This was quite a windy evening, and heavily overcast.  It also gave the distinct impression that the clouds were going to deliver some rain.  However, precipitation was limited to fine drizzly rain at the far end of the course, so that wasn't too bad.After Sunday's '50', I was interested to see how I'd fare this evening - I generally lose form, at least where racing speed is concerned, while off on cycle touring.  Sunday's '50' had been a bit of a worry and I'd ten spent two days working away from home.  There was a pretty small field, maybe due to the weather.I was last rider off, and found the outward leg fairly heavy going, but gradually felt a bit better, as I approached the dual carriageway section.  Once up there, I started seeing riders coming the other way - Jason was clearly going fast, near the turn, it looked as though Tony was gaining on Lindz (though in the end Lindz held him off!).  For my part, I was quite pleased with by time of 23:12, and reckon that my legs are getting back into the swing of things.Next open event is the Century RC '10' on Saturday.Results

Pos	No	Name	Club	Time	Cat	Vets Std	.+ / -	Vets Std
1	5	Jason Gurney	Baines Racing	21.23	V41	25.42	4.19	5
2	8	Tony Parks	NBRC	22.02	V46	26.42	4.40	2
3	7	Lindz Barral	iTeam cc	23.00	S
4	9	Rob Saunders	NBRC	23.12	V51	27.46	4.34	3
5	1	Glen McMenamin	NBRC	23.53	S
6	4	Yvonne Gurney	Baines Racing	25.57	L
7	2	Clive Faine	TeamMK	26.13	V64	30.45	4.32	4
8	6	Gilbert Wheelwright	NBRC	26.39	V68	31.45	5.06	1
9	3	Tony Brunton	NBRC	28.44	V46	26.42	.- 2.02	6

There was a lovely start to the day - I set out under cloudless skies, but clouds gradually appeared, and by the end of the event we were riding in blustery wind and rain.  So the weather icon on the left is a bit of a compromise.  It wasn't particularly warm, given that this is mid-June, and when the rain arrived, it got still colder.This being my first time trial since going on what purported to be a cycle touring holiday (you can read more about it here), I didn't have huge hopes for a stellar performance.  Usually it takes me a week or two to get back into the swing of racing.  I'd received a link to the startsheet by email.  At first I couldn't find where I was - this turned out to be because I was the penultimate rider to start, one minute before the great Ian Cammish.  Well, two thoughts crossed my mind.  Firstly, just when would Cammish come roaring past me (reckoned by the time I passed Tempsford heading north for the first time), and secondly what a contrast to my last open event, where I was the first rider off!  Carol had ridden roughshod over my dopey plan to ride over to Tempsford for this event (and given how the weather turned out, how glad I was) so it was quite a leisurely trip over from home.  I wasn't feeling in peak of condition, for reasons that I won't bother with here, and hadn't slept well.  On the other hand, the morning was glorious, with quite a gentle wind from the south.As I lined up for my start, I noticed Geoff P. scooting up asking for a late start - given that he was number 46, this would have been about 45 minutes late start penalty!  Geoff and I are usually at a similar pace, and having him two minutes behind me could spur me on, but only if I had any oomph in my legs...Off I went, and up the lane to the roundabout that takes riders down the sliproad and onto the A1 southbound.  Hallelujah!  The Council has deigned to repair the dreadful potholes that have blighted this RAB so far this season.  Joy was not long-lived, as I felt just dreadful on that short southbound leg.  Indeed, I toyed with the idea of chucking it in.  However, I'm made of sterner stuff than that - my view is that packing in doesn't get you anywhere and that riding as best I could would at least represent a good training ride.  After rounding the turn, things got a little better, though not good enough to hold Cammish off until Tempsford...Rounding the Buckden turn for the first time, I found the headwind light enough, though by the time I reached the Black Cat, I was definitely feeling it.  Before then, I'd passed Steve T. on the roadside with a puncture.  The pattern was repeated for the second half of the time trial, though is was apparent when I can round the Buckden RAB the second time that the headwind had got significantly stronger.  It continued to do so until I found myself grovelling along for the final mile to the finish, trying to stay above a measly 20mph.So, not a good day.  I finished with 2:03:06, about a minute back on my last '50' on the same course a few weeks back.  I felt pretty crap then.  David Jones was on the course taking photographs.Results to follow.  If I can bear to reveal them.

I've written up an account of our 2011 cycle touring escapade, though really (as far as cycle touring goes) it was a bit unsatisfactory. The initial aim of touring the very north of Scotland came apart quickly when the tandem's freehub body shattered a few miles north of Scourie.

