Final Race in the 2013 Benchmark series, Hell of the South.

Friday we left for the drive down to Christchurch with most of our team mates finding there own way down I got a ride with our manager for this event John Reid and his 2nd in command Matt Black in the good ole Holden Commodore work car of Brendon Matthews with its permenant check engine light and other warning beeps from the car. Nice stress free drive. I was staying at a long time cyclist friend of mine Scott McDonnell and his family on his sofa. Arrived at 6pm and settled in for the evening. The day of the race started with a lift with Team Thule to the start of the race at the Farringdon Estate in Rollston, 20 minute drive away on a brand new motorway. The final days racing was a split day with a short 7km Team time trial that only counted for the teams points and then the main event at noon which had us doing 3 circuits with a section of gravel of 1.3 km long each lap then another section on the final run home of 1.7km, total race distance of 127km. We needed to do well in the TTT as we were holding 2nd overall in team catagory but only a few points in front of 3rd and 4th. The time was for the 4th rider across the line which was fine as we had 5 in our team, well we did for at least a kilometer. Meant our overall contender in the points Brendon and I had to do most of the work, I did not feel that we where going that hard but these events quickly compound those feelings as I started to tire quite badly which meant I had to dig deep to keep up the pace. We managed to just get in 3rd place with a 11.18, 2secs in front of next team. So that was job done. I just needed to have a sleep after which I did on the grass verge by our team car. Felt quite sleepy most of the day as had not had the best sleep the night before, sofa was good, just hard that first night in a new place. Anyway I needed to recharge, drank energy drink and at a couple of pieces of food before the main event. We rolled out with me right at the back during neutralized section of about 5km, Once the race was under way I went up to the front of the race, there where a few moves that came back, I just followed the wheels knowing it was going to be a long day and most riders where going to wait until the gravel. 2 riders managed to slip away and started opening a gap quicly, a rider managed to sprint across so that was 3 up the road, no drama I thought as it was a long way to go, 3 more riders went in pursuit, bunch was content to just keep cruising so both groups of 3 got out of sight quite quickly. I felt it was hard to let the bunch just roll along but without doing alot of work this early I would be no good later so just held back. the first section of pave came at 42km so set about making sure Brendon was up near the front which was easy, ended up riding next to Team thule as they where protecting there rider as he was the overall leader of the series. I followed into the gravel in 3rd wheel but straight away felt unsettled, I was trying to ramp up the pace but found the gravel was like marbles with deep patches, hard to see a line to ride so ended up off line not able to corner so got out of postion, I was shaken quite alot as I love this stuff normally, managed to stay in the top ten as alot of riders where far worse off than I, we came out onto the road with a split in the bunch, pace hovered at 50 plus but with no real structure or desire by our bunch to keep driving it the rest of the field caught back on. I took shelter and to check on team mates, Brendon was in front half, Chris, bruce and Andy managed to get back in after a short chase. At this point we got a time check to the front group of 3 where out at 4.50mins with the second group of 3 2mins behind, so I decided to see if doing a few hard long pulls on the front might make a difference and also spur some action into the bunch. managed to get 4 other riders to help, able to sit on 40 km/h into the wind, next time check at the end of that lap and we had taken 2 minutes out of the leaders and could see the 2nd group in front of us. The 2nd lap through on the gravel I lead in so I could chose my line and set the pace which I did well, also felt alot more at ease this time, came out onto the road with the bunch intact but we had a few more teams interested in chasing, although also had some teams doing a good job of blocking as well, this time into the wind I bought the pace up to 45km/h and simply rode of the front with one other rider on my wheel so kept going, we opened up a good gap and closed out the 2nd bunch which had imploded by then but then we also started to see the folly of this move as it was bloody hard out there, managed to get the gravel in front of the bunch so knew we could get through at our own pace which was not that slow, I came out in front of the bunch, all the camera men and crowd had gone, makeing there way back to the finish. we know had 25km to go, I felt I may have burnt to many matches but sat in near the front. Time check to the front was 2mins at this point, at this point I had a chat to Brendon about our finish plans, he wanted a lead out train for the sprint, still had two team mates with us at this point. I said I am going to work on the front to see if we can bring the break back as I felt I could do both this and still help lead out if it came to that. We started to get more regular time checks, we where taking time back in chunks but not quick enough, I managed to ride of the front again and lead into the fiial section of pave at 1.7km long, got caught on the 90 degree left turn that was all dirt, this section was narrow with some grass showing down the middle so that is where I rode, had a team thunder pass but managed to match them on the right, very fast for a gravel section, we came out with a bunch of 8 and a good gap but no one wanted to drive it which was interesting as how hard these guys did the gravel. Buch was getting tired but not letting anything go either, well that was until one rider launched from the back and rocketed past, i took up the chase, had another rider right on my wheel, bunch only a coulpe of bike lengths but then no one could close the gap so the 3 of us held in front then slowly started pulling away, By know we could just see the lead car, 1.20 up the road with 10 km to go. The 3 of us kept rolling at 38-40 km/h, I was waiting for the right time to punch it up to 42-44 but as it turned out i had nothing left to do this but we where still pulling tme, down to 50secs and 38 secs in front of bunch, knew it needed one of us to drive it but we where all at the exact same point, seemed stuck on 38km/h, I started to inform them how far to go, 2km and it was 30 secs to the 2, or thats right one rider had blown to bits, lasted 100k though. We had a two more right turns to go, I lead the first and started ling up the 2nd with a nice wide arch and then one of the guys cut in at an angle that took me right into the gutter so I thought stuff you and sprinted for the line which gave me a 3 bike length gap but then I had no more and was willing my body to keep going, legs had run out of everything, lucky for me the other two had the same thing happen so was able to roll over the line completly exhausted, whole body had pins and needles, not sure if heart was beating or just vibrating, managed to make it back to team car then just sat on the ground for 10 minutes. So that is my account of the race. Brendon finished 10th with Bruce Heron and Chris Heywood in the bunch as well. Well done to the whole team, John Reid, Matt Black, Brendon Matthews, Bruce Heron, Chris Heywood, Andy McDonald, Brian Grant, Jim Black, Glenn Bussell, Mike Anderson and all the help that has made it what it is. Next Target is the Masters games next weekend. phew, wonder if I can recover in time.