After the Norlond ‘10’ a week and a half earlier, I was optimistic that I’d have a good ride in this evening club event, especially since the conditions were really rather good! Unfortunately, an encounter with a car at the mid-way Marston Moretaine roundabout delayed me a bit, and left me in a state of disarray!I really struggled during this event and finished with 22:27. Even taking the incident at the roundabout into account, I didn’t seem to be firing on all cylinders!Still, I had high hopes for the weekend’s VTTA ‘25’ Championship.Results at the NBRC website.

We had a nice evening for this event, in contrast to my ride to work on the P5 through pretty damp conditions. I also picked up a flint that penetrated my front tyre. I booted the tyre while at work, and got it reasonably inflated before riding out to Stony Stratford for the evening's time trial. I arrived to find quite a few riders lined up to sign on - in total we had 15 riders.I found the outbound leg tough as usual - but I thought my speed was even slower than usual, especially on the climb to Nash. Anyway, once through Nash, things picked up a little, and certainly after the turn I felt pretty good. It was a bit irritating therefore to be stopped by a car backing out of a drive and then sitting stationary in the road. I passed this car (the driver said something to me as I passed, but I couldn't catch it) and quickly got up to speed.I roared down the hill to Beachampton at a pretty good lick, before coping with the turns, rough surfaces and generally draggy sections of the course and finishing. I ended up with 27:11, to take the win this evening. I was left wondering if I'd have sneaked a long 26 had I not been delayed by that car!Results (at the NBRC website) 

This open ’10’ was on the by now familiar F15/10 Brogborough course. I rode out to the HQ in the Marston Social Club in plenty of time. I was planning on wearing one of my skinsuits modified with a NoPinz number pocket, so I took the skinsuit in a backpack along with my aerohat. It was quite clear on the ride out that the time trial would be affected by a headwind on the return leg (and, of course, would benefit from a tailwind on the way out).

Having got my number sorted in my skinsuit, I changed into it and set out for the start. I arrived, as usual, ridiculously early and after a quick circuit of Brogborough I decided to hang around at the start. The pusher-off was pretty good - using a single hand he very effectively held me upright and set me off well.

This event was the club’s time trial championship, and as usual was held over two laps of the Astwood circuit. As for the other events on the course, we used the revised version that starts and finishes near the BikeBus cafe (and most recently modified to start further from houses).

The evening was pretty nice and warm, not so hot as it was for last week’s event. Unfortunately the wind seemed to get up rather a lot, which gave me some concerns. When I reached the signing on about half an hour before the start, I was surprised to find myself signing on as number 18 - clearly a good turnout! In fact we had 21 riders, at least one of whom was riding a time trial for the first time. As an aside, the North Bucks Road Club are planning a third “Come and try it” time trial in August, as this year we seem to have managed publicity more effectively!

The hottest day of the year saw 13 riders lining up for a club event on the Stoke Hammond course in very hot and humid conditions. It was actually around 37^oC for the race! I arrived quite early, as Tony was setting out some signage and I ended up hanging about, beating off the horse flies that plagued us. In fact, as I write this a few days after the event, I’m suffering several itchy bites!

Anyway, that didn’t really dent my performance. What dented that was the stiff old headwind out on the dual carriageway, and particularly on the rise up to the turn roundabout. By the time I reached the dual carriageway section, my mouth had dried up and got rather gummy. This made things a bit worse than I’d have liked! It was, of course a consequence of removing my bottle cage after the debacle on the Brogborough course the other week.

Our 2015 tour was organised after a winter and spring in which our cycling had been seriously curtailed by pressure of work. Accordingly (a) we desperately needed a break, and (b) I needed to be quite conservative about projected daily mileage.

In which I almost bottle out, then lose my bottle!

