A week in sunny Nelson

Christmas day seems like ages ago now, lying in the sun as I type this overlooking the aqua marine (Duncan!!) sea it’s hard to believe that nearly a week since Christmas day! Christmas was a bit manic trying to pack up a ridiculous amount of kit, which naturally was left until the last minute. I did my last turbo/ main road ride and felt pretty lucky to have avoided any nasty arguments with the tarmac because of all the black ice lying around.

So on Boxing Day I said my goodbyes and jetted off to LA accompanied with 3 bags, a bike box and a wheel box!! Padre managed to sweet talk his way out of paying £135 for excess luggage.  I was quite looking forward to the prospect of 24 hours of r and r in front of a screen… it was nice for about 2 hours before the boredom kicked in. The plane food portions were comical; eating out of ramekin sized dishes is alien to me! We had 2 hours in transit in LA, consisting of being locked in a room overlooked by intimidating US security men. The plane journey would have been more bearable had I managed to sleep, I took some herbal sleeping pills hoping they would knock me out for 10 hours, instead they made me so drowsy! When I finally got to sleep for about 20 minutes I was woken up by an airhostess with my breakfast, just what I wanted at 2am!! I arrived to torrential rain which meant sadly I couldn’t try Alistair Grants staring at the sun technique to help combat jetlag and reset the circadian rhythm!

I am staying with the Lush’s who live in a lovely house close to the centre of Nelson. They have been looking after me so well, stocking up their cupboards with an array of healthy foods and cooking yummy nutritious meals! Andrew has also become my personal mechanic, due to my total incompetence! I was determined to not let the jetlag affect me; I only did 30 minutes on the rollers on the first day but staying on proved to be a challenge when I felt like I should be asleep! That night in my sleep I made an attempted escape out of the window at 3am, I was trying to get to the bathroom!! Training hasn’t been very strenuous this week, getting over the jetlag and getting prepped for the Vineyards stage race that starts on New Year ’s Day… early night for me! Already I have done 2 rides with some of the local lads who ride for pro teams in Europe and the US in the summer; it was also good to meet some of the girls who ride for the cyclosport team (which I am guesting for in the Tour of NZ). 

Anyway enough rambling; so far having a great time, awesome scenery, awesome weather, and great people! Sexy cycling tan lines already back, although the sun is mega powerful here you have to remember to put sunblock on even your little finger! Training at the same intensities as I was doing before I came out just feels effortless in the sun as opposed to the arctic climate I had become accustomed to! I am now putting ice in my bottles out of choice instead of ice accumulating from the sub-zero temperatures back home!

Bye bye from down under, hope everything is nice and cold back home! HAPPY NEW YEAR!!