Another overcast and drizzling morning saw us to the Cumberland Super Classic. After hearing many good remarks about the race, I was really looking forward to it. I had never done the longer race and had only participated in the 25km race 2 years earlier.
All the top racers were here, Brandon Stewart, Craig Paul, Pete Smith, Dave Lieman, Roan Exelby, and a few others. The pace was going to be really hard and tough.
Off the start the pace was fairly chilled and we all sat in a big bunch. But as soon as we came off the dirt road and into the grass section the racing began and all the top guys went. Myself, Mike Smith and Carl Calverly all settled into a small bunch and soon we managed to catch Jedson Tooms and Pete Smith, and we pushed to catch Travis Walker and Andrew Hill. We maintained this tempo well into the race and I had settled in nicely in 6th place on the road and was riding at a good pace together with Jedson Tooms and Mike Smith.
Further into the race we entered one of the many single tracks, Pete Smith upped the pace and I decided to try and go with him, but tragedy struck when I came into the one sandy corner too hot, losing the front end and smashing my knee into a stump.
I tried to recover as quickly as possible so that I would not loose too much time and Stumbled back onto my bike. I really put down the hammer to catch the group again and had soon reeled Jedson, Carl, and Mike back in (Pete was gone). It was a good thing I managed to close back up again as we continue to work with each other trying to catch Travis Walker and Andrew Hill who were just ahead of us. At about the half way mark, we managed to drop Carl and Mike and myself were really upping the pace through the single track. Just before the big drop off we passed Andrew Hill who had punctured.
Up the big dirt climb we got news we were only 30 or so seconds back on Travis, who at this stage had found himself on his own with Andrew having problems and I set my focus on closing the gap which was at that stage reported to be in the region of 30 seconds. Mike Smith and I managed to break away from Jedson and we were racing Time Trial (TT).
With about 5km to go Mike and I caught the 25km riders and Mike managed to find a gap but I got boxed in and after I managed to get through I was the one on my own as Mike had made his break. I pushed myself to the limit to try catching Mike, and in doing so, I blew with about 3km to go and both Carl and Jedson caught up again.
I got a second wind and I pushed really hard to the finish, but to no avail. I still managed to get a second in age group, and 12th overall.
It was a great race which I found to be quite tough on the body, but I really enjoyed it.
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