The Nelson National course had a good feeling about it and with UCI rules creating shorter laps the course was put back to the 2008 National Champs track where I had competed in my first National Championship back in the day! So this meant a very fast course with a good climb at the start but a very quick mid-section of track going right through back to the start/finish.
Race day was a good one and with racing in dry conditions I was ready to head to the start line after a solid warm up was completed. Before I knew it we were off smacking it up the first hill, I had a fantastic start being up the front but got swarmed by riders at the top of the hill (just didn't give it death!). This meant I got held up by the slower riders on the first lap putting me around 1 minute behind the leaders. I came through the first lap of six in 11th position and then started to make ground on the second and third lap catching up to Stu Houltham and then Mike Northcott and Carl jones. On the fifth lap Stu started to fade on the single track and as I was stuck behind Stu, Carl (4th at finish) and Mikey (3rd at finish) gapped it and I was left to wait for open ground to pass!
My final lap came around and I had Kyle Wood hot on my tail. With noticing that he was starting to fade (just like myself) I pushed that little bit extra out up the climbs and stood up as much as possible. With a clean downhill run to the finish I came in 5th position very happy with my race especially after my first lap!
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