Congratulations Bryce on your B grade Sandown win last Tuesday.
 
What were the conditions like?

It was a fairly standard day compared to the average over summer, not that that’s saying much. It was windy, as always, with a thin layer of stratocumulus clouds above.
 
How did you feel during the race?

For most of the race, I was not feeling particularly good. It wasn’t that the pace or hard or fast or anything, I just wasn’t feeling great, but ended up going off the front towards the end of the race anyway.
 
Did you race aggressively early in the race or do any chasing?

From the start of the race, until the lap that I jumped across to the group of four in front, I had not been on or off the front of the race at all, as I wasn’t having the best of days. I had just been sitting in the main bunch for most all of the time, keeping position and trying not to waste too much energy by needlessly chasing and attacking, when, over my time in “B Grade”, I had learnt that a group almost never gets away in the first half of a B Grade race.
 
When did you make your move?  Did you attack or follow another rider?

There had been a group of three riders who had been clear for about one or two laps, when I saw that one other rider had just gone to jump off the front of the bunch in an attempt to join them. I knew who a couple of the riders were, and that they might be able to stay clear for a while, so with what would have been three laps to go, I decided to jump the gap and join them.
 
Did you feel strong during your break away?

I’m not sure that I would say that I felt strong as such, but it would seem that relative to the other four or five riders in that group, I was on a good day, even if it didn’t feel like it, because before long, all of those other riders dropped off to rejoin the main group, over whom, we had gained substantial ground. Before long, however, I was joined by a “Sole Devotion” rider, who I worked turns with until the finish. 
 
What happened at the finish?  Did you lead out the sprint or sit on his wheel? When did you start your sprint? 

We came around the last corner with a few hundred meters lead over the main bunch, enough to put them out of my mind and concentrate on the sprint. I was on the other bloke’s wheel, as I had been manipulating the turn taking since half a lap to go. I had noticed that the head wind on the main straight was coming slightly from the right, so I tried to stay on his left side, and picked my point to hit it past him, right when he turned his head to glance forward after having been looking behind him waiting for me to kick. I got in front of him, and he got onto my wheel, and tried to come around me again on the left, but couldn’t make up for lost ground.

How did it feel to cross the line first?

I was rather pleased with the win, as it meant that I could race in “A Grade” from then on with all of the other riders in the team.
 
And now you are promoted to A grade and you did your first A grade race at Glenvale yesterday.  Were you a little nervous?
 
I was slightly nervous at the start of the A Grade race at Glenvale, as I did not fully know what to expect, though I had been told time and again that it is huge step up to A grade.
 
How would you compare the intensity to B grade at Glenvale? 

I found that it was not particularly difficult to sit in the middle of the bunch in A Grade, probably because all of the riders are better at riding smoothly and not jamming on the brakes for no reason. I also found that while it may have been faster, it didn’t seem as “hectic” as B grade does, and that it was, for most of the race, quite easy to just hang onto a wheel in front.
 
Did you attack or mostly follow wheels in your first A grade criterium at Glenvale?

I was just sitting in the bunch for the whole race, occasionally finding a wheel that would take me up a few places if I slipped to far back in the bunch.
 
How did you go at the end?

I ended up finishing towards the back of the bunch, as the rear end of the race fell apart on the last few corners, so I just rolled up to the finish line.