Cornfed

Damaged beyond fixing with clearcoat and duct tape, methinks. These were the major casualties from last week's lie down.

On the up, the frame, fork and steerer are all unblemished.

While I'm sitting waiting for the meat pie on my hip to heal, it's immensely frustrating that the Classics season has kicked off, and I can't go and pound around similar roads in empathy. Sunday's KBK was superb, and a great ride from Rolly for fourth. I liked the bit in the race report that described the riders as struggling to go 20 kph due to the ferocity of the head wind. Watching the video coverage was just pant's wettingly good. Well worth checking out Steephill.TV for all the belgium video and photos.

My own experience of these sorts of conditions has always been at the bottom end of the South Island, and there were several times like that. Being in a race that's doing 16kph one way and in the 60s the other with driving rain is good for the soul. The cross wind sections were just hang on for the ride.

In honour of these races, I'm planning an epic myself, the route is in the final stages of being announced, likewise a date. It will be approximately 120kms, have around 35kms of metal and quite a few nasty little hills. Apart from 6 kms of a main road, all the rest of it will be on back roads. Tentatively I'm thinking mid April, for two reasons. One, the area is damn hot and dry at the moment and provisioning is limited on the route. Two, the roads need a damn good amount of rain to shift some of the loose metal. It will be a drive to start point type ride, but the drive is less than 30 minutes from Auckland.

Here's a tease:-