On Watopia 2 Laps of Sands
“Dare to Dream”
With a strong team of 8 riders (Yes 8!). The Emus were again decorated with black socks! 3 new riders us with us so was going to be an interesting TT.
This weeks “Emus” were:
Matthew Hermann
Duncan Farley
Peter Downs
Meinte Martijn Vd Schaaf
Philip Rowe
Julia Hargreaves
Stuart Hawkins
Geoffrey Dutton
The route was the Sands and Sequoias circuit which is mainly flat, but a good climb at Titan’s Grove with some nasty little up and down roller section afterwards also.Very easy to split up on a route like this.
Our start time was +9.5 which gave us little time for banter and we introduced the new riders to the Emu mob.
We had no technical issues and made a fantastic start getting off the line together well. We managed to establish a nice clean TT line straight away and took turns on the front for about a minute or so.
Unfortunately, we lost
Peter Downs
again after about 10km due to a technical issue, so the mob was down to 7. At this point, I thought we would maybe tire a little earlier, but it didn’t happen!
Before the race we expected to do quite well as a pretty strong Team. The plan was to be steady paced and keeping together which I think we achieved really well and taking turns on the front. We aimed for about 40 kph. We had to consider that we had new riders, but they slotted in perfectly.
Some great turns by all on the front, and some strong individual efforts leading the pack. The whole team was motivated, as we passed 1/2 a dozen teams. We even had an overtaking battle with WWR being passed by them and them letting them go, and re taking them at Titans Grove.
Looking at all the stats we were 2nd in the Cryo Latte group. It soon dawned on us that we had produced an amazing ride possibly squeezing into the Premier League! We even beat the Magpies which did make me quite happy! We were only 4 seconds off 10th place and 4 seconds behind the Ospreys.
Lap times at 29:56 and 30:42 – just a tiny bit over 40 kph average for the first time. Between 10km and 20km we were one of the fastest teams, only a bit slower than the overall leading Latte team. Finishing with 7 of us and only losing one with a technical fault was a fantastic effort Emu’s, so proud.
Captain Duncan Farley did a great job today passing a few teams and calmly driving us through. An ever-improving teamwork ethic with a great time trial line most of the race!
Thanks to the team for getting myself and
Philip Rowe up Titans Grove on second lap, we were hanging on after some powerful flat TT stints.
Looking forward to a possible PL race next week!
Go Mob
