What an awesome venue to have a Super Classic! Everything about the morning was absolutely perfect. The sun was shinning and the the air was warm.
All the top contenders had pitched for the race, guys like Brandon Stewart, Craig Paul, Andrew Hill and David Leiman were some of the big names. The racing was definitely not going to be easy!
After a really sweet warm up, we made our way to the line for our 08:30 start time. Surprisingly the first attack didn't come from joker, Jedson 'Jedi' Tooms. It came from Brandon Stewart almost instantly. I managed to jump onto his wheel, along with Craig Paul, Andrew Hill and Shaun Peschl. We then hit the first short steep climb, and I put in a little move to try and increase the gap over the main bunch. It worked and we were soon out of sight from the main bunch.
Now the punishment began, we hit the first climb of the day. Brandon and Andrew made the move and I managed to bridge across as we went over the top along with team mate Craig Paul. It was now 4 of us up front, with Shaun Peschl left to try chase back on his own. The pace was now really hot, and I found myself hurting just to sit with the guys... Up the next big climb Andrew and Brandon got away once again. Craig dropped off, which now left me alone... I chased really hard on the flats, and miraculously managed to close down the gap that had opened.
Brandon again put in very powerful surge, and left Andrew and I looking for parking. Andrew and I then began to work really well together, and kept the gap to Brandon down to a minimum.
Approaching the final 8km's, I realized things were going to be very tight between Andrew and I. With 5km to go, we hit the final climb of the day, and I made the first move to try and get rid of Andrew. But it turned out to be a major flop! He countered as soon as I eased the pace, and all I could do was watch for the first 20 or so seconds. After a really quick recovery, I gave it everything to try and claw my way back onto his wheel, but it was just not enough, and ended up 3rd overall, just over 1 minute behind Brandon Stewart, and 8 seconds behind Andrew Hill! Well done to Craig who managed to bring home a fourth overall, after a heavy week of training!
Congratulations to the hosts of the race, who really put on a fantastic event!
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