The time had finally come for me to do a major race again after the drama of Coast to Coast 2016 and the following heart surgery. The last time I competed in this event was roughly 2009 so I was looking forward to going back for a 35km hit out before Tekapo 10 in a couple of weeks. The one thing I could remember from this race was a fast road start and this year didn't disappoint. The fast start was made even more interesting when no one was expecting the hooter, including the marshal standing in front of us! I managed to get myself positioned well in the front group and waited for the rapidly approaching climb to see what the next move would be. As the climb really started to kick up in gradient I soon found myself slipping off the back as I wasn't willing to put in the power that the others were. I pushed hard in the following descent to try and pull back lost time but a very sketchy moment where I'm amazed I didn't break my rim or myself blew my confidence to att