Thankfully I managed to get myself into a team with Ed Crossling to ride in the Wainui 6 hour on Saturday. The entries suddenly closed off after the event quickly grew to a point where the organisers thought they had as many entrants as they could handle. It was dubbed a "low key" fun type event, on a fun and not too challenging course. However the 3 days of rain we received made the course very boggy in sections, and the metal that had been put down on the rest of the course gave everyone that sinking feeling. Therefore, it was pretty challenging to really push.

Not having raced for 2 months, I wasnt ready to expect the world, and it took me a couple of laps to get my eye in on the slipery stuff. Ed and I were doing double lap stints, and I wasnt setting the world on fire with my pace, consistently doing 24min laps. It was nice to get the feeling of really pushing again.

After comfortably increasing our lead throughout the event, it was becoming touch and go to whether I was going to have time to get one more lap in. I was given the official time of just over 22min to get the last lap in as I went through the timing gate. I had carefully prepared myself by downing about 700ml of coke just before I was set to go. I wanted to see just what I could do, and with the incentive of getting a lap done in a time that wasnt unachievable, I had the motivation I needed.

Pleasantly, I found a gear that I couldnt find up until that point in the race. I didnt put a foot wrong and was able to push at maximum the whole way. I made it with 20 sec to spare and although it didnt really count for anything, I was extatic to get round in such a fast time, and it turned a lacklustre day into a very pleasing day out.

Of course the day was extremely enjoyable being able to camp out with Bushlove. Davo pushed simplicity to the maximum by winning the solo on his rigid single. Ricky and Al had a more sporadic day with a mixture of riding and a fair amount of chewing the fat at the tent. Cheers fellas.

Next up I have the Tour of Taranaki, and tales of 3 days of road racing in the wallowing sunshine and light breezes (fingers crossed)