A very warm afternoon made me feel quite sleepy. Not only that, while I was riding around before the start, I really felt I ought to be sat in a beer garden sipping Leffe. This wasn't helped by the fact the race HQ was in a social club bar. It may have been soporifically warm, but it was quite clear that this wasn't going to be an easy race: there was going to be a stiff tailwind for the outbound leg, which would make the return leg rather tough. Fortunately, the return leg is shorter!The F15/10 is quite a new course which has been used extensively this season (I've entered another event on it next weekend). It starts at the top of Brogborough hill, which riders zoom down safe in the knowledge they won't have to race back up it again! This got me off to a fast start, and even having reached the bottom of the hill, I was cranking out speeds in excess of 30mph for most of the way to the turn. The roundabout at Marston is a bit of a brute on the outward leg because, despite the fact that riders are going straight on, it presents an unexpected chicane. Once at the turn, it was really obvious (I mean REALLY obvious) how tough the return leg was going be. This was definitely a race of two halves. For the first half, I was whizzing along at a decent heart rate with the wind assistance, for the second half I put a huge effort in, with my heart rate skyrocketing, and only making a modest speed, despite the effort. Oddly, my speed fluctuated quite a bit, presumably due the varying shelter from the wind coupled with minor undulations in the road.It was with a huge sense of relief that I made it to the finish line. 22:55, which I thought not bad given the conditions. It was also around the other riders on a '5'.

The weather was forecast to be pretty dreadful for this morning's event, but it turned out to be not too bad. The roads were wet from heavy overnight rain, but except for a few drops on the ride home, the weather remained dry. A light breeze hampered high speed on the outward leg to Chicheley, though it was then easy enough up to the climb to North Crawley. As usual, I found it hard to get back up to speed riding through North Crawley and beyond, but once past the university turn I was rolling well again.I finished in 23:42, my quickest ride at Astwood this year, and good enough for 4th place out of 9 riders. Results over at the NBRC site.

A bit late reporting on this event, but suffice to say that it was all a bit grim. Right from the start, I found the wind very strong and blustery, to the point where I was having trouble controlling the front H3, which was being surprisingly twitchy.  I also got stalled to a standstill by traffic on two outbound roundabouts, which kind of sapped my interest in the event.As it turned out I got caught by Tony just short of the turn, but limited further losses until we left the DC.  Not a great performance, 23:53 for 5th place.

Early morning patchy mist had cleared, revealing a rather warm morning (well, warm for 7am!), for the Beds RCC charity '25'. The event was run, as usual, on the F1B/25. This course, which runs south from Tempsford on the A1, is reputed to be a slower than the northbound version, due to the severe undulations on the course just prior to the turn. But I've always found it a good course, and one that feels a bit safer due to the absence of slip roads: all joining roads do so at regular juntions and roundabouts.Before I started, my team mate Tony found he'd forgotten his overshoes. He borrowed my plasticky black ones though he seemed dissatisfied with their general grubbyness, and cleaned them up with some wet wipes he had kicking around. Dave Jones, a regular photographer at these events (I've posted some of his photographs before), had arrived without his specs, so I lent him my reading glasses so that he could work his camera.The essential support roles now complete, I rolled off for a brief warmup before starting. It was quite quickly obvious that this was a rather nice morning - there was virtually no wind as I lined  up at the start. I rolled off and tried to keep a semblance of speed as I rode up to the junction which leads down to the A1. Once on the dual carriageway, things seemed to flow quite well. I had absolutely no holdups at any of the roundabout crossings. Perhaps all this means I didn't try hard enough? Well, I reached the turn in under 30 minutes, and finished in 58:17, which (somewhat to my embarrassment) is my fastest '25' time this season. Perhaps I could have gone that little bit harder to finish with a 57, but given that Tony did a cracking ride to finish in 55:06, I was unlikely to get too much closer.With only 6 weeks or so until Team Grumpy's ride at the Duo Normand, perhaps this uplift in my form is an indicator that we'll snatch some form out of nowhere for the Duo. Here's hoping...

