I was off scratch with Peter Trigar, Jake Sutherland, Phil Indivino, James Broadway, Ben Johnston. The two groups up the road were @4mins and @8mins. Limit was 28mins up the road and were no doubt already through Lancefield as we started. The scratch bunch were all up to the task and everyone was pulling turns, only missing turns to take a drink or have something to eat. It took us around 60kms to catch a few tail-enders and it wasn't until about the Newham turn before we latched onto the 4min bunch. They hadn't caught the 8min bunch and that group wasn't in sight so there were only a few of them willing to work. Phil Smith and Simon Quinn were the two notable 'workers' from the new bunch we'd caught. Phil has a massive TT engine so this helped keep the tempo high. For all but a few, the last 5kms a large bunch ride. Trigar attacked at around 3kms to go. I wanted to cover it alone so waited for him to get a gap and to see if anyone else would chase. I launched my bridging attempt, but that made the group respond. Up the long drag into Roachford the pace was on, finish line in sight, and I led out all the way. Trigar jumped and I had nothing to respond with - he is too fast for me! I kept the rest of the 20 or so riders at bay for second across the line from our bunch and being a 'scratchie' that gave me 2nd fastest time for the day. Not bad, but no prizes for that. Sutherland blew a rear tyre with 100m to go, rest of scratch were somewhere in the mix with the 4min bunch.
So all up, 40.3km/h and over 300W average for 1hr42mins. Hard? Yes, too hard! Saturday night I ended up with a head flu - off to the doc yesterday to see if I can keep it away from my lungs, fingers crossed! Northern Combine ITT champs this Saturday and Mansfield to Mt Buller Thursday week.
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