Thanks to my support, Andrew Prestage (6amer Crash Test), I got 6th in D grade—$60! First ever prizemoney so the milkshakes are on me =)

It was a big field and everyone wanted to be next to Genesys on the start line. I'd rolled out early and secured second row sitting behind the eventual winner, Joel Pearson, until the commissaire moved the start line around the corner to fit everyone in and in the reshuffle I ended up pretty much at the back of the pack of 200.
From the gun I was being touched, leaned on, 'kissed' on my rear wheel, elbowed... it was a very physical crowd. I found my training buddy Tom Leaper who is very strong and experienced and I muscled onto his wheel and we started motoring up the outside to make position while under control. All of a sudden the road disappeared and Tom's bike fell sharply to the right. In a flash an alternate reality unfolded in front of me: Tom on the group with me riding into him and crashing, taking out 10 riders. Incredibly, and I have no idea how he did this, he righted the bike from what seemed to be a 45 degree angle and bounced into the peloton, people swerving around him but no crash. Woa!
Not two seconds later we're riding over a huge patch of glass and two loud punctures are heard nearby so I'm scrubbing my tubulars frantically. With all the bustling I've lost Tom but found the wheel of another friend, Will Raisin-Shaw, who is also very strong and wiley and we got all the way up into the top 20 and milled around there. Nathan Hass to my right. von Hoff over there. Matt Lloyd up ahead. I was grinning ear to ear. The bunch was still 15 abreast and in constant flux, very intense and intimidating. Lots of near misses, swerves, some skids, but not much talking, all the communication with signs: a tap on the leg, a flick of the elbow, a point of the finger.
Out of control and it's on, some kid on the shoulder doing enormous bunny hops to avoid successive potholes at 50km/h, ultimately missing and popping a tyre. Later someone's rim exploded like a shotgun. People moving up on the outside and up through the middle on the white lines and cat eyes.
Turning into a new section of road I start to feel nervous, I remember this section, howling square crosswind and it's in the gutter. I was dropped right here last year after killing myself trying to bridge. Oh no, now people in front are dropping wheels. I'm on it, up and moving around them on the outside seeking better prospects but it's happening again, I'm doing a monster turn with no shelter. I'm trying to stay calm, I have to get ahead right here or it's over like last year.
I make it but only through brute force and now I'm worried knowing there is a hill around the corner. I climb and lose position (they're climbing 3% at 40km/h and it's killing me), finding myself at the back of the front bunch, but still in touch. The race has been split and I've passed the first test. Hard work over for now. I move up again and try to follow the wheels I know and calm down and take stock and plan how to handle the situation. I'm in new territory and I'm in a race with people who actually know what they're doing. They are making echelons then exploding them and then attacking and swerving around on the front wildly, from one side of the road to the next in a flash. It's full-on, but I can match it and I'm pretty focussed on not crashing or doing something that will give me away as the impostor I feel like.
Someone goes on a flyer and there are shouts and counters and it's all over in a second. That was all for sprint points, but I didn't realise at the time, I just thought that's how they played. I got on a wheel shooting up on the left and it took me right to the front and I was motoring. I thought: why hit the brakes? I flew off the front and just didn't really know what the hell I was doing but kept pushing hoping someone would come out to me like they had just done for the sprint. But this wasn't a sprint and I was left out there. In the wind. Kind of loving it and kind of wanting to die of embarrassment. The brave thing to do would have been to put the pedal down and let them eventually catch me, but as it was I sat up and rejoined the group. Lots still to learn!
I managed to stay with the front of the race for almost 60km, which for me was massive achievement and it took everything I had. I got dropped on the second big climb. In hindsight, I just let the group go, I wasn't particularly fatigued going up the hill, I just didn't try to stay with them thinking I could get back on during the descent. But the 25m they had on me cresting turned into 100 as I got to the top, and 200 as I started pedalling hard. I sat on 55km/h for about a km in abject horror that I had lost touch. Incredibly another rider shot past me and left me in his dust but we shortly both got tired and he started signalling for me to come across to him. I rolled turns with him, the bunch now only 100m ahead. We got up near some cars and the guy I was with just turned himself inside out and got on the back of a car and drafted back into the race. I was so jealous. I just sat in the wind not catching and not really going backwards for what seemed an eternity. Then a group of five riders flew past me and I jump and got on their wheel, but I was so tired. They got into the the support traffic and started hopping through the cars, but I just couldn't get past the first couple. They were also blatantly hanging on to the cars and I was too shy to do it (fool!). Guess who got on and who got dropped?
After a few minutes, after all the hoopla of the lead group and support vehicles, I was by myself in silence. No one in front, no one behind. No one anywhere. A dark time. I got to looking at the vast green fields and resolved to pull out of the race. I had 200km to go, I was tired, upset because I felt I had been dropped more through inexperience than anything else, I was out of my depth. I decided that racing was a big mistake and I'd give my TOB ticket away. I was done. Who was I kidding.
I sat with those thoughts for 10km before I saw a bunch catching me, 30 or so riders. In there I found a few people I knew, some from last year's Warny and they welcomed me in and told stories of my 100km solo and joked they could count on me again. It made all the difference to my spirits and I resolved to work for the group and rolled turns for the next 200km. And the group was motivated and working really well together for a while. By the 150km mark we were only 5mins behind the main bunch, but we couldn't keep up the good work and with 60km to go there were only half a dozen workers and lots of silent stragglers. We still managed to pick up the third splinter group from the main bunch with 20km to go. There were some battered soldiers there, including my man Tim McGrath. Another 5kms we collected Neil Robinson. Then a shattered A grader. Far out, we were going to finish this race after all.
I kind of bungled the finish, I could have been sprinting or trying to solo away for 4th place in D grade. Instead in the last 5kms I was one of three or four people rolling turns and we were just carrying the bunch with us. At the final lights when the sprint took off I was on the far left of the road and stuck behind traffic. There was a car in the left lane and it swerved left to make room for the riders on the right, but I was coming up the left side of the car! A little bemused I rolled over the line and that ended up being 6th.
I wonder if I'll enter again next year?