Matt's cycling blog

WOW is the one word I can think of to describe it. With over 10,000 registered athletes road, mountain, downhill, bmx, anything on a bike and they had a event for it.

On to the race, we had a rough day to start off with pouring rain and gusty winds put a stop to the women's race. Then our start was delayed an hour. Then as were shivering on the start line in the pouring rain they decided to delay it another 30 minutes. BRRRRR! We raced back to the car and watched people ride around to warm up. The first 10 laps was rainy and must have been bad for peoples spirits, because half of the field was gone. The pace wasn't hard at all just the 300 feet of climbing for every 2 1/4 mile lap wore on some people, and any attack at the wrong time could really put you majorly in the hurt locker on the next lap. I raced really conservatively for the first 21 laps just watching and waiting making sure not to get caught out of any splits. The last 10 laps I got a huge boost of confidence I finally figured out "hey, wait a minute I can do this." I launched up from the main bunch to a chase group of Shaun Milne, Steve Tilford, Jonathan Baker, and 3 other guys. Kirk attacked and joined our group the next lap. So we had some cards to play. Baker seemed like the only one who wanted to work. I pulled through 5 or 6 times but ended up always pulling through the cross wind right before the climb so I just sat on up the climb. Baker attacked and he was gone with the rest of us looking at eachother. I had the power to chase him back but didn't want to waste the energy then see 5 guys fly by me and drop me so I just sat in. The last lap Finally came around and Milne pulled super hard up the hill I popped slightly along with Steve Tilford, I dug deep and sprinted over the top just barely catch back right before the corkscrew. Steve caught back on when we slowed up in the final kilometer. 500 meters to go Milne is on the front not much happening, He stuck to the left hand side of the road so if we wanted around him we had to go through the wind to do it. 250 meters to go Milne starts the sprint, Tilly is 2nd wheel with me 3rd. Everyone went left so I launched up the right popped it in the 53-11 went as hard as I could, and I took them to school. Taking the sprint for 18th place!! Kirk was right on my wheel for a 19th place. The 2 breakaways came together at the front and we ended up with Dan Harm in 10th and our ace climber Aaron Tuckerman with an impressive 5th place.


After the race I was surprised to find out I won the Young riders jersey which is for the rider under 23. So I ended up with a sweet Jersey and a kiss from the always cute podium girl.



With 140 starters the team cars were mostly full before the finish, only 32 riders finished the race. I'm really happy right now this is by far the biggest result of my career. I'm looking for pictures from the race so if yah find any send me the link.


Cheers