Festival of Cycling 2011

The 2011 Festival of Cycling was out at Waipara, using the same figure 8 course as the Waipara Classic. 90 kilometers of road racing in fine conditions around North Canterbury with the first section on state highway one and another section on state highway seven. The course was undulating without any very challenging climbs (the two steepest were category five climbs).
 
The 2010 Festival of Cycling was a bit of a disaster of a race for me. I did a huge amount of training focussed on this event and got a puncture 10 kilometres from the start. My pump failed to inflate my spare tyre. so given that it was quite close to home, so I ended up walking home and not finished the race.

In constrast, I got a puncture five minutes before the race started. Horror! I thought it had gone all pear shaped again! Luckily me and Caz managed to change the tyre in about two minutes flat and had me ready to race on time.

I started off in the middle of the field and by the first cat 5 climb on State highway 1 had closed in on the first bunch. From there on in I sat in the first bunch for the entire race. We kept a fast pace for the entire race and even caught up with the elite women's race. I was involved in the sprint finish (video above) at the end. 2 hours 27 minutes for the 90km.