Yesturday I rode out to Hataitai velodrome for a bit of a burn. To get there I had to ride through the Mt Victoria Tunnel. I’d heard that it gets real toxic in the tunnel ‘cause of the exhaust fumes and that it can turn into a wind tunnel if the wind is from the east or west. It was pretty windy that day – it’s the first time I’ve been stoked not to have an aerospoke or disc wheel.
Worse than the fumes in the tunnel was the noise. There’s a kind of tradition that you toot your car horn as you drive through the tunnel – that tradition sux. The weirdest thing about the tunnel was how warm it got at about the half-way point. It was like seven or eight degrees warmer in the tunnel than outside.

The velodrome is at the top of a mammoth hill and it’s real steep and concrete. My bike is set up for commuting, so I’m waaaay under-geared for a proper velodrome, so I was almost pedal striking the whole way round.




After a couple of laps, I bombed back down the hill and rolled into Rogatai to the local bike shop, where I found this sweet S&M cap.