I'd have to take my hat off to any race that was 'better' or 'harder' than the Tour De France. But what if a race was older  than Le Tour? Now that would be something... Say, something along the lines of the Goulburn to Citi road race. In its' 107th year running, this race would surely have pages of stories to tell; but for now, mine will have to do...

With the Praties team being defending champions of the event, the pressure to perform was on from the start - and with ABC Radio announcing the countdown, the race was under way. The peleton was under 'neutral control' for the first 4km of racing, until we merged onto the Hume Highway where the flag was dropped, and racing began.

Personally, my legs felt quite ordinary - it felt like I shoud still have been in bed sleeping (which was the case!) But after about 10km of racing my legs started to wake up and I felt a bit more optimistic about the kilometres ahead. Riding on a highway was quite a rush, with speeds remaining above 45km/h for the majority of the 70km stretch of tarmac. However I'm sure the youngster that crashed at that speed had a different opinion, and less skin than everyone else - he lost control somehow, and hit the deck.

Once the peleton reached the small town of Berrima, things started heating up a little more, with several riders chancing their arm up Bendooley Hill - where the feed zone was. Speaking of which; I couldn't help but notice my name spray-painted onto the road. So whoever did such malicious damage to the local roads... Thank you for the support! Much appreciated!:-) After the feedzone we descended for about a kilometre before hitting Centennial Hill. The pace was on, since there were KOM points on offer at the crest of the climb.

Between the crest of Centennial Hill and Mittagong, not much happened. Unfortunately I was involved in a small crash in Mittagong, where I was forced into a refuge island. I got back onto the bike and tried in vain to catch the peleton - I resorted to grabbing onto a passing vehicle and getting towed back to the race... I paid the price for this after the race!

Cutting to the chase, we finally reached Razorback Pass, a 4km climb with a nasty pinch at the end. I set my own tempo up the climb, trying to keep some steam for the run to the finish, but my tempo seemed sufficient as I started to pass busloads of riders who'd started to feel the pain. I made it over the pass trailing a large group of riders, consisting of two team mates, Nathan Earle and Jason Riggs. They soon told me that there was a lead group up the road and that we had to try reel them in - Lucky I was too tired to speak, so I just obliged and put my head down and gave it my all.

With excellent team work between the three of us, we managed to reduce the space between the lead group and ourselves, bringing it down to around 40seconds. The last 5km of racing involved a blur of; seeing the main field way behind our group, seeing the leaders way ahead, and seeing the finish line inch closer. I just buried myself, along with my team mates - who had ridden an excellent race themselves.

Once we finished, I found out that thanks to my 'towing' incident in Mittagong, I would be fined $100 and penalised 1 minute. And since I had won 2nd place in my category, a 1 minute time penalty would bump me down to 6th place. We could argue about the incident all day, but I know where I stand...

A great day on the bike - one of my best in a long time. Nothing is confirmed as yet, but keep an eye out for the Praties boys in Tasmania... I might be joining them for the Tour of Tassie, and for yet another great learning opportunity.