After a spell of fine sunny and warm weather, this event took place on a windy and cold morning - conditions to which I'd become unaccustomed! As usual for events on the F11/10 course, I rode out to the HQ, a distance of about 24 miles (including a ride from the HQ to the start) - this was rather good as I mostly had a rising tailwind, and it offers an excellent warmup. I was a bit concerned about how strong the wind would be and its impact on my ride, as I had decided to ride my deep section front wheel.

I reached the HQ in good time, but by the time I rode up to the start, it seemed to be even colder. I decided to keep my woolly gloves on! The F11/10 runs along the A41 as it bypasses Tring and Aston Clinton. It has the notable feature of a descent that riders don't ride back up, so it is usually considered a fast course. But in my experience this depends quite a bit on the wind direction (though the top riders don't seem so badly affected). The course is also notable for pretty poor road surface, with much of it very rough. The organisers had noted several new pothols and flagged them up with fluorescent paint. As it turned out, this worked well.

In which I discover things I never knew about my indoor trainer and my Garmin watch!

I was interested in seeing how well my Garmin Vivoactive 5 watch would function as a heart rate sensor, broadcasting to whichever device I choose. I had tested the connections, and could see that it could pair with my Apple TV (which must be via Bluetooth) and with my Edge 840, presumably via ANT+. I was keen to see how the watch would shape up when I was engaged in riding HIIT intervals of 30s - would it keep up well enough?

36 hours before this event, it looked like we'd have to shift to a backup course owing to planned roadworks. But only 5h later, these had (remarkably conveniently) been pushed back by a week. So everything went pretty smoothly on a delightful sunny and warm evening with only the slightest wind.

I was feeling pretty good, and ahead of the race was hopeful I might get under 24 minutes. After the usual ride up to the meeting point and an extended warmup, I was on the line and ready to go. I had a pretty clear run, with the exception of a couple of timid drivers waiting behind a rider I caught quite early on. I know it always feels like time is ebbing away in these circumstances, but really I doubt it would have been enough to account for my place in this event.

Almost exactly a year ago, I wrote a blog post (A Genealogical Mystery) that reviewed three photographs that we'd discovered, two of which included completely unidentified people, presumably connected in some way to my family tree. I now believe I've solved this mystery.

I was expecting at some point to be able to identify the subjects of these photos: they must have been quite close to my paternal grandmother for the photos to have been in her possession. As the family tree I was assembling grew sideways, I was eventually able to identify a candidate for Flossie, along with the children Gilbert and Hetty, and form that flowed the identification of Dollie. Their geographical location is consistent with the location of the photographic studio (but the protographers appear to have been pretty active in delivering photos/postcards like these). So, who are they?

Every so often, I'm motivated to test concordance between various sensors that connect to bike training devices. This is usually to confirm that there is good consistency between devices, usually power meters. This particular test aimed to evaluate some HR sensors and a couple of power meters. I wanted to compare the HR derived from my Garmin Vivoactive 5 watch (optical), a Polar Verity Sense armband HR sensor (optical), and my regular Polar H10 chest strap HR sensor. Over the years, I've found that Polar chest straps set the standard for HR measurement, and they are good tools for measuring heart rate variability (HRV) via the HRV4Training phone app. Unfortunately, I have been experiencing some skin irritation from from sweaty chest straps during indoor training, so I wanted to evaluate whether switching to one of the optical sensors might help.

As a secondary aim, I was interested to see how my current trainer, a Garmin Neo 3M, compared with a pair of Assioma Favero dual sided power meter pedals.

My 2025 time trial season continued with this club event on the F5d/10 Stoke Hammond course. This is a reasonably quick course, with about 6 miles of dual carriageway. Initial weather forecasts were for light rain (and very heavy rain very early on that day) but, though the early heavy rain showed up on schedule, we were spared the early evening rain. Wind was fairly light, but it wasn't very warm, and indeed was quite chilly by the time we were done and dusted.

We'd offered to roll over entries from the New Year's Day event, which we'd abandoned owing to spectacularly windy conditions, and several riders took up that offer. So this evening we had 12 riders, largely comprising the usual suspects, but with four riders from the Leighton Buzzard Tri Club.

In the days leading up to this opening event in the North Bucks Road Club's evening TT series, the weather forecast was looking pretty grim with cold and wet conditions predicted. On the day however, this all turned round and we had dry and sunny conditions, but with a pretty strong and blustery wind that promised a hard ride back from the turn. I chose to ride my P5 TT bike, but I swapped out its 90mm deep rim front wheel for an H3 trispoke as I thought that might be a bit better in the blustery conditions.

I rode out to the meeting point quite early so that I'd have time to check things out on the course. I rode down to the first roundabout and back, which was enough to confirm that it would be quick to the turn and a tough ride back - indeed I found it difficult to use the aero extensions due to the head wind. Still, the strength of the wind had been falling through the afternoon, so maybe things would be a bit easier than I expected.

I'd entered the N&DCA '10' on the F15/10 Brogborough course quite early, and as the date of the event drew close, the weather forecast was pretty dismal, with persistent rain forecast for the whole afternoon. Consequently I felt a bit apprehensive. However, on the day the conditions turned out to be near ideal with warm sunshine and a gentle sidewind throughout.

I never really know how my first time trial in a while is likely to go, and to be frank I'd have been happy with a sub-24 minute ride. I'd done a few Zwift time trials, but I find them rather tedious and surprisingly hard compared to a real life time trial. Anyway, the HQ for this course is only about 4 minutes bike ride for me, and as per usual I went down to the HQ, signed on, chatted with a few people and ridden up to near the start far too early. I rode a few loops round Brogborough then went to hang around at the start for a bit.

In which I end up riding a solo 2-up

The Port Talbot Wheelers 2-up 25 mile time trial is often my season opening event. It involves a trip over to South Wales to visit a former club mate and regular Team Grumpy 2-up time trial partner. The usual pattern is to drive over on Friday, eat a massive Indian takeaway; test ride the bikes and have a moderate walk on Saturday; the event itself on Sunday; drive home on Monday.

After I decided to return to the TrainerRoad fold, I was looking forward to another stab at a VTTA Zwift '10'. Unfortunately, I had to pack this as I was a bit unwell, with a mild cold affecting my breathing. This only became evident after my warmup and about halfway through the TT. I thought it prudent to stop. The next day, I felt quite woozy so I also took tthat as a rest day. Of course, this was a peculiar, if mild, cold that came and went. Fortunately it didn't materially affect my preparation fof my first open event of 2025, the Port Talbot Wheelers 2-up '25'.

This event is the usual starter for the season, and historically I've ridden with my regular 2-up partner - and 2025 is no exception. This year has the added motivation of the first edition of the Duo Normand since it was blown off the calendar by Covid-19. The event itself has been reduced from 25 miles to 15 miles owing to roadworks on the opening stretch of dual carriageway. That's not too bad, really, as the remaining section is on a more 'sporting' road. Here's Team Grumpy looking good in the 2024 edition of the Port Talbot Wheelers event, in which we (well actually, I) punctured just a few minutes after starting.