The Continental (Oceania) Cup series rounds 5 & 6 in Cairns were a late addition to the calendar, and I thought long and hard about whether or not I would make the trip over. The travel schedule wasn’t ideal, especially with the timing of it being less than a week out from my departure to the first World Cup round in South Korea.
However, with the opportunity to earn up to 100 UCI points from each race I knew it might secure me a top forty world ranking and therefore a start in the first short track of the year in South Korea.
I flew over on Friday and managed to fit in two laps of practice. It must have rained a lot during the week as it was quite muddy out there but the forecast for Saturday and Sunday was warm and dry at least.
It was not the strongest elite men’s field, so my focus was mostly on being smooth and error free. I was solo from the first lap and did a good job of keeping the tempo up, whilst remaining consistent and in control. After completing 7 laps I was the Round 5 winner, getting maximum points.
On Sunday it was more of the same, with only a slight course variation to the first descent.
The same race scenario played out and once again I was able to take a comfortable win in Round 6.
Securing 200 points from the weekend was exactly what I came for. Box ticked and now full focus on Korea!