Stage 3 and 4 of Tdv

Stage Three 130km Road Race (Takaka)

I was feeling really good going into this stage and new it was going to get hard, in the 1^st 40km before the Reay saddle myself and Scott were ether top 10 or on the front don’t no why but we were. I should have been in the break that went up the road early and Clinton defiantly made sure I knew I could of, and I knew I should have been in it but they got caught on Takaka anyway. We had a slight miss hap on this stage with our feeding... the girls didn’t make the bottom of Takaka before us because they had to go back for gas in the van, so myself and Patrick and Clinton Missed our feeds Scott took his coke at the feed before so he was lucky... I started the hill well and quickly faded Clinton and Scott both past me. Once the girls got my coke to me with 5km to go I kicked again just catching Scott by the top getting up there in 30^th 6 mins down on George Bennett better than every other time I have raced up there.

Stage Four 60km hill circuit

The last day of the tour and everyone was feeling Takaka in their legs. The race started hard with the first three laps been sprint laps and 4 and 5 been KOMs. There was 11 laps to this race of a really challenging circuit with a few steep pinch climbs and some 53, 11 maxed out flats gutted I only had 50, 11 cause it hurt on about lap 7 Alex McGregor’s bike made a massive cracking noise and he sat up waving me though to close a gap I couldn’t do, luckily for me the bunch sat up at the end of the straight and I got back on but it came at a cost to myself, Patrick and Adrian Retief, and within a few laps of been getting swung on and off the back we all dropped off the back in our own time little bit gutted about it but it was a lesson well learnt of riding on the back of elite roadies.

Hayden Roulston won the tour beating George Bennett by a mere second and Tom Finlay in 3^rd 10 seconds back.

All in all that was a awesome trip away with the Waiariki Mtb squad and more importantly the best week of training in a long time. Back to the Mt bikes from now our new road bikes already get a rest. Next Race is N-Duro summer series Race this weekend in Rotorua, but for now the drive home and rest for a few days

Carl