Tim Wilkins 1st Overall.

Last word goes to Hard Man Matt LeCornu on his last race for Cannasia-Cannondale before he leaves for Seoul.

As my last race for Cannasia-Cannondale in Singapore before moving to Seoul, I wasn't really looking forward to the race on Sunday, especially given that it was potentially a dull affair with six laps of the highly scenic Changi Straight. Added to the anticipation was the fact that most of the team celebrated my impending departure with a few drinks the night before. In my usual conservative fashion, I celebrated until 2am, which everyone knows is the best possible preparation for a mass start road race in the tropics.
Sunday morning had clear skies but a cloudy head. We were on the line at 10am and the team urgently hurried up and waited while the organisers checked that each individual rider was happy and leading a fulfilling life – this took almost 30 minutes during which time we sat and we sweated.
Finally the race started and we set off for the first of six exhilarating laps including way too many passes over the raised ripple strips which have a great habit of making your fillings fall out or your bidons dance away. Luckily the Super Six is so vertically compliant that you can hardly notice the strips when perched aboard except that other riders were bouncing left and right around us.
In addition to the Cannasia-Cannondale crew there was a strong presence in the bunch from OCBC, Pico BikeLabz, Cycleworx and Team Life Extension all of who were intent on being involved in the break if, and when it went. The first two laps of the race went along quite well with a few breaks trying to get away only to be bought back.
After three laps, a breakaway finally formed taking a couple of riders from OCBC, one CycleWorx passenger, a member of the Life Extension team, a Pico Labz rider, and Cinders Baltoski and Dr Nic from Cannasia-Cannondale. The bunch settled into a nice rhythm while the boys up the road turned themselves inside out trying to stay away.
Over the next couple of laps the breakaway got out to around a minute however with the out-and-back nature of the course it was very easy to keep an eye on things from the bunch to see where they were.
After another couple of laps Dr Nic was the only Cannasia rider left in the breakaway after Cinders busted a foofer valve chasing around the Cycleworx passenger one too many times. Cinders came back to the bunch at great speed and despite a heroic attempt to breakaway again, proceeded straight out the back door. It was a fantastic effort by him to have pushed the break along for as long as he did considering the closest he had been to his road bike over the past six weeks was pushing it aside like a red-headed step child on the way to his Scalpel.
Not too long after Cinders exited the break, Dr Nic gave the pre-arranged secret signal (swearing and waving like a drowning man) to indicate that perhaps it was time to bring the bunch back to the break. The Cannasia-Cannondale boys moved to the front and with some support from Team Life Extension and Terrenganu Cycling proceeded to pull what was left of the bunch back to what was left of the break.
With one lap (12kms) to go everything came back together and the inevitable attacks began to come thick and fast. I managed to get up the road with Calvin from OCBC and another rider from Pico who was unsure of how to ride in the wind. We got out to around 15 seconds but after some discussion and despite some friendly encouragement of the Pico rider we decided that we would both rather see Calvin from OCBC win than have me drag the Pico rider to the finish.
Pretty soon after that decision, Calvin decided that he was a little lonely up there and he too came back to the bunch. With six kms to go we turned at the end of the straight and the game of bobble head, cat and mouse began. Riders would go, look around, sit up, go again and then pull off completely.
While this was happening the Juergenator launched a blistering attack and got away with a couple of others. The rest of the Cannasia-Cannondale boys were massed towards the front of the group to chase down any attempt to get across to the few guys up the road.
But with 3 kms to go we were all back together and Pete Bennett took off on a flyer. He got a fair gap and looked to be away but unfortunately the road was a little longer than he had remembered, despite riding up and down the Changi Straight around 250 times in the past 3 years, and again he was bought back to the bunch.
Just as he got back, and with about 2 kms to go I thought I'd have a crack and managed to get away with 3 other riders. Everything was going quite well until I realised I’d made the same mistake as Pete and what I thought was the turn into the finish line was actually a mirage and the actual turn was quite a distance away.
With 300 metres to go we were all back together and driving towards the last 180 degree turn before the 100m sprint to the line. I was pretty much locked in on the inside of the bunch and after my failed earlier effort I had very little left to give.
A few choice words of encouragement from Diesel Dave who had unknowingly and foolishly chosen my wheel to sit on and I managed to pull one last effort from the bag in order to get out of his way. From my vantage point at around 20th position I had a great view of Timmy Wilko sprinting after Ed from the Mavs's only to be pipped at the line, coming in third.
While not a win, the podium position gave Tim the GC title for the weekend after competing earlier in the day in the ITT and coming in fifth in that race. So my final race with the boys from Cannasia-Cannondale was another fantastic showing by everyone in the team.
With most of the team still in pre-season training and focused on the Tour of Bintan in a few weeks, it was great to see the boys with a hand in almost everything that happened during the race and still pull off a podium finish.
On a personal note I have to say that riding with the guys and girl of Cannasia-Cannondale has been an amazing experience over the past two to three years. Growing out of a bunch of mates who turned up at the same place and the same ridiculous time 5 days a week into the current team of deadset legends, I am extremely proud of what we have achieved together and am honored to have been included in the group. I will always look back on my time in Singapore with great memories and the majority of those memories will include members of our team.

Matt LeCornu

Gabi's Open Womens Race Report.

Having recently come out of an extended ‘off season’ I had very low expectations of my potential placing in this race. I was fairly confident that I would have the base fitness to hang on with the main group so I decided it would be a perfect opportunity to experiment with some un-tried race tactics without having to worry too much about the consequences.

There were 12 girls on the start line and as always, the first few laps consisted of Christina Liew (Joyriders) attacking, attacking, attacking! I tried to break away with Christina a couple of times with the hope that we could create a gap from the main group but Christina is extremely strong and she finally made an attack which stuck. It seemed as if most of the girls either didn’t have the legs or the desire to chase her down.

In the final lap Stacy Low (Team Absolute), who had been riding very strongly, attempted an attack and I tried to go with her only to be stopped by a painful cramp in my right calf! As the other girls reeled Stacy back in I sat on the back of the group in an attempt to rest my legs for the finish.

Siw Haller (ANZA) made her move for second place coming into the finish area. I tried to follow and got myself in a good position to take the final corner on the inside line, hoping to gain some distance, but as I tried to sprint out of the corner for the finish line my right calf gave up again!

Uncharacteristically, I swore loudly and cruised to the finish line but then I saw one girl go down taking out another with her. As they crashed all I could see there were spectators running in front of me to help them and after weaving my way through spectators and debris my cramp hit again and I came off my bike about 5 metres before the finish line. After a quick stretch, and a rescue coke and salt tablet, I got back on my bike to cross the line in sixth place!

I was obviously a little disappointed with my result but considering I had done very little training I actually really enjoyed the race and I am very glad I got the opportunity to try out some new tactics.

Gabi Code

Photography By Craig Sheppard. www.craigsheppard.co.nz
and Nathan Baltoski