Well, Im going to start off with wow wow wow! It was an awesome morning for a 100km race into nowhere land and back. Seven of us turned up to compete - Rowan Tyler, Justin Short, Mike Andrews, Dan Owens - all of these riders are new recruits over the transfer season (good move). Martin Atterbury, Helder Amorim and Charlie van Heerden were the other riders. Charlie had a separate start as the 50+ where riding 65km. The rest of us started together.
The 100km race started and we decided at the race meeting not to go from the gun as we had the numbers but not the experience as a new team. It took about 5km before we got rid of the nerves and started attacking. Dan launched the first one, “awesome sight” - unfortunately he punctured shortly afterwards. Then when that got brought back Rowan went. We got into the swing of things and attacked about six times before the ideal break went off the front consisting off Justin Short and two elite riders. It was now up to the other riders to chase. Nothing happened so Martin got the rest of the riders to sit on the front and slow the race down. It was not too long before we could no longer see the breakaway, all we had to do is keep everything under control. The course was very tough, very undulating with a couple big climbs.
This suited Justin who was in the break, We tried to get another rider to bridge across but the bunch was having none of it. Martin gave two or three tries and then Mike tried (nice effort). On the second climb we managed to get a split in the bunch consisting of three Cycle Lab riders - Martin, Helder and Rowan - one Burg Wheelers rider, two Newcastle riders, two Mr. Price riders and Sean Merradew - a very strong bunch. Meanwhile, Justin was putting in huge efforts in the break. We started putting the pressure on in the bunch as we were getting closer to the finish. Rowan rode off the front with 10 km’s to go and again we got on the front and slowed the pace down which now consisted of a very small bunch. Unfortunately the two elite riders attacked Justin on the last climb with 2 km’s to go so he had to settle for 3rd and Rowan managed to hold the gap for 4th. Martin came 7th and Helder 8th overall - not bad for the first time riding as a team!!! A very big well done to all the riders.
Charlie had a great race. He had a couple of Mr. Price riders to contend with. The 65 km’s went along the same route as the 100 km race, so it was very tough. All Charlie had to do was bide his time and with 5 km’s to go he attacked. With a very strong bunch trying to bring him back, he managed to win by over 2 minutes. Well done Charlie.
Regards Martin( Cyclelab Toyota supercycling Mens Captain)
