Chris Macic and Jan Kuyckx have great experience in the windy conditions, and this weekend it showed in the UCI 1.2 Pro Classics Arno Wallaard and Noord-Holland in the Netherlands. Both put in gritty perfomances, and Macic, who was involved in the action on both days, came so very close to pulling something off - it’s surely only a matter of time before he does.

Chris Macic got away with 4 others with 40 K to go in Arno Wallaard. He ran out of energy and only in the last 6 K he got swallowed by the chasing peloton. He could almost see his companions still finishing top 5... New Zealander Chris Macic (photo: Remko Kramer)

Read his report:

Here is a report from Macic:

‘’What an epic weekend of racing in the Netherlands! The race on Saturday – Arno Wallard, UCI 1.2 – was out of a small town of Meerkerk. Two big laps of 80 km followed by 5 small finishing laps totaled to just under 200 km. My game plan was to be conservative and save myself as much as possible on Saturday so that I had something left in the tank for the following day. That was my plan, anyway, but as the race progressed so did my opportunities. With 40 km to go, I found myself in a promising move with 4 other riders and we had a handy little lead as we came onto the smaller circuits. We worked well but unfortunately that lead was whittled down, and with just over 7 km to go I ran out energy and was just a passenger from then on, coming home in the bunch in 44th place. With Noord Holland the next day I immediately began to prepare for tomorrow. Another UCI 1.2 race, Noord Holland was one 200k loop above Amsterdam. As soon as the race started it was on the pace, and after 5 km or so I again found myself in the right place at the right time and made the break. I spent the next 160 km riding up the road with the group of 16, and I was initially feeling good but could feel yesterday’s race in the legs. Unfortunately, as the day progressed so did the levels of fatigue and so ended up again finding myself have to cruise back to finish. Annoyingly, this time they did not let us finish even tough we were still riding for a top 30 finish.I was throughly disappointed as I had been going for the sprints and we still had to ride the last part back to the finish regardeless yet get counted as a DNF. So it was a disapointing weekend for me in some ways but some good quality racing in the legs which I hope to build on in the coming weeks.’’

Here is a video of Chris leading the break, powering through the finish at Arno Wallard. 

Our next races, in May, are again high level UCI Pro classics, Hoboken on the 1st, Overijssel on the 4th/5th and Kempen on the 6th. Marc Ryan and Shane Archbold – our New Zealand Olympic track hopefuls – will be racing. Watch this space!
 

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