After last week's relatively balmy conditions, this evening was a bit of a shock. Unseasonably cold, and with a very strong head wind for the out bound leg, this event was always going to be 'interesting'.Over the past week, I'd been having a bit of trouble with the front brake on my P5 bike. I had stupidly screwed the pressure point adjustment screw too far in, to the point the brake was no longer functional. This required a tricky disassembly and then re-filling the system with oil. It took a fair bit of application to do this. It wasn't until the day of the race that I finally got this sorted out!  There had also been some kind of serious accident on the course on the previous week (I don't know the details, but sadly I think it involved several fatalities). This had needed some kind of repairs to the roadside barriers, and threatened a weekend open event, though it was cleared by Wednesday evening.Anyway, I rode over in time to sign on as #22. I got cold at the start! The initial descent was a little alarming, with the wind buffeting my front H3, and I decided discretion was the better part of valour and didn't attempt to use the tribars. At the bottom of the hill, I could see a large collection of flowers left at the roadside, but the newly repaired tarmac and barriers, which sort of stuck in the mind a bit.Once down the hill, it was quite odd, with my speed varying between low 20s and well over 27 mph, presumably depending on a mix of gradient and exposure to the headwind. I wasn't too troubled by this most of the way, and anyway was looking forward to the return leg! I had no traffic holdups at either the first or the turn RAB, and I set off on the return.I quickly found myself flying back. Sadly, I was zooming along at around 30mph over one of the rougher sections of tarmac when I heard a bang and a clatter, and I saw black object leap off my bike, bounce of my transmission and disappear back off down the road. My first reaction was that it was one of the front brake shrouds (remember I'd been fiddling with the front brake), so I jammed the anchors on. At least the front brake did work! It turned out to be the bottle, now minus its cap. I retrieved the bottle and set off again, cursing myself for not just carrying on (after all, a capless aero bottle isn't much use).The rest of the race was pretty uneventful, though the stop must have cost me quite a bit of time, especially since I found myself starting a in a mammoth gear! Still, you live and learn!Next up should be the Hemel Hempstead '10' on the F11/10 on Saturday. After missing some events due to pressure of work, I'm keen to ride, even if the forecast weather leaves something to be desired!

Pos	No	Name	Club	Time	Cat	Vets Std	.+ / -	Vets Std
1	6	Ady Dench	Sheffrec CC	22.15	V46	26.27	.+ 4.12	1
2	13	Richard Golding	Equipe Velo	23.02	V46	26.27	.+ 3.25	2
3	21	Jason Lee	TeamMK	23.24	V46	26.27	.+ 3.03	5
4	23	Lindz Barral	Equipe Velo	23.28	Sen
5	22	Robert Saunders	NBRC	23.47	V55	27.09	.+ 3.22	3
6	19	Andy Wickham	NBRC	23.57	V44	26.18	.+ 2.21	9
7	24	Tim Bailey	TeamMK	24.01	V48	26.36	.+ 2.35	.= 6
8	15	Graham Line	NBRC	24.10	V50	26.45	.+ 2.35	.= 6
9	16	Alan Crane	Chronos RT	24.14	V46	26.27	.+ 2.13	10
10	18	Kevin Creese	Chronos RT	24.27	V61	27.44	.+ 3.17	4
11	9	Ant Newland	Bossard Wheelers	24.32	V49	26.41	.+ 2.09	12
12	12	Dave Price	NBRC	24.51	V47	26.32	.+ 1.41	14
.=13	5	Graham Mackie	Corley Cycles	24.52	V53	26.59	.+ 2.07	13
.=13	14	Jacob Tresham	Corley - Drops RT	24.52	Jnr.
15	11	Ian Markham	Chronos RT	25.02	V46	26.27	.+ 1.25	15
16	8	Paul Woodham	Bossard Wheelers	25.54	V64	28.06	.+ 2.12	11
17	4	Dave Brown	Leighton Buzzard Roads CC	25.58	V66	28.23	.+ 2.25	8
18	3	Ian Stokes	45 Road Club	26.19	V55	27.09	.+ 0.50	17
19	17	David Creese	Chronos RT	26.49	V63	27.59	.+ 1.10	16
20	7	Trevor Watson	Bossard Wheelers	27.20	V56	27.14	.- 0.06	19
21	20	Luke Daniells	NBRC	28.12	V42	26.09	.- 2.03	20
22	10	Helene Wight	Corley Cycles	28.31	LV52	29.03	.+ 0.32	18
23	2	Dave Crane	Chronos RT	31.26	V50	26.45	.- 4.41	22
24	1	John Pick	Chronos RT	32.39	V70	29.02	.- 3.37	21
Time keepers:- Steph Cousins & Tony Farmborough NBRC
Pusher off:- Bryan Scarborough. NBRC

This was my first time trial after returning from our tandem cycle tour in the Hebrides and was a return to the Stony Stratford course after three weeks (I failed to post a report on that event). It was actually the nicest evening for a club event this year, nice and warm and with only a light breeze to contend with.The nice weather brought out the usual crop of airborne arthropods (the course is flanked by crops, livestock and waterways): throughout the event, I could hear insects bouncing off my aero hat! Actually, my legs felt they were still in touring mode, and in particular I found getting up the hill to Nash a bit tough, even tought than usual. Other than that, I cannot point the finger at any cause of problems.I finished with 28:11, to take third place (second place on vets standard), behind Simon Cannings, who did a sterling ride, and Dave Glossy. Results

