Daniel Barry – Club Nationals; Detonation

By Daniel Barry I travelled to Hastings this weekend for the New Zealand Club Nationals road race. The race didn?t pan out as I had planned (quite the opposite) but I have still come away feeling positive about the way things are going. I went into the race feeling confident about my form but a little bit doubtful about my health. I came down with a virus early last week and this forced me to take a few days completely off the bike. It wasn?t a good time; muscle aches, fever and fatigue. I made it quite a lot worse for myself by going into full-blown denial mode last Sunday? ?I?m not getting sick I?m just being soft.? It was the wrong attitude and riding Gorges with the Benchmark guys was the wrong option!! I came to my senses and took some much needed rest. Come race day I was pretty sure that I had shaken it off. I actually felt great in the first half of the race and tried to be careful not to overdo things early on. A breakaway group of 5 established a healthy lead and pushed it out to over 5 minutes at the end of the 3rd lap (the race was 6 laps making up 175km). At this point people were beginning to tire in the peloton and opportunities were starting to present themselves. Around the hilly back half of the course a few small groups jumped away from the peloton, taking advantage of some of the pre-race favourites such as Sam Horgan and Will Bowman being heavily marked. I took an opportunity to sneak across and attacked hard on my own. I felt really good and the legs responded well as I dug deep to jump up to the next group. I drove hard and a few of us quickly closed the gap to the first of the chase groups. We continued to push the pace and soon there were just two of us (Simon Binney and myself) time-trialling our way up towards the front group. We had a slim 30 second advantage over the peloton for quite a while but gradually we eased it out to over a minute. All this time we had been pulling big chunks of time out of the front group, taking the gap down to only 2:30 with 45km to go. It was all going very well; I still felt strong and my tt companion Simon was going like a motorbike. This all changed with 40km to go. I hit the wall in the most spectacular fashion. Vision blurred, arms and legs turned to jelly and I started to feel quite dizzy. Within the space of 5 minutes I went from feeling solid, and pushing hard for the win to struggling to even turn the pedals. Not a pleasant surprise! Simon dropped me on one of the steeper climbs and kindly waited for me catch back on so we could continue to work together. I tried to pull another turn but I was way too far gone and he had to carry on alone. I had basically come to a standstill and as the remainder of the field blew past me I couldn?t even muster the strength to jump on the back. One of the wheel wagons ended up picking me up after driving past and then waiting for me when they saw the sorry state I was in. Not how I imagined this race would finish! I tried to work out what had gone wrong and my conclusion is that I still have a bit of last week?s virus lingering in my system. Or did I just blow from lack of food? Well, I have blown from not eating enough in the past but this was quite a different sensation. I had eaten more than enough during the race, I think I was up to 7 gels, 2 bars and 4 bottles when I cracked and I don?t think I could have consumed much more without having to stop for a picnic on the side of the road somewhere! So its back to recovery for a few days for me. I?m confident I will be back to full strength by the weekend. Looking forward to the next race!! Round 3 of the Benchmark Series is? in 2 weeks and I would very much like to cap off a good block of racing with a win there. Congratulations to Sam Horgan (Subway / Pegasus) for taking out the TT/Road Race double up in Hastings. Another great result from a classy rider! And a wicked ride from Simon Binney (Subway / Tauranga) who held on to take out the U23 road race title. Personally, I?m glad I laid it on the line and had a solid crack at the win. It was all or nothing and sometimes you just don?t have the legs to pull it off! Cheers to the Tasman Wheelers crew for helping me out at the race, much appreciated! For more from Daniel, check out his website danbarrycycling.com