Driedaagse van Northern Combine Ride Report

Stage One

Was held on the Pastoria circuit and decided the shape of the final podium very early on. B grade went over the climb at the back of the circuit three times. I got dropped each lap, but managed to ride back onto the bunch three times. I managed to finish in the second bunch on the road, four minutes down on the GC contenders. I was also in the first break of the day, but only managed third place in the intermediate sprint. A lot of riders didn’t finish this stage due to the strong wind and difficult conditions.

Stage Two

The time trial, not a bad TT from me, but I lost another minute on first place, Andrew Wilson from Sunbury. It was a good warm up for the afternoon however.

Stage Three

My form over the hills had improved by this stage, so I didn’t get dropped until the last two kms. Lost another minute on GC. Managed to cause a fair bit of trouble through constantly attacking in the last 20kms.

Stage Four

Sat in and let the top guys do all the work, inevitably losing another minute on GC going up the final climb of the day. It was so cold all day that I constantly felt like I needed to take a leak. At one point I dropped to the back of the bunch on a downhill to piss. Everything was going well until the wind suddenly changed direction and blew the stream of liquid directly into my right sock! I could literally feel my shoe filling with water. It didn’t make much difference in the end because of all the rain on the road, but a very strange sensation indeed. That and the fact that the motorbike Marshall seemed to be taking a little too much interest in how I was going about leaking and riding at the same time.

In the end finished in 9th place, 7 minutes down on first place Sean Hurley. Not a bad result considering that I had been sick all week. Not bad after 340kms, but plenty of room for improvement. A nice flat bunch kick to finish one of the stages would have been very nice! I'm surprised that I have lost almost five kilos in the last three weeks. Being sick probably hasn't helped much, but it's also amazing what a few hard races can do to you.

Congrats also to Cam Woolcock who finished in 11th place, and hung tough all weekend.

Thanks to Laurie for corner marshalling and company on Saturday.

Thanks also to all the clubs, and organisers for a very professionally run event. Much better than the De Bortoli Tour! I will be definitely be back next year to try and go top five!