Early drizzle soon cleared, and conditions were warm and sunny with only a light breeze to discomfit the 13 riders who turned out for tonight's event. On the downside, this was one of those 'flying ant' days, when all the ant colonies seem to simultaneously produce new queens. I was expecting to spend a lot of the time extracting ants from my eyes during this event, but fortunately, most of them had dispersed by the evening.We had a turnout of 13 riders (plus Steve T., who had a problemmo with his front tub valve and didn't ride). My biggest problem was that I'd just come back from a week at residential school with the attendant consequence of 7 days with no exercise and a diet of chips and beer. This led me to DNS Sunday's Finsbury Park '25', but really I needed to get the bit between my teeth again. So I rode over to Stony Stratford for this event.I found the outward leg really quite hard - particularly the climb from Beachampton through Nash. But that's not too unusual, this isn't my favourite course for that reason. The return was quite quick as, for a change, the roads were dry and I felt confident enough to belt down the hills, and corner on the tri-bars. I ended up with 27:43 which, because several riders were on road bikes and some fast guys hadn't showed up, was good enough to win the event.I did find my pulse rate rather high, seeing 190bpm at one point! Anyway, full results over at the NBRC website. At the moment, my attention is focussed on the Duo Normand, which is around 6 or 7 weeks away...

This event on the F1/25 unusually used an HQ in Sandy. I'd also decided to ride over to the event, and given my Puncture Bob alter ego, I figured it was wise to set aside enough time to deal with mechanical problems en route. As it turned out, it took hardly any time to get to the HQ, and I got there with far too much time to spare. The main field of the event was your usual open event: to celebrate an anniversary there was also an invitation event with some luminaries of British time trialling, including Alex Dowsett (Team Sky), who had won the Icknield RC event a few weeks before with a 47.It turned out that I was number 101 - the same as Bradley Wiggins in this year's Tour de France. The question in my mind was whether this would inspire me. After signing on and attaching my number, there wasn't really much else to do other than ride around the lanes near the start.  By the time I'd reached the start line, I'd racked up 36 miles and come to the conclusion that conditions were remarkably similar to the Icknield event in which I'd failed to crack the hour. I was a little concerned that maybe 36 miles wasn't a great starting point for a '25'...The opening mile or so before joining the A1 seemed very tough. Tougher than I expected, even given the extra large warmup. But out on the A1, things weren't too bad even with the headwind. Turning at the roundabout near Sandy, there was David Jones - snapping riders as they came out of the turn. I closed my mouth, sucked my belly in and tried to look like a fit and fast cyclist. The long leg up to Buckden was quick and uneventful. I got caught for a minute at about 8 miles and caught a rider or two myself. Rounding the turn at Buckden, I wondered what the long southbound leg would be like. As it turned out, not too bad, though the stiff headwind did make things a bit hard at times. The only alarming incident was when a drive scorched into a service station north of the Black Cat, cutting in front of me to do so. I was caught by one of the invitation riders just before the turn. That wasn't unexpected, particularly given my form this season.I finished in 58:56 (30th place in the open event), which I was quite pleased with. Its actually the fourth '25' I've ridden in 2012 and only the first sub-hour ride. Given that conditions were similar to those at the Icknield event, I was pleased with a 1:19 improvement.I didn't stick around too long, as I wanted to get home to watch the Tour de France. I eventually got home at about 11:15am with 84 miles completed.

This is probably the only time this season I'll race on the Stagsden course (see Garmin trace below), as I was away cycle touring on the previous occasion this year. The evening was marred by an exceptionally heavy shower - but let's face it, that's pretty much par for the course for this season. I rode up via Astwood, and it was at Astwood that the deep black clouds caught me and I rode along the A422 towards the meeting point in one of the heaviest showers I can remember ever having been riding a bike in. By the time I arrived to sign on, I was completely and utterly drenched, from head to toe. My colleagues were all warmly ensconced in motor vehicles and took some delight in seeing me squelch into view. Fortunately that was all the rain I experienced that evening, but the roads were pretty wet throughout.From the start, this course always feels tough, as the road rises gently towards Astwood and beyond. This evening was no exception, particularly as there was a stiff head wind. Indeed, I felt as though I was riding through mush as my speed dropped. But once past Astwood, things felt a bit better, even though my speed wasn't that great. Up the hill to Chicheley and on to the turn roundabout. From the turn, things got much better. With the tail wind my speed picked up - I noticed 34 mph at one point.I squelched on past the finish, recording 23:19, which I was quite pleased with. I was closer to Tony that I've been on recent outings, though we were all somewhat eclipsed by Jason Gurney's excellent ride.Results (at northbucksroadclub.org.uk)

