Tour de Vineyards Race Report form Ben Evans
Tour de Vineyards (Nelson) Jan 1-4 2009
Stage 1: An almost flat stage: 40km in 8 laps of a rectangular circuit. I chose to ride Masters 1 grade as I thought I had a good chance of winning the Tour. I thought I might be able to take the yellow jersey after the 2nd or 3rd stage. I found out before the stage that there were time bonuses for the first 5 across. In a split second decision I attacked just as the sprinters were slowing down to line up for the lead out and beat the bunch by 3 seconds and taking a 10 second time bonus for winning the stage: yellow already.
Stage 2: Richmond to St Arnaud. A hilly and rolling 90km with overall elevation gain of 800m. A small break was allowed to go up the road, which I almost managed to pull back by the line (4th). Now in second position overall – by just 1 second.
Stage 3: Richmond to Takaka Hill. 130km finishing with a 15km climb. This is where I discovered that a combination of reluctance to work, and 2 large clubs meant that a small break gained 8.5 minutes by the bottom of the final climb. Despite recording the fastest time up the climb, and pulling back 4.5 minutes on the stage winner, finishing 3rd on the stage, it was not enough to rescue the overall classification. Frustrated, I was now in 3rd place overall, but 4 minutes behind.
Stage 4: A 40km rolling circuit course. A large task of several minutes to gain was made impossible by very strong winds and two other riders playing dishonest tactics. I finished 5th on the stage having attacked for much of the race. The dishonourable riders got away without me and this cost me 1 place on overall classification: 4th in the end. A good Tour, that illustrated the difficulties of riding such a race without buddies or team-mates. Maybe I’ll ride Open grade again next time....
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About Ben Evans
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