Wellington Secondary Schools Road Champs - 12 Sep 2010

The Wellington Champs were held in Trentham and consisted of three events: the hill climb, time trail and the criterium. For each event riders get points and then the overall champion is worked out by adding up riders points. We arrived at the YMCA where registration was and I was very pleased to find that there were four girls racing in Under 17 with me this year.

Soon enough it was time to start the hill climb up Wallaceville Hill. Although not too steep or too long, when you’re really pushing it this hill definitely hurts. I got to the top and my legs where on fire, if it had been a few metres further I’m pretty sure my legs would have exploded in flames. I later found out that the two Palmy girls had both beaten me by two mins, but I had gone as hard as I could, so I was still pleased with my effort.

The time trail course was a 10km there-and-back over the other side of the hill. On the way to the turn around I was looking forward to coming the other way as I thought I would get a tail wind, but when I finally did get to the turn around realised that no, that actually I had a headwind coming back.

There was a good wait between the TT and the final event, the criterium, so we could go back to the YMCA and have lunch and relax a little before our next race, which was last on the agenda. By this time I was really starting to feel the first two events and my legs felt vaguely like lead. This showed during the 10 lap race where I was dropped early on and only just got lapped in the last straight.

It was a good hard day of racing and I’m glad I went, but I was definitely very tired the next day! Although the two Palmy girls were 1st and 2nd overall, they are from outside the Wellington Centre, so I did manage to take the title of Wellington U17 Girls Champion. Lots of kudos to Gary Gibson and Marty Grenfell for organising a great day that ran very smoothly with over 80 competitors.