Dom Post article

There was a write up on my Games aspirations in Saturday's Dominion Post, click here to view.

Also, my team mate Gordon McCauley took out the Taupo Napier Classic on Saturday (I rolled in for 9th). Full results at roadcycling.co.nz

JC.

New Cali

Well, I'm back in Wellington and have had a bit of time to reflect on winning the overall at the Tour of New Cali. So much was going on over the last few days of the race... the win didn't really sink in until I got back home.

I'm stoked! But there's a whole lot of people that helped me get over that finish line... a huge thanks to all of you, including my team Subway Avanti, mum & dad, Bruce Christie, Capital Cycles, the Meo GP boys and everyone around me at the Tour.

There's a whole bunch of photo's from the Tour, which I'll post on flickr as I get time and some video's from the tour can be found over on YouTube.

A post race interview by Backy can be found over on roadcycling.co.nz too. There's also an article on stuff.co.nz here.

Plenty more racing on the horizon so no chance to relax for too long... I'm re-focusing for the upcoming Club Nationals, Tour of Southland and the Tour of Hainan.

Good times.

JC.

Tour of New Caledonia

Wow, big news... yellow looks rather nice. A brief run down so far...

2nd Stage

110km - 10km netural start

- Fast start with attacks after attacks, early break went away with Eric and Matt up there.

- 10km later on there was a cat 3 hill which I bridged across on.

- On the down hill a crash near the back of bunch, 2 motor bikes and 4 riders down

- Bunch sat up and waited till everyone was back up and riding.

- About a 5km cruise

- Afterwards made an attack in the cross wind section forcing a selection off the front

- 15 riders made a max lead of 2mins

- Break was 50km and made it to the finish

- Break worked pretty well together until the 20km mark and then a lot of frantic jumping around trying to get away

- Dan Barry went solo for last 10km (he stayed away)

- I tried to get across going away with 3 others and ended up 3rd on the line

- Second on GC and in the most combative top (BLUE)

3rd Stage

101km - rolling course, 2 cat 4's, 2 cat 3's

- Tailwind start

- Quite fast, bunch was still at that nervous stage with people jumping around, along with weaker riders trying to mix it with the stronger riders and slowing down the progress of forming a break.

- Inside the first 40km a biggish break went and I had to jump across on a hill to close it down.

- Then my 4 team mates jumped in to the final move of the day, which I would join solo later on in the stage.

- Easy ride for the first 75km as had planed night before to have an easy day after being in the first two breakaways of the tour, but then a chance opened up and I jumped across to the break leaving behind a few of the riders close on GC to me.

- 20 riders in the break, team then drilled it home for the last 25km

In yellow, with a gap of 1min 19 to 2nd!

Check out roadcycling.co.nz for latest results as they come to hand. Also, for the official tour website click here.

Cheers, Joe.