After yesterday's debacle, a new front tyre was needed, the spare we have being a bit aged itself. So it was back across the road to Escape Route Cycles, where we bought a 32mm folding tyre.When fitting the new tyre, it was pretty clear how lucky we were to make it back OK - the inner tube was badly worn by the choco-milk bottle tyre boot, and was on the point of puncturing. At least the choco-milk bottle tyre boot had stopped the tube pushing out between the tyre bead and the sidewalk!It wasn't until the afternoon that we set off in the car to Kinloch Rannoch, from where we rode round the loch. Weatherise, this was quite a change from the blazing conditions we'd had yesterday - we'd woken to rather cooler temperatures, and during the morning it had not only got cooler still, but the overcast skies had started to drizzle at times.Anyway, we left the car in what appeared to be a parking place for canoeists. We chose the unclassified south road to start. This was delightfully quiet, with only occasional cars, and we mostly saw fishermen in the Loch, with occasional tents by the Lochside. On this section, we saw another red squirrel, but once again could't take a photo.Once round the west tip of the loch, we returned to Kinlochrannoch, passing even more fishermen. We also stopped to photograph an exotic four horned ram in a field.When we returned to the car, we chatted briefly to a fisherman (I asked if there had been a fishing competition), then loaded the bike on the car and set off back to Pitlochry.We had dinner at the Auld Smiddy in Pitlochry, which turned out to be pretty good pub grub (onion and manchego tart, venison sausages on roast veg and mash, creme brûlée). I also had my first pint of Belhaven Best in a few years.One more night in Pitlochry before heading a bit further south.

This was a really warm and sunny day, and was forecast to be like this all day. I'd planned quite a long ride, encompassing climbs over Schiehallion and Ben Lawers, scenic rides on the Foss road and up Glen Lyon. In total this came to about 75 miles, and in the event brought with it some excitement!We set off quite early, and negotiated our way to the Foss road. Annoyingly (since this is a road that would particularly appeal to cyclists), it seems one has to venture onto the A9 to get there. After the A9, the road rolls up and down before running alongside Loch Tummel. The loch was particularly still, and offered near-perfect reflections of the other bank. It was particularly idyllic, with the sounds of birds and livestock among dappled shade and lushly green meadows and trees.Shortly after reaching Foss, we joined the road that winds its way over the side of Schiehallion - a lovely climb. Reaching the top, we paused for a snack bar and a drink before descending. At the bottom, we took the turn to Fortingall, where we stopped to look at the famous Fortingall yew.From Fortingall we pressed on up Glen Lyon. Here we saw a couple of red squirrels. The road up Glen Lyon is quite severely undulating, and I was sustained by memories of the tea room at Bridge of Balgie - memories disputed by Carol. However the tea room did exist, and we tucked in to scones with jam and cream, washed down with tea. We also bought a bottle of chocolate milk, which will assume significance later.From Bridge of Balgie, a little single track road ascends Ben Lawers - a delightful climb, and passing motorists helpfully used passing places appropriately (except twerp in a delivery van that occupied more than the width of the road). The descent to Loch Tay was rather steeper, and I had to brake rather a lot. This had disastrous consequences just as we were reaching Loch Tay. The front tyre decided to explode, presumably from braking heat. Somehow I managed to stay upright and bring the tandem to a stop (not easy with the front rim running on Tarmac). I set about repairs. The rim was far too hot to touch, so we shared the chocolate milk before starting. The tyre was quite badly shredded, with bad damage to the bead. I booted the worst section with a small piece of tyre carried for the purpose, but had to leave the other. With the tyre only pumped up soft, we pressed on, nervously. At this point, we had about 30 miles to go.A few miles down the road, we stopped at Fearnan to see how the tyre was getting on. It was developing an alarming bulge. We scratched our heads for a while, considering how best to keep the show on the road. Eventually I remembered the now-empty choco-milk bottle. We cut a section, and used that as am enormous tyre boot.From Fearnan, we had a pretty uneventful ride via Kenmore to Aberfeldy, where we stopped for a quick drink. The tyre was bulging alarmingly. On to Logierait, where we rested briefly before joining Cycle Route 7 to Pitlochry for the last 4 or 5 miles back to Pitlochry.Beer this evening was very well-earned, as was the curry!Tomorrow we'll see about getting a new tyre...

From Helmsdale, we set off in the car- destination Pitlochry. This was Plan C, in which we stay three nights, for four rides in Perthshire. This was a rather dull drive down the A9, though broken by a supermarket visit in Aviemore.Good weather all day!Once in Pitlochry, we looked for a B&B for three nights, though we actually went for a self-catering house instead. After getting unpacked and buying a few supplies, we set out for a short ride over to Loch Tummel and the Queen's View. Along the way, we stopped to eat one of the meals we'd taken for the tour. For this we stopped next to a sandy bank where sand martins were nesting (much too their dismay!)

