Unfortunately the Juniors were unable to race the full 110km distance, so we had to settle for the blistering 45km route from Cato Ridge to Hillcrest.
A top class field was present on the start line. Riders like james Reid, Luke Roberts, Ryan Ellis and Travis Walker were definitely not going to make a good result easy to come by. From the start it was James who came to the front. I followed his wheel with the rest of the group in tow. Up the first steep climb, it was clear that it was going to be a battle amongst the Junior riders for the top 5 positions. James and Luke set the pace for the next couple of kilometers over the super tough, undulating terrain, with Ryan and I in 3rd and 4th. Travis had dropped of the back slightly and was down in 5th. Unfortunately for Ryan he punctured, which saw the end of his race. This left the three of us up front as we approached the first long climb. James attacked and managed to get a good gap, leaving Luke and I to do the chasing. I saw this as a good opportunity to try and get a gap over Luke, so I made a small attack to see how he would react. He managed to close it down, so I decided to do a long, hard surge. He dropped of just enough to give me a comfortable gap on the flat sections which we were approaching.
James managed to open his gap on the flat sections, which forced me to ride on the absolute limit on every downhill, and push as hard as possible on every up hill. By the time we reached the hardest part o the race, a long, disgustingly lung busting open road climb from the bottom of Keyridge (Arc), James had already managed to open a gap of around 2min. I took on a new bottle at the water table, and began the long hard slog up the climb. With only 10km to go I knew I had to turn myself inside out. I crested the final part of the climb and was feeling surprisingly good. At this stage I had around a minutes gap over Luke.
The toughest part of the race was now over and was pretty much plain sailing home, with only one or two nasty vertical kicks. I eventually crossed the line in 2nd overall and 2nd Junior.
A HUGE thanks needs to go out to the Title sponsors - Sunday Tribune and Jeep for an awesome event. Nick Floris did a fantastic job on the new course! WELL DONE!!
Now its time for some rest and relaxation! I'm completely off the bike for the next 3 or so weeks, so I wont be doing 50Miler or the Michaelhouse Super Classic! My next big race will probably be Urban Rage!!! Cant wait! :)
