
The racing was the toughest racing I had ever done and then we would wake up and do it the next day! It got to the point it hurt to sleep! I couldn't beleive it.
Before I knew it the last day came around..thank god! The rain, snow and hail also came to the party! This was the first time the whole tour the weather really got nasty, so I was sort of excited about that. The time trial started and I really just tried to save myself for the final 80k to town as I knew it would be hard. Turns out I thought right. With the GC contendors battling it out the bunch split into heaps of groups. I ended up getting a puncture at a less then ideal time which lead me to the last 50k of wind riding by myself!
Not really the way I wanted to finish the tour.
But I reached my goal of finishing the 7days and 900km of racing!
It would not have been possible without the immense help of Mum and Dad, Matt Bailey from Cycleways, Trek and Enervit, my coach and mentor(you could say) Anthony Chapman, Big Jas and Jerry for the helpful tips and Andre Chapple for the loan of a set of mean carbon wheels!
So now for some quiet time and hook back into some training preparing for the mtb season coming up! Time to hit some dirt on my new rig!
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