By Ben Hill
On the Easter weekend from the 11th to the 13th of April Sam Layzell and I traveled to Tasmania to race the first event in the National Road Series. The 3 Day Tour of Mersey Valley.
The race consisted of a TT and 2 road stages. We were up against the best riders U23+ in Australia.
Sam and I faced tough competition with both Budget Forklifts and Praties, sending strong teams to the event. The TT went ok with Sam doing a strong ride finishing in 19th (+3:05min) place, especially considering he broke his glasses just before the start and had a loose cleat. I finished in 25th(+3:49min).
Stage 1 was the best race for the team with Sam starting the day strong getting in some early moves and sprinting ahead of the bunch to get some KOM points. Unfortunately all breaks where brought in due to an organized chase from the Budget team defending the yellow. The weather turned nasty; the rain came down and temperature dropped on the second lap causing many crashes on the tricky decent. Sam continued his bad luck and was caught up in the crash hurting his wrist. He and most riders involved managed to get back on and the whole bunch was back together till the final climb. The pace then lifted and bunch split over the top with 3 riders getting away. I tried to chase with no luck and led the bunch into the sprint finish. Most riders came around me in at the finish and I finished towards the back of the bunch in 17th. Sam came in about a minute behind in 32nd which was good considering the crash.
The final stage was a tough one with the Praties team driving the bunch. We were stung out single file with a cross wind at an average speed of about 46km/h for the first 50-60km to the base of Heart Break. Sam did a good job of getting us to the front of the bunch at the base of the climb but unfortunately they were to strong for us on the day. We lost contact as a group of 20-25 riders went up the road. We formed a small group and rolled in some 13minutes behind the leaders.
Final results are not out yet but I suspect we both finished between 20th and 30th. In was a little disappointing as we have both trained very hard for this. However it was an excellent experience and we learned a lot. A big thanks goes to Ross Hayter for driving us around, giving us our drinks and supporting us. And thanks to Two Wheel Industries for providing the Corimas and paying race entry. Hopefully we can take what we have learned and perform well in Bathurst next week.
