Stage 5 was a timetrial that started at the local golf course. I had done a pre ride around this course on Sunday so I knew what to expect. I was a minute down on AJ and I was happy to try and keep this at only 1 minute. We were started based on our overall general classification so I started second last, 30 seconds behind Ben Randall and 30 seconds in front of AJ. I was tossing up between riding easy until AJ caught up to try and save my legs a little for the last 2 stages or to put in all on the line.
From the count down I took off fast, there was about 2km of flat at the start and by the end I could see Randall up the road. It took me a long time to bridge the 30 second gap but I must have caught up to him by about half way. He had also caught up to Ben Henderson in front. Randall is a very talented rider and with his 5" dually I had to wait to the uphills to make time on him! As I went past both the Bens I started to hit a bit of traffic. This wasn't too bad because 2 of these riders were local and they knew how to ride the single track.
I got pretty lucky with the lower sandy sections of the track and took most of the corners a little faster than what would be comfortable. The last 2 km of flat I wound up the speed but I couldn't quite catch Andrew Fellows who had stayed about the same gap up the road for the last half.
Finishing this stage I was the fastest by about 30 seconds which moved me back up to first position with a minute lead.
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