Heartbreak of Brunner

After a few sketchy moments (for both Tasman Glass vehicles) the team all made it safe and sound to our Greymouth motel on Saturday night. Weather was looking pretty good so I thought it might hold off for the race. But being Grewymouth, it went to shit. The race was pretty cold and wet but a big thanks to Aaron from Tasman Glass for providing a Tineli rainamn to every Tasman Glass rider before the race. So anyway, only Dave and I were there to ride the elite grade while the former human stick, and DK rode down a grade to help out Aaron, Scotty and Muzza.

So Dave and I rolled up to the start line and decided we'd check out the finish cos I'd heard it was a bit sketchy. So we checked it out and went to cross the tracks when Dave nearly stacked it cos of the wet. I was backing myself for the race as I know I'm riding strong at the moment. But when the race started the pace wasn't too shabby and I had nothing In the legs. They didn't fire until about the 30k mark which had me worried so I sat in while Dave occupied the front of the race. Unfortunately that was my mistake as I only saw a couple of riders up the road when there were actually about 7.

About this time some shitkicker had a go at me for "using my brakes to much" and was swearing his head off so I gave him a lil piece of my mind. (In the end I think the guy lost 15 mins to the bunch). Finally when my legs came right the break was pulling away up to a time of over 3 mins. By then we were screwed, all the teams had riders in the break except for us. So i pulled laps and put in a few small attacks in to keep the bunch moving but noone was commiting to a chase so there was nothing left to ride for. In the last 20km I kept making moves trying to see if anyone would come but I was running out of steam and ended up having to settle for bunch time.

It was hard to see riders get into the break that I know I can beat so it was a pretty disappointing result really but I think every time I lose I end up taking away more experience and learning better lessons than if I win so in that aspect it's all gonna count long term.

Anyway, this is turning into a bit of a novel. Check out the results here.
http://tiktok.biz/list/aroundbrunner/2011/elite/

Peace out