ROAD TO THE DESERT – PART 5
Climbing into pink - with Andrew Payne
This past week started slow with my recurring hip injury surfacing after the Worcester league race last Sunday.
I decided to 'listen to my body' and take both Monday and Tuesday as rest days to correct this problem with a view to being fresh for the weekend's racing: a hill climb time trial on Saturday, followed by a kermesse circuit race on Sunday.
After dropping my chain during the 2.2 kilometre hill climb at Malanshoogte, I managed to recover enough time to finish third behind New Market team mate Enzo Lezzi and Daiken's Marius Nel. This allowed me to get into the pink jersey as the overall leader going into Sunday's circuit race outside Wellington.
The conditions were tough making for a hard fought race out on the Lady Loch circuit. The Daiken team attacked after only two kilometres and I managed to make the break of five riders, which included last week's winner Danny Schmeisser.
"When days are dark and friends are few." Andrew holding his own in tough conditions.
Schmeisser went on to take his second win in a week while I managed to hold on to third place in the final sprint. The final lap was lung searing to say the least.
Daniel Schmeisser is still leading the league on points ahead of his teammate Marius Nel, while I'm in third place.
Andrew (second left) lunges to the line in Sunday's circuit race outside Wellington
All in all, a good weekend's racing after a lighter than normal week of training.
A few two-hour recovery rides with one hard effort of an hour pretty much sums up the weeks training.
With no races for the next few weeks, it'll be an opportunity to ramp up the mileage again, twenty hours a week being the yardstick.
