Sunday mid winter sun, everyone’s cycling. 5 days left.

What a beautiful morning, mid winter, still and warm. The Wellington harbour is glinting in the sun. The family drive to the market at the bottom of Wellington city, it is my last weekend as a passenger. My last weekend in a cast.My last weekend holding the handbag.

I sit in the warmth,on a concrete bench in front of the skate park, organic espresso from a vendors truck. Small peletons of bright coloured road cyclists whirr past me on the curve into the coastal Oriental Parade. Some GP Meo riders (Garmin Cervelo and charcoal GP kits, its 10.30am, they’ve only done 90 minutes,) individual Onslow Tarbabies (neon green and red, early finishers). The mid-winter irises from the market are wrapped in the Dom Post from 23 March. Kiwi cyclist Jesse Sergent stares out of a half page story. Above a piece on Contador at Catalunya.

And I only have 5 days left in plaster after an acute rupture of the achilles tendon.

I’ve been writing up a storm here since 20 January. About doping, Landis describing how to bypass the biological passport, UCI passport rankings and the role teams play. About tough as guts riders and the brutality of cycling accidents. And about my place in life -being middle of the bunch, bottom of the world (way down under), family man.

5 days left in plaster. Much has changed. I am going to be so weak back on the bike. 10kgs heavier (guesstimate). 3 big earthquakes – ChCh New Zealand heading into winter without services or certainty. $16b national debt.  My kids have started school, learned to walk and won the school cross-country race. In cycling, clenbuterol exposed someone I admired. The worst timed comback in history looks to come to a head in a  U.S. federal investigation for big Tex.

Riding back into B-grade  fitness  is going to be heaven. I don’t yet know how to regain form. Physio, coaching, base building, weight loss, its all to be sorted. I think I’ll be riding for different reasons for this 4 months of reflection here. Less ‘to get away’, with more sense of the extreme gamble pros make and the opportunity for all of us to complete something great from a world-wide cycling bucket list.

My comeback trail starts this week. See you on the road!