In Nelson I had the 5 day Tour of Vinyards which was more of a training race for me although I got involved in a couple of stages to finish 16th overall. We had two days in the rain. The stage to Takaka hill and the following day. Takaka is very long but not too steep it just goes on forever!! Big ups to Holly my girlfiend for driving the car from Richmond to the bottom of the hill. Her first solo manual car drive after leaning the day before!
From Nelson on New Years eve we headed down to Christchurch for the New Year Carnival. There was some good racing and I came away with the win in the Feature Wheel race
Wheel race Podium
From Christchurch Holly and I drove down to Cromwell for a few days with my family as the were finishing there holiday. I raced the Dunstan Challenge whilst I was there and placed third the same as last year. I hit the sprint was too early and ended up giving a couple a good leadout.
Next up was the New Year Carnival in Invercargill comprising of 2 nights track racing, a criterium and the Gore to Invercargill Road Race.
On the Saturday there was also a Road race to browns followed by Grass track racing. I finished third in the road race. The grass was wet but surprisingly grippy with hard ground underneath. I won all 4 grass races which I recommend it to anyone for good safe racing which will definitely improve bike handling skills.
Later that night I won the Points race on the track after taking out 2 sprints by going 2 laps out.
Crit got canned due to the Wet.
In the Gore Invers I felt really strong the whole race. I probably should have waited for the sprint but I felt good to have a couple of digs in the last 2km I lasted till about 300m to go where I got caught.
Thanks for reading,
Brad
