This was, to all appearances, a glorious morning for a time trial - clear with light winds.  It was a little cold, but I guess that's just to be expected at this time of year.  I was a little apprehensive, as I hadn't been feeling particularly well the day before.  Over by the start line, I soon settled in, with a nice chat with the timekeeper and pusher-off.  Hovering just to the north of the start was a splendid sight - about 25 hot air balloons, resplendent in bright colours and at various altitudes.  Indeed, one of them seemed to be coming down just across the A1 from Tempsford.  Putting that distraction to the back of my mind, I rolled up to the start line just a few minuted before my start at 7.25am.For what was probably the first time in riding on the F1, I got briefly stalled at the Tempsford flyover roundabout, as a car got held behind someone warming up.  This wasn't too bad, as the road surface on the roundabout is still in a dreadful state due to last winter's extended cold snap, and I invariably have to pick my way carefully round the potholes.  Once out on the A1, I was quickly up to speed, but not a particularly brisk speed.  Never mind, I thought, it'll be easier on the return leg.  I found it difficult to push out much effort - whether this was due to being ill the day before, I wasn't sure.  Over the Sandy roundabout and on to the turn at Warden Lane.  Now, I thought, it must get a bit easier...except it didn't.However, I kept the effort going well enough to cross the line in 22:56.  Not my best time of the season (by a long chalk) but not out of the frame set by other riders.  Most of the riders I spoke to felt it was a heavy morning, and difficult to get the speed up.  So, not bad.This was my last domestic open time trial of 2010 (my only remaining event being next week's Duo Normand) - and I have to say that it's  bit of a relief to have a break from riding up and down this particular section of the A1.  This season I've ridden events at 10, 25, 50 and 100 miles on the F1 courses, all of which focus on the A1.  In particular, the current version of the F1/100 is on the A1 for the first 86 miles.  I think I've become rather jaded from seeing that particular section of tarmac.  On the other hand, it has been a good season with by times at 10, 25 and 50 miles being my best for around 5 or 6 years.

I woke quite early for this event, and happily was headache-free.  After a hasty trip over I signed on, grabbed my number, and rolled over to the start.  This event had a very small field - 17 riders - and it's to the credit of the organiser that he persisted with running the event.  Unfortunately I was off at#2, which meant I was likely to have a pretty lonely ride, with only one rider to catch.As it happened, that's exactly what happened.  The course runs south from Tempsford to turn at the Sandy roundabout, proceeds north across the Black Cat Roundabout to turn at the Buckden roundabout.  From there, we return to Sandy, then back to Buckden before finishing at the Girtford underpass just north of the Sandy roundabout.  As an aside, I might just observe that by this stage of the season, I'm getting heartily sick of riding up and down that stretch of the A1! The nadir being the '100' I rode a few weeks ago - the first 86 miles were on this stretch of the A1.Anyway, I caught #1 before the first turn (less than three miles, and from there on, I was riding on my own until #5 passed me just after the second turn at Buckden with about 12 miles to go.  One reason I dislike being so early in a field is that having a set of riders to catch (and indeed a set of riders who might catch me!) is that there's an element of having a target to chase, which usually adds a bit of performance enhancement.As usual, I found myself flagging a bit over the last five or six miles, so it was a bit of a relief to squeak a 1:57 - only just though, as my time was 1:57:58!Only one more ride on the A1 in 2010 - next week I've entered a '10' on the F1/10, which I think runs from Tempsford to the Biggleswade North roundabout and back.  Next week's weather looks a bit crap as far as Thursday, hopefully it'll brighten up for the weekend, as not only do I have a time trial, but it's the Woburn Oyster Festival!RESULTS

