Bonjour Paris, Hello Summer!

So long, winter and your Antarctic southerly blasts, rain, wind, hail and snow. Winter, your snow is very pretty. I love it when I am tramping, but it is most unhelpful when I am training for epic cycling events.You have made training very difficult and unrewarding. I’m about to land in summer, so see ya later winter - it shall be another year before we meet again.

Photograph taken from outside my house in Johnsonville, Wellington the day before departure.

I am feeling a touch underdone. I would have preferred to have ridden one last 400km ride in the past week. Caught in falling snow last weekend, did not make riding past evening and into the early of the morning a very good option. I believe that arriving in a more favourable climate will make everything a whole lot more pleasant. That should help the cycling performance in itself.

So with two brand new tyres and a new chain I’m off on the 1231km adventure that is the Paris-Brest-Paris Randonneur. No doubt there will be suffering along the way, since I only have three days and 18 hours to complete the distance. That said, on my bicycle all suffering is taken with a big wide grin on my face.

If you are at home in New Zealand, tightly hugging your heater no doubt, you can follow my ride in the warmth of the European summer at http://www.kiwirandonneurs.org.nz/live or http://www.audax.org.au/pbp2011/mobile.php. On Twitter follow hashtags #pbp2011 and #pbpan.

Kiwi Randonneurs custom jerseys for Paris Brest Paris 2011. A fusion of a silver-fern New Zealand national jersey, and the official logos of the Paris-Brest-Paris, slightly kiwified.