It was always on the cards that tonight's event stood the risk of being dominated by the weather, and so it transpired. But it was beyond just being wet! Riding up to Astwood in sunshine, I could see deep black clouds heading my way, despite the essentially sunny conditions I was cycling in. When I arrived to sign on, most of the riders (there were 17 mad fools there) were all looking a bit apprehensively at the glowering horizon, with much talk of hailstones falling nearby.By the time the first riders started, the wind had dropped, but while I was 'warming up', the temperature had fallen noticeably. However, the wind whipped up wildly a couple of minutes before I was due to start, and by the time I set off conditions were, shall we say, less than favourable. Emerging onto the road to Chicheley, I found myself battered by gales strong enough to not only slow me almost to a standstill, but to make my bike really rather difficult to steer. But then it got worse...First, a few rain drops, then the hail started. Under the dark clouds, I could not discern any of the numbers on my bike computer. I had no idea how fast (or rather, how slow) I was going. I had no idea what my heart rate was. In fact, by the time the rain was evading my glasses and the lenses had steamed up, I could barely see where I was going.I pressed on to the Chicheley turn, which I took very gingerly. The next stretch up to North Crawley seemed quite speedy.  But I really had no grip on how I was going! From North Crawley I felt it was heavy going, and each bend was taken cautiously. Finally, I reached the descent before the final climb. I roared down as best I could, buffeted by wind and rain (fortunately the hail had stopped in favour of heavy rain), and ground up the climb to the finish. Still unable to read my computer, I waited for the result.25:30Possibly my worst time on that course that I can recall. I blame the ghastly conditions. Still, we'll see how I get on at the weekend, when I'm supposed to ride the API Metrow '25' on the E2/25. Last weekend's VC10 '10' was cancelled due to roadworks: this weekend's weather is forecast to be rather wet, so we shall see whether the '25' goes ahead...P.S. I failed to report on last week's two-lap event at Astwood - I'll write that up out of sequence maybe.

Strangely, there wasn't even a whiff of rain for this event, which was in itself something that marked the event as a bit special, at least for 2012. The other unusual factor was that we had as scratch rider the current British time trial champion and Team Sky professional Alex Dowsett. Apparently he'd ridden a '10' the previous afternoon, recording a shortish 18.As I warmed up for the event, two things were quickly apparent: firstly, it was actually quit cold just before 7am and secondly, there was quite a stiff breeze whistling across the fields. This promised to make the southbound legs of the event rather tiresomely tough. Well, at least for us lesser mortals in the field!And so it proved. The initial short southbound leg to the Sandy roundabout undulates a bit, so I found the speed quite high at times, but predominantly I found the head wind a bit of a bother. Once round the Sandy roundabout, things perked up considerably, and I headed northwards a a decent speed. David Jones was there snapping riders as they passed.[caption id="attachment_1965" align="aligncenter" width="469" caption="Just after the Sandy turn (photo David Jones)"][/caption]One issue that concerned the organisers had been the closure of the M1 near J12 (to remove a now superfluous bridge) and the re-routing of some of the M1 traffic via the A1. Busy traffic near the Black Cat was expected. As it happened, traffic levels weren't too bad, I thought, at any point. I reached the Buckden turn in about 34 minutes - from here it's about 10 miles to the finish. But those 10 miles were pretty tough going. Oddly, there were spells where I was fairly whizzing along. But mostly I was grovelling. And at times finding the steering rather twitchy in the wind.Shortly after the Buckden turn, I was contemplating a finish time substantially over the hout, but as I crossed the Black Cat once again, I was entertaining hopes that I might squeak a sub-hour ride. But I crossed the line in a disappointing 1:00:15. Mind you, that's the fastest of the three '25's that I've ridden this year. As for my mate Tony, he did a long 56. Next weekend sees my first ride on the new cheatie '10' course on the Tring bypass.And what of Alex Dowsett? 47:53. He won. An excellent ride...