The second and final round of the NZ Cup series took place in sunny Nelson. With a pretty good race record here in the past it has become a favourite venue of mine and it was good to be back again in 2014. I felt I rode much better in Nelson than the previous round in Wellington. Had a solid race and improved on my result as well moving up from 3rd in Welly to 2nd behind Anton Cooper.
It was a fast start to the race with Anton, Sam Gaze and
myself getting away from the rest early on. Anton led and set a pace that was
right on the limit for me. I was struggling a bit to stick with the other two
and after about half a lap the slight gap that had been opening and closing
between us became too big and I lost contact at the bottom of one of the climbs
making a slight mistake on a tight switch back corner.
Less than two weeks to go now till National Champs at home in Rotorua so I will be doing some fine tuning with my training making sure I finish off my preparation the best I can. This Sunday we are having a “mock” race on the course racing a reduced number of laps and this will be a good final test of the form. I have been pleased with the progress made over the last month and all going well should be in pretty good shape for Nationals.
Before I knew
it they were well gone and although I chased hard for the next two laps I
couldn’t make any impression on the gap and fell further behind. Heading into
the third lap I caught Sam who had run into trouble trying to stick it with
Anton and so rode into 2nd position. Nothing really changed from
there for the rest of the race. I had a decent gap over the boys behind and
just had to focus on my own race and keep pushing to the finish.
The course was fast and dry as usual and I enjoyed riding
hard and mindful of the fact that this will be the last big race before
Nationals I wanted to make sure I put in a good honest effort. The last laps
were uneventful with no issues and I finished comfortably in 2nd
place.
Less than two weeks to go now till National Champs at home in Rotorua so I will be doing some fine tuning with my training making sure I finish off my preparation the best I can. This Sunday we are having a “mock” race on the course racing a reduced number of laps and this will be a good final test of the form. I have been pleased with the progress made over the last month and all going well should be in pretty good shape for Nationals.
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