BATHURST criterium specialist Dean Windsor admitted that he had pinned his hopes of success in the NSW Grand Prix series on a win in his home town after finishing eighth in the opening round on Wednesday night.
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The Rapha Condor rider said that his fitness was down after an end of season break and that although he got himself in position to have a crack at winning Wednesday night’s race around King’s Parade won by Tom Palmer, he simply didn’t have the legs to do it.
“In those last few laps I tried to go fairly hard and stay near the front, when I got to the last corner I actually felt as though I was in a pretty good position, but I stood up out of the saddle ready to go and there was just nothing there,” Windsor said.
“I don’t have particularly good fitness at the moment, I’ve had a good break since coming back from England and my condition won’t be what it should be to be competitive over five races.
“Because of that I kind of put all my eggs in one basket to try and go for a win in my home town, I thought maybe if I went hard enough I could do it. You never know, I will try and race smart over the next few days and if I’m close enough to the front I might be able to sneak a win, but I really wanted to do it here.”
Windsor’s race was rife with aggression as he consistently tried to ensure he was involved in any breakaways.
Several times he pulled away at the head of the field on his own and he was crucial in forming a group that at one stage swelled to 11 riders who stayed off the front of the field for 10 laps.
Part of that group was his younger brother Blair, who rode for Western Australia team (Budget Forklifts) in the race.
He eventually finished in the middle of the peloton.
“It is so difficult being the only rider in a race from your team, and right from the start I knew myself that I would be better off being aggressive and trying to attack as much as I could, instead of being negative I wanted to try and put everyone on the back foot,” Dean Windsor said.
“I definitely got some help from ‘Ted’ [Blair Windsor] though which was great, blood is always thicker than what’s written on your jersey, and with both of us being the only riders from our teams it didn’t matter anyway that we were trying to help each other.
“It was always a plan if we were riding near each other to try and work together.”
Once the Windsors’ group was caught though, another attack from Michael Freiburg, Adam Phelan, Greg Henderson and Bernie Sulzberger stayed off the front for almost the entire second half of the race, leaving the likes of Dean Windsor in particular to try and pull them back.
“I kept spending energy going too hard to try and pull back the attack,” Dean Windsor said.
“The breakaway eventually came back, but after the work I’d done I didn’t have much left.”
