This was another warm and humid evening, with only a gentle breeze to bother the riders. We had a reasonable turnout of 14 solo riders and one tandem crew. I was what you might call well-rested, having been off the bike for a few days because of work commitments, so I was keen to gauge my fitness against my peers. I ended up as the penultimate starter, with only Tony P. behind me. So obviously, the fear was that he'd catch me embarrassingly early in the event.My start was pretty uneventful, and was pretty quick. Approaching the first roundabout, I was aware of a car coming up behind me, and took a conservative line through the roundabout. Unfortunately, this really slowed me down as I had to negotiate the huge potholes somewhat carefully! From there on, things did get better. As usual, the climb up to the main dual carriageway was a bit slow - I think the wind direction had a bit to do with that. Onto the dual carriageway, and my initial speed was around 30mph, which was encouraging. Unfortunately, this soon dropped away as the gradient flattened and the breeze took its toll. I began to get a little worried! Coming out of the turn, I could see Tony, who seemed to have gained rather more on me than I had hoped.Once round the turn, things got a bit quicker, and I felt a bit more up for it. I had no real issues negotiating the last roundabout crossings, and finished in 23:20. This was somewhat slower than my last ride on the course, but as far as I could see from looking at the results, everyone seemed to have gone a bit slower in comparison. The traffic levels seemed OK this evening, but several riders said they'd found that cars had been passing a bit close - this was certainly my experience. Nothing dangerous, mind, but it does remind us to keep our eyes open!Here's the Garmin trace for the event.On Saturday, I'm off to ride the Norlond '10' on the F15/10. Thunderstorms are forecast, which may liven things up a bit!

I think this is only the second time this year that I've raced on this course, owing to illness, injury and pressure of work (it takes a while to ride over from work, so late meetings are quite disruptive). This event was true to form, my back pain had returned, and I only managed to make the event because a new colleague at work wanted to ride and offered me a lift to the event. The lengthy period of hot and sunny weather continued, with the event being run on a hot and sunny evening. There was a rising head wind for the closing section, but really, the conditions were pretty good.I was quite a late starter, and found I was feeling pretty good as I set off. By the time I reached Beachampton I thought I was going OK - indeed I only felt like I was in any real difficulty at the steepest part of the climb up to Nash. On the other hand, this is far from my favourite course, and it's particularly unforgiving for riders who are a little overweight (as I am) or who have a niggly sore back (as I did)! I could see most of the riders on their return leg as I headed out - they were whizzing back down the hill looking for the most part like they were enjoying themselves.Riding through Nash, I could see there were kids on bikes in a schoolyard. After I turned (no issues with traffic or farm animals), I was concerned to see people, including the kids, wobbling about in the road. This brought back memories of the Icknield '10' on the Brogborough course (F15/10) last September, when two small kids caused me to come off at speed. On this occasion, everyone kept their line and I safely negotiated the twisty road through Nash and started the descent. This was quite quick, and I was still feeling good as I passed through Beachampton. Over the rise after Beachampton, and into the last few miles of twisty lanes and I felt I was flagging a bit. Indeed, I crossed the line with 28:18. Not bad I suppose, given my recent performances, but I'd have liked to do a '27'! Full results here.  

This was a blisteringly hot day - according to Tony's car's thermometer it was 29 degrees (my Garmin registered a maximum of 33 degrees during my ride) - and with a stiff old breeze from the north that greatly exceeded the 7mph draft that was forecast. It was my first outing on the E2/25 for a year or so.Driving out there, it was clear that the conditions were going to be 'interesting', due mostly to the heat, but also the wind. We collected our numbers from the HQ and retired to a lane near the start. Tony was off slightly more than an hour before me, and I found what little shelter I could beside a hedge and waited. After a while I rode up and down the lane, but it was so-o-o-o hot! By the time I rode off to the start, I'd drunk almost everything I'd brought (clearly insufficient!) and eaten a banana as I was feeling a bit hungry. I reached the start line a bit early and waited in the shade of a tree while talking to one of the women riders (I was starting three minutes after the women in the race). Passing riders who'd already finished observed that it was pretty tough on the return leg.The start was pretty straightforward, though I always get nervous when the pusher-off actually pushes me off, as it always feels like I'm going to depart in an unfortunate direction! But everything was OK as I zoomed off down the sliproad onto the A14. The breeze instantly had its effect, and indeed the outward leg was pretty quick all the way. Coming out of the turn, I was caught by #80 for three minutes, then at the bottom of the slip road by #78 for one minute. No-one else passed me, though I did catch some of the women riders.I found the nagging head wind a bit tough, especially on the slight uphill gradients (the course is actually really flat for the most part). I was also getting very thirsty, with what little saliva I could muster gluing my mouth up! So it was something of a relief to see the finish line looming! I finished in 57:02, which isn't too bad given my season so far.After the race, we returned home for home-made pizza and Leffe, which rounded off a hot, sticky and reasonably successful afternoon out.Stats-wise, I spent most of the race at rather a high pulse rate, often in excess of 190bpm. I think this reflected both the temperature and the effort, though the power recorded by the Powertap wheel was rather lower than I'd expected. All these data and more in the Garmin trace! 

