Wind: ENE 14mph; Hum: 48%

Another nice day forecast for this event, which I normally ride as part of a Team Grumpy 2-up entry.  This year, I entered as a solo rider, but due to a misunderstanding with the organiser, ended up starting in the 2-up field. Team MK use a version of the Astwood circuit course that differs from that used by the North Bucks Road Club because the start/finish are located nearer Cranfield.  The event once again used Cranfield University's new sports centre as its HQ, and Ian had managed once again to arrange pretty good weather: on the day, cool and cloudy condition changed to sunny, cool and surprisingly windy conditions which, while I had no trouble with the front trispoke, did make the going quite tough.

From the start, I got my speed up nicely, but then got a bit of a headwind, which slowed me.  The climb up to Astwood was reasonably OK, and actually I rather like not having to ride that mid-lap rather than at the end of each lap as we usually do in NBRC club events.  From Astwood, we were wind-assisted down to Chicheley, and in fact I passed the only 2-up team just after Astwood (they were on road bikes).  The section back to the finish line from Chicheley was harder than usual, due to the headwind, then once past the finish line, it straight off for the second lap.  I passed the eventual winner, Jason Gurney, as he was waiting to start - he came roaring up past me on the Astwood climb a few minutes later (giving me a clear indication how well he was going!).  During the seconds lap I passed one or two riders.

I finished with 50:26 for 18th place.  My first lap split was 24:33, making my second lap time slightly slower at 25:53 the second lap is a little longer, by about a minute, so I think my pace was pretty consistent. Looking at my HRM recording, I did seem to have been riding consistently through the event - I guess a bit more training would help!   Jason Gurney (Team MK took the honours with a storming 45:15, beating even the tandem (Kevin Stokes/Ian Marshall) by several seconds.

It was great to see Tony F back on his pins after his recent hospital visit, and looking well.

(Full results as a pdf)

Chris Williams of The Register certainly has been working hard, and this in a week that's absolutely stuffed with stories relating to Phorm's violation of internet privacy!  Today, he reports (Tory 'terror' affair shows danger of ubiquitous surveillance) on the circumstances surrounding the arrest a few months ago of Tory immigration spokesman Damian Green:

The "national security" justification offered by Jacqui Smith for the warrantless counter-terror police raid on a fellow member of Parliament's offices was trumped up by officials embarrassed by a series of leaks, we've now learned. The information about immigration failures fed to the Tories was politically damaging to the Labour government, but arguably in the public interest, and certainly no threat to national security.

The Committee concluded: "There is a clear mismatch between Sir David's [Sir David Normington, the most senior civil servant in the Home Office] description of the sort of material that he suspected had been leaked from the Home Office and the Cabinet Office's letter to the police stating "there has been considerable damage to national security already as a result of some of these leaks".

Williams concludes

Wikimedia, who manage Wikipedia among other sites have announced via their blog that they have officially opted out of Phorm's deep packet inspection system.  In their blog article, they indicate that one of their concerns is that by opting out, they might somehow legitimise Phorm's system.  After due consideration, they decided the appropriate action would be to opt out of the system, and they show an extensive list of URLs that have been removed.

More good news on a week of exceptionally good news on the Phorm phront.

Update - one of the commenters to Alex Hanff's announcement of this at nodpi.org points out that the wikipedia page on Phorm has already been updated

The first evening event of the NBRC club time trial series! It was also the first event on the F5d/10 since the New Year's Day'10'.

Somewhat ominously, I woke to the sound of a 5am thunderstorm.  Still, I reckoned, over 12 hours before the event, plenty of time for the weather to clear up (the BBC forecast was for sunshine)!  Indeed, when I turned up to the club room at about 6.20, it was not only sunny, but very warm. 

Our time trial secretary had decreed that, due to the sunset time, the event would be limited to 20 riders, with preference to NBRC riders.  On the night, riders were turning in quite large numbers - in the end well over 30 signed on - and theend the decision was taken to set riders off at 30 second intervals.

Down to the start area, and I rode throught the first few roundabouts to warm up, and to assess the strength of the breeze.  This, it appeared, would whisk riders up to the third roundabout (where we turn left to join the Stoke Hammond bypass), but unfortunately would make sections of the final couple of miles a bit harder than usual.

And so it proved - in fact I made it to the dual carriageway without dropping below 25mph.  Once on the dual carriageway, it was the usual story of an undulating road, but the sidewind wasn't too much of a problem with the trispoke wheels.  The final section was rather more heavy going - not only is the road surface a bit rough, but the head wind was a nuisance.  Over the event, I kept the HR in the 180-187bpm range, so not a bad training event.  I estimated my time at about 23:30, which is sort of OK - I'd hoped for better in the back of my mind, but the reality is the lack of training on my past is always going to count against me.

RESULTS