Home Sweet Home, and Sweepstake Winners

Ahhhh...it's nice to be home in Wellington after 24 hours in planes and airports - instead of dodgy air-conditioning we have a freezing southerly gale to keep everybody moving briskly as they shuffle about between showers. The forecast is for a maximum of 9 degrees C - but with the windchill of a 110 kph southerly thrown into the mix, 9 degrees is just wishful thinking.

It is good to be home with friends and family, back at work doing something useful. If the weather clears I'll be testing my wasted upper body with some track building on Mt Vic, if not, I'll be helping the bros finish the first draft of the 7th edition of Classic New Zealand Mountain Bike Rides.

Well! The fundraising sweepstake was almost too close to call. Just over 60 people pledged support for MSF and 50 of those entered the sweepstake at the same time. There were a few outliers - one guy thought I'd take 66 days! But the bulk of the predictions weren't too far off the mark:

• 16 days: 2
• 17 days: 3
• 18 days: 7
• 19 days: 7
• 20 days: 5
• 21 days: 12
• 22 days: 6
• 23 days: 4

But here's the rub - two people guessed 19 days and 1 hour, which was the closest estimate to my finish time, so they both get first prizes. They are Illona Keenan (from Cycling Adcovates' Network, a friend who gave me a first-aid kit for the race) and Andy Jones (who is riding the Great Divide Route at a civilised pace this very year). Congratulations!

Christian Hoerning was runner-up with an estimate of 19 days 10 hours.

I'll send out a gentle reminder of what people pledged in the next few days.

Cheerio,
Simon