One of the main reasons for buying a new tandem was an improvement in transportation. Not, I add, in transporting us and our luggage but in transporting the tandem by car. In the UK it's pretty much impossible to travel by train with a tandem, so each time we plan a cycle tour, we need to allow for getting the tandem to the starting point using our car.

After a few days of really hot and sunny weather, it came as something of a shock to arrive at Astwood on an overcast, cold and windy evening. This event was the annual two-lapper on the Astwood circuit, and I think I was still feeling recent bike rides in my legs. In any event I really suffered in this event, and in particular I found the headwind in the second half of each lap rather more trouble than I should.So, essentially, I went like a bag of spanners, finishing with 51:20 or thereabouts. Not much more to say really!The Garmin trace is here.

This was forecast to be one of the, if not the, hottest days of the year. It was also our first long ride on the new tandem - a 63 mile trip involving some steep gradients, notably the 10% climb of Tram Hill that takes one up to Brill itself and so representing a test of gears and brakes.  The ride itself was something of a shakedown ride, being an opportunity to make sure that the bike was spot on in its setup for both riders - very important, given that the intention is to tour on this bike.

Despite being a rather overcast evening this event saw a good turnout of riders - 21 solos and two tandems, I think. For my part I was feeling a bit tired after some heavy commitments at work and was  a little concerned that my performance would reflect this.I had hoped to get my time for this course down to the mid-23s - which speaks volumes for the state of my 'racing' season thus far! So it was with some apprehension that I lined up to start. To add further concern, the traffic in the lane where we meet seems to have increased substantially since the McDonalds opened for business.The race itself was rather uneventful - the usual caution in negotiating the first roundabout; the desperate attempt to keep a reasonable racing pace on the gentle climb between the secnd and third roundabouts; avoiding the numerous potholes on the dual carriageway. But I felt pretty good on the whole and, though my ageing eyes didn't seem able to resolve the smaller digits on the bike computer, I was reasonably hopeful that I wouldn't disgrace myself. Geoff Bunyan was captaining a tandem a minute behind me - they came past on the return leg in good and smooth style. They didn't make much headway as the road rises at the end of dual carriageway section, but one the road descended towards the finish, away they went.You can see the results at the NBRC website. I ended up with 22:42, which I was quite pleased by. I was riding my Powertap Hed Jet disc wheel, so I collected more power data. Here's the Garmin trace: 

The forecast for this event, unusally for this point in the year my first on the F1, was for sunny conditions with a light breeze. There was a light mist as we set off for Tempsford - but this lifted as we approached the F1. We did have to make a slight detour to fill the car with petrol! Unfortunately the wind did rise considerably, meaning there was a rather stiff cross-wind that promised to make the return leg a bit tougher than expected. However, I was keen to really kick-start my somewhat belated racing season. This was my first '25' of the season, rather astonishingly.After the usual start line banter, I set off along the minor road up to the flyover - here a white van man decided that the roundabout was an appropriate place to pass me, driving rather too close for comfort. Down the slip road to the A1, I picked up a bit of speed. Traffic was pretty light on the morning, which was rather good. But it was clear that the southbound legs were going to be a bit tougher than northbound. Turning as the Sandy roundabout, about 12.5 miles at a decent speed faced me, with the only possible hitch being traffic at the Black cat RAB, where I got through with only a slight drop in speed due to giving way to traffic heading off towards Bedford.I reached the Buckden RAB without too much trouble, and turned to head south. With the cross/head wind this was a bit harder, but not actually horrendously so...until the 19-20 mile mark, where I found the combination of a slight gradient and the wind dropped my speed to around 20 mph. But I soon picked the speed up, crossed the Black Cat in decent style to finish just outside the hour. I rode back to Tempsford with the guy who'd started a minute before me - he was a bit cross at his choice of fixed gear (he'd been misled by the weather forecast).I had to leave Tempsford before the results board was populated with data, but I estimated my time as about 1:00:04 (see Garmin trace below). A bit frustrating not to get below the hour, but rather better than I'd expected, given the paucity of racing and training this year. I was pleased that I seem to have finally got rid of my bad back - I had no trouble riding in the aero position. Onwards and upwards.Roadkill avoided: two deer, one cat, one pigeon.

Astonishingly, two weeks after I placed the order for the new tandem, I received an email notifying me that it had been built and was ready for dispatch. I say 'astonishingly' because I'd been led to believe it would take about 6 weeks for delivery. And so I took delivery of an enormous and unwieldy box.

This event was on a warm but heavily overcast and very humid evening. Still, conditions seemed to be enough for a decent turnout! I felt particularly sleepy before starting, though as usual sleepiness soon dissipated as my start time approached. For a change, it was a rather still evening - which was good.I was quite optimistic for the event. However, I hadn't raced for a month, and training had been interrupted by a brief holiday in Yorkshire followed by a work trip to Italy. While both those were fun, it did dent my training a bit, leaving a question mark over this event.As it turned out, the event was something of a mixed bag. I shot off from the start reasonably well, but my speed (as far as I could gauge it with my ageing vision) soon dropped off alarmingly, and this on parts of the course I'd normally be quite quick on. This pattern was repeated all through the event, with my general sensation being that of riding through a viscous substance. Perhaps that reflected the humid conditions.I finished with 24:42 which, while not a great time, was around a minute faster than my previous outing on the course.Here's the Garmin trace.