Retour au vin!

It's been a tough November.

It wasn't the heat. It wasn't moving house. It wasn't sleeping on thermarests for 2 weeks. It's been the lack of alcohol flowing through our veins. We've been smashing our way through bottle after bottle of Soda water instead. Clearly not an adequate replacement for a bottle of Devil's Corner Pinot Noir, with which I am currently whetting my palette.

"Not the end of November" I hear you say?! Ha! I actually don't, probably because you're reading this in the month of December. Probably because I can't hear you over the expanse of sand between us. Speak up dammit. Anyways we go by the laws of eves here... an eve is as good as the day.

To change the topic, here is a chair. Complete with magazine rack and convenient carry handle.

Class.

Milo Denti

It's been quite a task finding a worthy replacement for the Teschner. Several failed attempts at buying roadies online (ebay, rotorburn, corc, ccc, bikeexchange etc etc) and I finally decided to bite the bullet and head down the build-my-own path.

Now I've always had a bit of a taste for a fine bicycle. It doesn't help that some of my friends have acquired quite the rides of late (pat's pooey-the-baum comes to mind). It also doesn't help that I get rather attached to things rather easily. This 'thing' I attached myself to happened to be a used frame from Hungary. What the hey. I trust PayPal. Let's build!

The Denti arrived in a 'box' made up of about 4 banana boxes taped together with packing tape, and thankfully, un-dented. A beautiful thing, this frame. Chromed fork and rhs chain stay. Lugged steel construction. Cast-inset ladybugs on the fork crown. Stamped 'D' on the head/down tube lug. Campag drop outs and fork ends. Yummo.

The build was easy. Wheels (Ksyriums) I had already. Seat (Selle Italia) and gruppo (Record) the same as what I had on the Teschner, although the groupset is now complete Record, with the addition of ultra-torque cranks. The front end is all nice and shiny with a NOS 3TTT Record84 quill stem, 3TTT Super Competizione bar and a Dura-Ace headset. All things of beauty mind you.

With nearly everything having arrived (just the wheels to make it here from Canberra - thanks M&D!) , it's nearly all built and ready for the road. I think that after a thorough thrashing over the xmas period down in the Vic highcountry, and some long summery km's here in Alice (in preparation for WildSide), it'll be getting stripped and sanded, ready for fresh new clothes in the new year. If anyone's got any recommendations for painters - please let me know!

Back, and at rest

Only a month late in reporting that Paula and I are back in Australia. The rest of our France time was great. We finished the Haute Route, met Gabs in Corsica for a few days walking and eating Broccio, packed up our drippy cave in Bourg and jumped in a car for the final week to really ram home the France-ness.

Now, back in Australia, it's bike-hunting time. The cyclocross is taking a bit of a hammering on the trails down at the south coast, plus the longish commutes of 160km between Burra and Broulee, so we're both on the prowl for new bikes.

Winding Down

We've only a month left in France-land before our triumphant return to Australia, but we're planning on cramming alot in into the time that we have left. This coming monday we're off to Chamonix to do the Chamonix-Zermatt Verbier Variation, most commonly known as the Haute Route. The following monday we will return to Bourg for a few days before flying down to Corsica. We'll have 6 days there, kicking it with Gabby and exploring the island, before once more returning to Bourg to pack up our stuff and move out of our little drippy cave. For our last week in the Hexagon, we're hiring a Kangoo and driving north to visit Madeleine in Mirecourt, then dropping back down to end up in Paris.

But it's been a while since I logged on and put up any updates, so what have we been up to? Well, we've cut back on our skiing and ramped up on our riding. The days here are just perfect for it - high-teens, sunny and with vertical gains of well over 1000m on quiet, steep mountain roads, it doesn't get much better. Having the Surly and Bullwinkle running cyclocross tyres means we can also explore the hundreds of dirt paths. These are incredible - centuries-old paths, usually linking up hamlets or individual farm houses and cutting across steep hillsides, boarded by intricate stone retaining walls.

Picnics. If you're going to have a picnic, you might as well go to picnic heaven, lac d'Annecy.

We've also been touching a bit of rock with visits to a cliff just near town, an artificial boulder in the park, and the indoor wall. I can't wait to get back on it and visit the local crags when I get back to Aus, it's been a while!

Getting ready for the Haute Route has taken a lot of planning and effort. We've had a few skills sessions up on the hill to make sure we're all up to date with the techniques in crevasse rescue, glacier travel, avalanche rescue and ski mountaineering. The first couple of days on the HR should be fun as we'll be able to get some quality self-arrest and crevasse recue practice in on some good terrain. Always fun! [po snow bollard] The HR is apparantly in very good knick, which is some good luck. We should be able to ski all the way down to Champex on the second day, and hopefully all the way down the piste in to Zermatt on the final day, which will be a great way to end it.

spring

Spring's here, temps are up in the mid-teens, so the bikes are out of the shed. Went for a 2.5hr cruise up the Beaufortain valley as far as the road was cleared. Stunning stuff.