Well the first round of the national series kicked off on the 6th of January, so the long drive begun and headed down far south to Bluff.
Once we arrived had a hoon on the track and realized how awesome it was. Had just the one climb and one decent which certainly kept us on our toes! Practice day came and this was the first of my punctures from the delightful rocks on the track. An emergency run to the shop for a tyre sorted out that problem and had me going!
Race day came and the sensations were pretty good. Started and settled into a rhythm in the train behind all the big hitters. Decided to get stuck into my work to make sure i held the pace us the first climb and managed to do this. As I got to the top of the first climb the niggle in my back decided to rare its ugly head, this had me struggling to put the power down and made for quite an uncomfortable ride! I rode through it all just to ensure a finish as it was good training anyway even if I didn't have a great race. It gave me time to get use to my new setup with my ultra stiff E13 TRS+ wheel set which performed flawlessly and blew me away with how stiff and responsive they were in a full blown race situation! I'm sure the response these had to the power off the line was what gave me such a good start!
I ended up finishing in 6th place, when i was hoping to be up on the podium but first race this early on in the season was never going to be awesome!
Attention now is back on the road for the Calder Stewart Elite road nationals this weekend to try and hang onto the big boys as long as possible! Will be a great race and should lead me to some good form for the MTB national champs in late February.
Until next time!
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