Seaview Criterium - Sat 17 October 2009

The best thing about this race was that it was in the afternoon, so I still got my sleep in. During the morning it rained on and off, and we weren’t sure if we should go or not. In the end we did (obviously) due to the fact that it seemed to be clearing. We got out there and I was surprised how few people there were. Because of the small numbers, they put the A and B grades together, and the C and D together. The circuit was 700 meters long and all flat.

The first race was good to watch: most of the people I recognized but couldn’t name, however Lee Evans seemed to do pretty well, a major player in the chase group (chasing the one-man break away), I could be wrong but I think he came second. Other familiar faces were Zoe Anderson, who shone at the Wellington Secondary Schools Road Champs in September, and Luke McDermott from PNP Track Juniors. They both held their own well against the more experienced A and B grade riders.





After their 40 minutes were up we had 15 minutes to warm-up. Just before our start it began spitting, though luckily it didn’t rain more heavily than that until after we had all finished. A group of stronger riders took off from the front and ended up lapping the rest of us several times, but I still felt I did well. I worked together with some different people over the duration of the race, eventually either getting dropped or dropping them. One of the people I rode with was Ari Evans (Lee’s younger brother) who I know from track cycling: he did pretty well for only his second road race.







It was difficult to tell when to stop, but when I saw that everyone else had and the organizers were starting to pack up I did another lap and stopped, so I think I did a bit extra. I averaged 31.5km/h (that’s quite good for me) so I felt pretty good, and it had been a good workout and a small, but fun event. Many thanks to the main organizers Steve Chapman and Chris Newman.

This was my first serious outing on the road bike since Alex and Owen from Bike Barn helped me do a major re-setup: thanks, guys, your help with that definitely improved the bike's handling compared to the Secondary School Champs.