By Brendan

Well Pemberton A grade…where do I start….hhmmm

Well after a leisurely drive down to Pemby, we were the first to arrive at SPR base camp so we had a god look around and was quite impressed by Lorraine’s choice (the owner couldn’t praise her enough for the organising and I can’t disagree). So I quickly unpacked the car put the bike together for the next morning’s ride and off to the pub we went for a very nice piece of cow and a beer .
Everyone else gradually arrived throughout the night without too many mishaps although Nicole’s late arrival at midnight must have been a nice drive for her..Not.

So up not so early after a nice sleep in we set off for a lap of the course and to suss these hills out, turns out to be allot of rolling hills and none not to steep but bound to cause some hurt with the quality of the A grade field…

On returning I set the race wheels up and double checked everything prior to the crit and went out for lunch with jodes to try and settle some pre Criterium race nerves..
I have been doing some training with CWA learning the fine art of the new Times7 timing system so I went to the start to help set up and do some more learning, awesome system relatively simple to set up but still more training for the programs to be had….So stayed at the start and cheered everyone else on released I better go get ready for my race.. nerves were settling in big time the crit course was a tough one with a nice steady pinchy climb up to the finish and a vicious downhill leading into a very fast corner and down the back some horribly rough road leading back to the hill…
My race didn’t go as well as I wanted as I went with the moves for the first 15 mins but for some reason my legs just didn’t want to race and I was popped off on the finish hill and watched what was left of the bunch disappear over the hill, looking around I realised just how many people had already dropped off and pulled out, made me feel a little better but not much… So I just watched Jordon steam up the hill for a great sprint win from Fitzgerald and Hall, very tough Crit I must say, don’t think any other course is that brutal especially at the speeds the guys were surging with… So went back and helped with the BBQ and readied myself for Part 2 the next day….

On the road race I had warmed p but still wasn’t feeling the best and as we headed out up the finish hill an attack went straight away, no one else seemed to care and I sure as hell wasn’t chasing him, after numerous vicious attacks my legs were responding OK but when Eddie and AJ jumped across the gap it left all the big teams with riders up front so the rest of their teams went to the back and let everyone else chase if they wanted.. was amusing that Aussie Crates missed the move and had to drive the pack if they didn’t want the race to disappear into the distance which was quite funny I though and several comments were made by the pack… Once out to the turn to come back into town the pace really picked up and I think we sat on 50-60 all the way back into town sort of rolling through with everyone knowing Pump hill will start the sorting, once on the hill (after a dangerous right turn in town into skinny roadway after flying downhill at over 60…nice) the attacks started, I positioned myself really well and was in the first 3 over the hill and feeling good I hoped that this was the scene for the day….

The hill got rid of about 5 riders some of who I thought were stronger so was a little surprised but on through town for lap 2 more attacks up the big hill through town but was going with them OK..
Once out on the smaller power climbs the pace really stepped up and so were the attacks and to top it off in the distance we could see the black as clouds with lightning coming our way…nice one I though… about 10mins later we were nearing the turn to town and down it came, huge Thunder, Hail and torrential rain but the pace was surging from 30kmphr up to 60 with no one really wanting to chase, then a small group of 4 got away but only lasted a few km before sitting up, I stayed near or on the front through town as I didn’t want to get mixed up with a crash on the nasty right hander before Pump hill, on looking back after the corner I opened a gap so set my own pace to the climb and hit it with about 60meters gap but before I knew what was happening some vicious attacks led the guys up the hill and my legs unable to increase enough in pace I crested the hill some 100 meters behind but found some guys to seek refuge with and we worked our arses off back to the group but didn’t get on till coming down into town then as we got on the attacks went again and my race was done as I couldn’t respond… I was rather annoyed (can’t say actual words here).

So was forced to just ride the last lap in pouring rain watching the leaders disappear, Steve Jansen caught me and we waited for another 2 guys from Aussie Crates and we pretty much just ticked over the turns back into town up and over Pump hill for the last time, Steve egged me into a sprint in pouring rain which was funny as when I forced the pedals the wheel spun so we were having a laugh as we sprinted the final 200meters for what was 13 and 14th place. While not overall happy about the race I was reminded just how many people didn’t finish and we only came in 10mins behind the winner as the breakaway was caught on the final lap. It must be one of or is the hardest local race course and with the talent in our group I guess I should be heartened for the season ahead considering 6 of the top ten are heading overseas in a few weeks.

                                                                                                                                     Sprint for 3,4,5 and 6th
All in all it was great to see club SPR do so well across all grades and pick up numerous prizes and have an awesome atmosphere at our camp The tea following the race was some of the best food I have had in a while and quite a few laughs were had with everyone that was left (hadn’t gone home) and I had arranged a surprise Choccy cake for Jody’s Bday of which Bec tried to hog half of the cake much to Lorraine’s disgust, but highly amusing and game considering Lorraine had a massive knife haha.

The cake stealer

Looking forward to the next time we can all go away again, cheers guys and gals for a top weekend.
I can highly recommend the lavender farm pancakes, best I have had and I lurve pancakes ..haha
Sure Ronny and Emma will back me up on that one…