Pos	No	Name	Club	Time	Cat	Vets Std	.+ / -
1	11	Simon Cannings	Equipe Velo	25.57	V45	30.07	.+ 4.10
2	10	David Glossy	Team Corley	27.40	V42	29.51	.+ 2.11
3	12	Robert Saunders	NBRC	28.11	V55	31.00	.+ 2.49
4	14	Tim Bailey	TeamMK	28.18	V48	30.22	.+ 2.04
5	6	Andy Sharman	Baines Racing	28.26	V44	30.02	.+ 1.36
6	16	Jason Lee	TeamMK	28.30	V46	30.12	.+ 1.42
7	5	Ant Newland	Bossard Wheelers	28.35	V49	30.28	.+ 1.53
8	8	Graham Line	NBRC	29.10	V50	30.33	.+ 1.23
9	9	Darren Haydon	NBRC	29.20	V44	30.02	.+ 0.42
10	17	Gavin Old	Equipe Velo	29.44	V43	29.56	.+ 0.12
11	13	Mick Atkinson	TeamMK	29.50	V46	30.12	.+ 0.22
12	4	Paul Woodham	Bossard Wheelers	30.16	V64	32.06	.+ 1.50
13	7	Clive Faine	TeamMK / MKCA	31.27	V68	32.46	.+ 1.19
14	3	Trevor Watson	Bossard Wheelers	32.26	V56	31.06	.- 1.20
15	2	Wayne Thomas	NBRC	32.42	V64	32.06	.- 0.36
16	1	John Pick	Chronos RT	39.27	V70	33.10	.- 6.17
	15	Luke Daniells	NBRC	DNF	V42	29.51
Time Keepers:- Steph Cousins & Tony Farmborough NBRC
Pusher off:- Bryan Scarborough. NBRC

The club had agonised about whether to run this event - 24h beforehand, it was clear that we were heading for some pretty windy conditions, with gusts up to 50mph (and of course the Astwood circuit is pretty much on a hill!). We finally took the decision not to cancel, as the BBC forecast suggested the gales would subside to a mere 24mph by 7pm.So I rode to work on my P5 as usual on race day. Unfortunately when I can to leave work for the race, I found it so windy that riding a P5 with a front trispoke was alarming at best and downright dangerous at worst! I got a lift home and switched to the P3 with a rear trispoke and a regular road wheel in the front. Unfortunately, this left me only 25 minutes to dash to the start. What the hell, I thought, I'll go for it! Sadly, the railway crossing barriers were down and I got stuck for several minutes there. It was clearly very gusty as I pressed on. I had a tail wind up the hill to Cranfield and onward to the start point of the race, so I made pretty good time. I arrived a few minutes after 7pm (well warmed up), to find several riders plus timekeepers milling about deciding whether to abandon. By this time, the wind had really whistled in, bearing a nasty shower. A few riders ventured off down the course to evaluate the situation, and an in the end the wise decision was taken to abandon and we retired to the Bikebus cafe for a coffee before returning home.It did seem as though conditions were better while we were in the cafe, but frankly I think that was an illusion - it was still pretty awful as I rode home, and I had a couple of very alarming gusts.

This was only my second ride on this fast 10 mile course (F11/10), based on the A41 Tring bypass. It's a fast course because of the significant hill riders descend, but don't have to race back up. The last time I rode the course, I got held up by a line of cars at the first turn, which sort of reduced the race to a training ride!I went out to this event with Katja, who's been seeing some good performances lately, and who was off about 15 minutes after me. As per usual, I felt a distinct lack of enthusiasm as we drove out to the event and as warmed up. Also as per usual for me, the enthusiasm suddenly surfaced as I was just about to start!The start is on a slip road down to the A41, and I quickly got up to speed. Unfortunately that didn't last, as soon I was on the section of road that was resurfaced last year (much to the disgust of regular riders on the course) with a really rough tarmac. I found myself clattering along and feeling that everything was horribly inefficient. Still, that section got much better and by the time I reached the turn, everything seemed fine. I got round the turn without problems and set out on the main leg of the event.I felt great, and especially so on the descent, where I hit 47mph or thereabouts. We'd been warned of a couple of potholes, but frankly the road seemed in pretty good nick. I also got round the second turn without problems, and set off towards the finish. The last half mile or so seemed quite tough, not sure why! We'd been warned that we'd be disqualified if we didn't ride properly up the sliproad to pass the finish timekeeper, so I made sure I kept left! I finished in 21:27, which I think is my third best '10' ever, and my best in the the last 5 years. Just as I finished, the rain began. I think Katja got a bit wet out there, but finished with a PB (22:42?). I haven't seen a results sheet yet.