It’s been couple of years since I last raced at Mount Vic so it was good to be back. It is always a tough venue with a lot of climbing and some good single trail sections that keep riders on the edge due to their often rooty and narrow nature. Because the weather had been so dry in the preceding days it was also quite dusty in places. The course was put together really well. A couple of long several minute climbs early on in the lap tested the legs and there was also a super steep Mount Vic trade mark pinch climb thrown in as well. I enjoyed it and felt I could do well and with the added incentive of my first outing in the National Champs jersey I was looking to have a good
race.
The pace wasn’t very fast early on and everyone was still pretty much together for the most of the first lap. Near the top of the second climb I moved to the front to drive the pace a bit and managed to get a gap going into the next downhill section. I hadn’t intended on going so early but decided to make the most of the opportunity and keep up the momentum. After the first lap I had a small 10sec advantage. It is always good when you can disappear and stay out of site of the chasing riders and I worked hard to increase my lead. I wasn’t able to clear out big time but by the middle of the race things had settled down and I had a decent buffer. Six laps out in front was hard going though and I was starting to tire as we moved into the last stages of the race. I lost a bit of time to Mikey who was chasing hard in second place near the end but was reasonably safe and held him off by just over 20seconds.This was a pretty satisfying result and I will be working hard to have a good one at the final round of the NZ Cup this weekend in Napier.
race.
The pace wasn’t very fast early on and everyone was still pretty much together for the most of the first lap. Near the top of the second climb I moved to the front to drive the pace a bit and managed to get a gap going into the next downhill section. I hadn’t intended on going so early but decided to make the most of the opportunity and keep up the momentum. After the first lap I had a small 10sec advantage. It is always good when you can disappear and stay out of site of the chasing riders and I worked hard to increase my lead. I wasn’t able to clear out big time but by the middle of the race things had settled down and I had a decent buffer. Six laps out in front was hard going though and I was starting to tire as we moved into the last stages of the race. I lost a bit of time to Mikey who was chasing hard in second place near the end but was reasonably safe and held him off by just over 20seconds.This was a pretty satisfying result and I will be working hard to have a good one at the final round of the NZ Cup this weekend in Napier.
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