Pre tour lull

It is now just three days before I fly to Christchurch for a tour around New Zealand's South Island. For some reason, this week I've had almost zero motivation to do any of the local rides. The regulars like Tallebudgera Valley, Austinville, Little Nerang Dam etc just aren't turning me on at all. Even passing all those gridlocked cars on the way to work seems uninteresting.

Of course, this seems to be situation normal. Prior to my last noteworthy tour (November 2004) I opted out of riding a century a week beforehand. I took time off to go and see a live band before the Tasmanian tour in 2003, so this seems to be a perfectly normal situation and nothing to be concerned about (in anycase, last minute "training sessions" are unlikely to help now). I'll be on the MTB tomorrow, so I may take it up to The Spit for a quick ride on a dirt track early tomorrow morning. I may even take a picture or two.

Incidentally, I'd like to take this opportunity to end the speculation that I'm leaving the country purely in response to the fear of what usually happens to people in this country who admit to listening to the music of one Alex Lloyd (as I declared recently).

Those rumours are almost as vicious as the beating I'm expecting.