The course had changed a bit, due to it being too expensive to shut part of Tonkin Hwy so we were down to 8 laps of a 10km course with a hairpin bend on Lake Rd. And this year they were separating us support riders from the women.

Once again we were sitting at the start waiting...waiting...waiting. Eventually they let us go for a strictly neutral lap - we were instructed not to go faster than 25km/h but it would count as one of our 8 laps. No problems - this I can do.

As it happens, Pete and I were at the front with another guy so we led the group around the course at a nice, controlled pace - pointing out things just like a group ride. Very civilised. But then we got back around to the start again. Pete and I slowly accelerated out to about 35 km/h then he rolled off to the side (after all, we'd done 12.5% of the course at the front - right?) and I followed.

The pace increased to around 40 km/h and other than a few stretches at 35-ish that was our rough average for the next seven laps. Every so often we'd get someone off the front and the group would madly chase them down and then we'd settle back down to 38-40 km/h for a while.

Stupidly, I rolled through to the front for a while with some other guys and did some turns. Bad move - I can't push that type of pace for very long but it turns out they can. Oh well - another lesson learnt. I was feeling a bit tired for the lap after that but luckily managed to stay with the bunch.

There were a few laps where we sprinted up the start/finish straight at 55+ km/h so that was kind of fun. I didn't feel like getting dropped like last year so I pushed through the pain barrier (not sure why people describe it like that - it still hurts) and managed to stay with the group.

For the first we laps, we could see the breakaway group from the women's race catching us as we turned at the hairpin. This prodded us into action and every time that happened the speed would jump up to 45-48 km/h or so back down Lake Rd to make sure we weren't caught.

The women didn't catch us but the elite men did on their final lap. We managed to stay out of trouble and avoid them (or they avoided us - whatever) and we let them go. There was someone from the elites (Blake, maybe) who crashed on the final part of Lake Rd - he was walking back to his bike so he had come off and slid a long way. Ouch.

Finally, we were onto the last lap. I had only just asked Pete what lap we were on because my brain was getting fuzzy when I heard the bell go. Great. Now the pace picked up by at least 5 km/h and more in places. We had our only fall for the race in this lap - someone tried to turn too sharp at the hairpin and came off. By this stage the group ride thing had well and truly worn off and we didn't wait for him.

Coming down Lake Rd for the last time we were consistently sitting on 50 km/h or more as the people with legs left worked their way to the front and pushed up the pace. I managed to hang on until the final chicane part coming off Lake Rd onto the straight but the group got away from me. But then, that's what always happens in these races so at least I wasn't minutes off the pace.

Talking about it afterwards, as SPR (with 6 or more riders in the bunch) we could have controlled the race more. But I need better legs for that.

Average speed: 37.5 km/h, including the 25 km/h first lap according to my trusty bike computer.

According to the Official race results I averaged 38.7 km/h (better and better) and once you take the first lap out, we averaged 42 km/h for the last seven laps.