Autum... here she comes

Now that day light savings has flipped the switch to off, winter can be felt on its way. I love this time of year with a sense of things changing, trees are starting to go golden, early mornings are fresh, sometimes with a little fog like on Friday. Today it has a real winter feel with low cloud on the nearby hills, cold storm fronts and the expectation of snow on the higher peaks. I pity them fools doing the Mt Baw Baw classic today as it will sort the boys out from men.
The biggest thing about this time of year are the Spring Classics especially the Paris Roubaix.... the queen of the classics. Its on tonight and I will as always be watching it for the madness of the race. Hence my title picture has changed recently for the celebration of the Classics.
I have had a good week on the back all bar yesterday. Had time down the beach earlier in the week and got in some km's in the wind and on dead roads. Friday I got out early and smashed my way around some of the Yarra Trails finest. It was a golden morning of a bit of cool fog and tacky trails.... sweet riding.
Yesterday I headed out to Smiths and discovered that the local council has weighed in on the trail debate and sign posted off some of the trails due to a recent real estate deal. So after a small diversion I got on a bit of a roll and was enjoying myself. After about 40 mins I was hit with some abdo cramps.... lots of wind from the rear! Me thinks it was the poor choice/ lack of decent breakfast. Then after trying to climb the stupidly steep 30% kick ass climb I flatted on the descent to the water bar climb..... managed to keep it upright with some emergency braking. I am now determined to go tubeless on the KM29er to hopefully save me some frustration. After fixing the flat and then climbing out the way I had come in I decided that with no spare left to head to the car, made it to the top and realised my cleat was coming off the shoe. I stopped to fix that and then had a severe dose of the bonk on the way to car. Hit myself with some coke and lollies from the General Store and headed home.
I got home and found Jase in the street playing on his weapon of choice for next weeks Aussie Marathon Champs. An all carbon hardtail from FELT. Nice looking bike and with a few tweaks to suit Jase I am sure as always he will be smashing it. Me well we will see, it is going to be a two horse race for me, either I will win over the course or the course will win over me. I feel that it is going to be a matter of survival of the craziest!
So I am off for a bit of tubeless conversion equipment and a set of UST 29er tyres.... might be a bit of a task but hopefully I can get it done before next weekend.
Happy trails!