So with Tour of Wellington starting today, it was a very quiet Wednesday morning ride....no smack talk, no hating....just silence. It gave me plenty of time to ponder why I wasn't at the Tour of Wellington, so here are my top 10 reasons for not going to well

10. Most days are raced above 30degrees
9. No convoy to utilise when trying to survive on climbs
7. Stupid long steep climbs done at way too high a pace
6. For a 5 day tour there are only 2 stages over 110km
5. technical crits, Mastertnon isn't that bad but the final crit is nuts
4. Have i mentioned the climbing yet
3. Having an 60minutes bus ride over the Rimutaka's...twice!
2. I have done 2 tours of Wellington and only raced in wellington for 3 stages

and the number one reason why I am not racing the tour of wellington

Lasts years stage to admirals hill has left me scarred. 187km in 35degree heat finishing up a 6km climb after the race got blown to bits inside an hour and spending the next god knows how many hours grovelling over climb after climb. Then breaking my forks when the bike fell off the roof on the way home. Then getting back to the motel and finding the guys the ripped the race to bits in the first hour had all climbed off in the second feed. and then....hopefully you feel the pain now as well, its taken me almost a year to write that.