July 19, 2019
Two more sleeps
Winter has come with a vengence
Our usual winter is rain,rain and more rain however this year it has been extraordinarily dry and warm. It has hit us now and as I look out the window the rain is coming sideways in the westerly gale and the temperature around 12C. Not a good day for a bike ride but this time next week we will be riding along in sunshine approaching Salzburg and if the long term forecast is correct it will be sunny and about 28C
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We live in a rural area about 50km south of Auckland City. Razorback Road,where our house, is was the original track running from the little village of Bombay to where it steeply descends to Pokeno. With roads that have Maori inspired names like Puketutu (that means steep hill) running off it we have a challenging 15km training ride. This is not only challenging it is also beautiful you can look out to the west over the Waikato and the rapidly growing town of Pokeno. To the east is a view to Mt William, a walk way to the top goes from the end of Puketutu Rd and there are always cars parked there to do the walk. Auckland is in the distance to the north. Razorback Rd proved too steep so a more user friendly route was developed further down the hill to the west - this is now the Southern Motorway to Auckland and means our traffic is light. There are 5 of us who grind up and down here regularly on our bikes with the odd superior fancy training cyclist on an elegant road bike coming along. Walkers use the road as well so there is always someone to greet as you either scream down a hill or struggle up the next one.
My usual method of training before we go on a cycle tour is to lie on the coach and watch the Tour de France hoping that by osmosis I will absorb some of their skill and at the moment I am heavily into this. However this year with the thought of the Alpe Adria in mind I have been much more diligent than usual and have been riding the Razorback most day hoping that this will be a better strategy . We will see soon.
Everything is organised here. Bernie and Lucy (cat and dog) are looking very warily at our packed bags and not letting us out of their sights even though I have assured them that Colleen and Peter, two of their favourite people, are coming to look after them and they dont have to go to jail
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Only two more sleeps
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