Club Nationals 2012 – Elite mens race report by Stu Houltham
The 2012 Club Road Nationals in the Hawkes Bay was the team’s final race before winter, and was one of the more fascinating, finely balanced races of the season. Mike, Tristan, Chris and I had been given the duty of covering attacks in protection of our team leader Andy, who after Silver last year, really wanted Gold. Tristan had given me a leg up in my tasks with the loan of a pair of deep section carbon clinchers to use for the day.
As the most populous team in the field, we knew we had to be represented in anything that went away. And when Mike fortuitously slipped away after only 15km in a group of 4, we were happy to see what kind of response came from other teams. The calm, cool weather, and the course, whose terrain lacked a single defining difficulty, provided conditions for a successful breakaway, and the leading group of 4 quickly built a 3 min lead within 20km of setting off. The bunch was resided to getting through a few more kilometres before expending a lot of energy, laps 2 and 3 were relatively pedestrian. Clicking through half way was seemingly a psychological switch from which to launch into some aggression. With the lead group having gained over 5min, strong attacks began from several riders looking to define the race by leaving the field and mopping up the breakaway en route to victory. And this appeared to have been executed when Dan Barry, who after probably 10 attempts, slipped away in a group of 3 with 75km remaining. We grew increasingly anxious as the gap grew; we had covered almost all of his attacks but ultimately failed to keep him in the main field. Having let a race favourite get away, the day appeared to be slipping away.
Patience it seems was the order of the day. The fifth lap of six was the defining lap of the race. Attacks came on every rise during the relentless 15km section of the 29km lap. The peleton’s resolve was whitling away, as was Barry’s dangerous breakaway. The critical move came from Sam Horgan who rolled of the front on an innocuous, slightly downhill part of the course, taking Andy and Brad Tilby away with him. The response from the peleton was somewhat delayed, and with so many riders looking after their own ambitions, I could see the chase was far from concerted. It then left the question with 3 dangerous riders together in pursuit; how fresh were the front 4 riders. With one lap to go, their lead was still appreciable, but could they still influence the result. The peloton eventually switched off their chase, and the infighting for the U23 podium began in earnest. Nothing managed to stick and it was evident that everyone was pretty tired. We reached the top of the course and bumped into Josh Page who had been out ahead and looked good to contend the medals however he was rather poorly and not interested in latching on to the bunch despite my encouragement. I later learned he had an unexpected excursion from riding the bike to empty his stomach contents. Shame, because up until then he had done everything right. Meanwhile at the sharp end, Sam, Andy and Brad had finally found the front of the race and continued forth. They were unable however to shake the two Dans (Warren and Molyneux), who had been out front all day. As they went to the line, Dan Warren, after 160km in the lead, edged out Andy for the Silver medal, while Horgan just had too much for all of them and took the race by over a bike length.
The peloton approached the line about 1min 30 sec later, after having met back up with Mike Naylor within sight of the line after his 160km escape, Nice ride Mike, even if it was a bit heart breaking to catch him so close to the finish.
The distance (174km) was likely the main contributor to the calculated effort from the bulk of the riders. While the course and the calm conditions meant the race didn’t really smash to pieces, the best riders did successfully define themselves be it through hard fought heroics, or podium positions.



