We sat in the B&B breakfast room looking out at the weather blasting in from the sea - howling wind and lashing rain. Having a broken tandem suddenly seemed not so bad...After our excellent breakfast (the best so far on this trip), we set off in the car for Thurso, via Durness. We stopped in Durness to go down and look at Smoo Cave, which turned out to be pretty impressive - the waterfall inside was a raging torrent after all the recent rain and was generating clouds of fine spray. Somewhat damp, we returned to the car and drove on to Thurso.At The Bike Shop, we described the problem (bust freehub), fetched the tandem and set about the repair. This wasn't trivial, as Shimano have changed freehub design. Turned out the bolt that holds the freehub body to the hub had shattered. In the end, one of the bike shop guys sacrificed his own hub. Amazing service.After getting something to eat, we decided to head south (in the car), eventually reaching Helmsdale.Quite how we'll proceed from here is still to be decided! But we probably won't be heading north. We may base ourselves in Pitlochry for a few days.

Today was a day with many climbs, starting from Lochinver, with the eventual destination being Durness. Unfortunately, it didn't work out according to plan.We began in lightly drizzling spells, though with light winds. As the day went on, it got sunnier and sunnier. The cycling was quite tough, with climb after climb as we passed many of the frankly astounding Assynt mountains. We stopped for lunch in Scourie, after which we tackled a 12% gradient, which proved too much for the rear wheel, who's freehub began to give up. We returned, cautiously, to Scourie where we were lucky enough to be in time for the only bus of the day to Ullapool.To cut a long story short, we returned in the car to Scourie where we found an excellent B&B. The current plan is to get to Thurso for repairs to be effected, and then to rescue what we can of our cycling holiday.

Just a brief note. We left Ullapool along the A835 - some definite climbs - before turning off on an unclassified road to Achiltibuie. Lovely road, stopped to brew up a cuppa on our trusty Trangia. Pressed on to Achilibuie, but couldn't find any B&B accommodation.We backtracked to the Lochinver turnoff, then spent 12 miles of really beautiful but challenging cycling to reach Lochinver. We stopped to heat up some lunch, but got overrun by a shower, which curtailed this culinary extravaganza. We also had an impassive audience of nosey-parker sheep.Found a B&B in Lochinver, then had beers and dinner (local scallops on black pudding mash)43miles

Tonight's event was the North Bucks Road Club 10 mile championship, and was held on the Stoke Hammond bypass course.  This made awkward factors such as cattle on the course rather less likely, but does bring higher traffic levels.  I expected that starting the event at 7.15pm (rather than 7.00pm) would mean lower traffic levels, but in fact as I lined up at the start, I found there was quite a bit of traffic.  One or two riders (including me) got slightly stalled at the first roundabout as a consequence but really, once started, I didn't feel there was a problem.As has been the case with just about all the events I've ridden this year, we had windy conditions, making things tough most of the way round (with the exception of the return leg of the dual carriageway section - though actually that wasn't particularly brilliant).  I had expected the wind direction to make it easier for the return from the dual carriageway section, but that wasn't to be the case as it turned out, and it was the usual grovel alonf rough road surfaces.As I grovelled along the last half mile or so, I could see the timekeeper, but I started experiencing the strange time triallist's 'time collapse', where all of a sudden, the timer on the bike computer seemed to be running too fast!  I was giving it everything to try and get under 23 minutes......and as it turned out, I managed 22:59.  This was good enough for 2nd place equal.  Not a bad evening, all in all, and perhaps an indicator of returning form (which I felt was masked by the interruption by cattle during last week's event).My next event may be the Finsbury Park '50' on the F1/25 - I'm supposed to be off on a bike tour for a couple of weeks.  I say 'supposed' because the weather forecast for our chosen destination seems particularly diabolical.

Pos	Name	Club	Time	Age
1	TONY PARKS	NBRC	22.38	40
2=	GEOFF PERRY	TEAM MK	22.59	51
2=	ROB SAUNDERS	NBRC	22.59	51
4	DAVE GLOSSY	T. CORLEY	23.03	38
5	GEOFF BUNYAN	NBRC	23.12	50
6	LINDZ BARRAL	I TEAM CC	23.25	34
7	KEVIN STOKES	TEAM MK	24.06	48
8	JOHN BUCHANAN	TEAM MK	24.21	41
9	IAN STOKES	NBRC	25.14	51
10	BRIAN PRIMETT	TEAM MK	25.18	44
11	YVONNE GURNEY	BAINES/NBRC	25.40	38
12	ALAN LAWSON	NBRC	27.30	42
13	KATHERINE DILKS	TEAM MK	27.58	41
14	TONY BRUNTON	NBRC	28.13	46
15	SIMON KNATCHBULL	TEAM MK	29.09	43

And, as usual, here's the event telemetry! Click on 'More Details' for speed, elevation, heart rate etc.