An early morning autumnal fog had just lifted to reveal a gorgeous time trialling morning - sunny and virtually still - as I rolled up the Astwood this morning for the 8th and final NBRC League event of 2010.  Unfortunately a week of insomnia and a 24 hour headache didn't really leave me feeling really up for the event.  In fact, had it not been for its league status, I might have given the event a miss (particularly as I was down to ride the North Midds and Herts CA '50' the following day).  Still, there I was, ready to give it  go.It had been a week or two since my last club time trial, and it was good to catch up with the guys again - some, like Geoff P. have been popping out some good times, while others seem to have hit the doldrums a bit (rather like I feel).  Anyway, being a late arrival I ended up as last man off at #10.  At the due moment off I went, and despite having to ease off for traffic joining the main roadgot off to a good start.  I rapidly found myself at >31mph.  "This won't last" I thought, and so it transpired.I really didn't feel able to give the event full whack, and indeed for the first half barely got my heart rate into level 3.  Things changed a bit further on, though not enough to rescue my ride - I ended up with 24:13, I think (results to follow).  Fastest on the day was Geoff Perry (TeamMK), with James Fox (Luton CC) close behind - a really good ride given James was on a road bike with no tri-bars.I still felt rubbish at the finish, and headed off home to go supermarket shopping.  In the parlance common in my previous club, I went like a bag of spanners.  Let's hope it goes better at tomorrow's '50'...

• Tweetdeck - doesn't seem to full-featured as the Air version on my Ubuntu laptop
• Wordpress - an app from blogging to WP blogs
• Stanza - nice, straightforward e-book reader
• Mendeley - Research bibliography and networking
• FeeddlerRSS - keeping tabs on my Google Reader account
• Evernote - keeping tabs on the web
• and a couple of games originally bought for my iPod

1. The on-screen keyboard is surprisingly usable, except:
2. Different apps and different tasks seem to call up slightly different versions of the keyboard, which I find a bit off-putting
3. BBC TV watched through iPlayer on Safari works really well
4. Videos work well
5. As with the iPod, no manual supplied, you need to go online
6. You can't charge from a PC USB port, which flummoxed me for a bit
7. It synchronises very quickly

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="181" caption="Laurent Fignon"][/caption]Cyclingnews.com reports (Former Tour de France winner loses fight against cancer) that Laurent Fignon, double Tour de France winner has died after suffering from cancer.  Sad news.

ScienceDirect, Scopus, Journals Consult and the Admin Tool will be unavailable due to scheduled maintenance for approximately 9 hours on Saturday, August 28, from 6:30am to 3:30pm Central Standard Time.  During this time, upgrades will be implemented to these systems as part of the launch of the new SciVerse platform. For more information about SciVerse, please visit www.acceleratescience.com.

There's been some discussion in the columns of Nature recently concerning the possibility of eradication of mosquitoes. In an article entitled A World Without Mosquitoes, Janet Fang (1) presents a variety of opinions whether large-scale mosquito eradication is practical and if so whether such a course of action is desirable. In the latest issue of Nature, a collection of four letters revisit the controversy.So, there are two issues here: Can we?, and should we?[caption id="attachment_1044" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Anopheles gambiae feeding"][/caption]Some years ago, I had a brief foray in to the world of the Anopheles gambiae species complex, an experience which was quite novel for me as my experiences had been with a very different and more docile fly, Drosophila melanogaster.  And for several years I maintained a colony of A. gambiae in my laboratory, which while not in itself particularly difficult was certainly quite arduous and one strain required considerably more commitment and care than keeping several hundred Drosophila strains. At that time, there was quite a deal of excitement about the prospects of driving transgenes through wild populations, using as a model the spread of P-elements through wild populations of D. melanogaster during the 20th century.  There have always been concerns about the extent to which the entities known as 'species' really are homogeneous populations with consistent gene flow through them across their range: certainly within the A. gambiae species complex, there appear to be 'incipient species' which represent fairly hefty gene flow barriers within the individual sibling species of the complex.One caveat would be that even if one could eliminate an entire species, or a species complex, what would fill the vacant niche?  A. gambiae may be the most significant malaria vector in sub-Saharan Africa, but there are others, that I guess could move in an colonise a vacant niche.  An argument for species control by transgenic means might be for eliminating a species that's newly colonised areas in which they haven't formerly been present: a good case might be if A. gambiae were to be introduced into South America.  More subtle interventions might be to introduce transgenes that impact on malaria parasite propagation within the mosquito: the downside would probably be that given the huge scale of the parasite population out there, somewhere there is likely to be parasites that can evade the introduced transgene.Sterile male release can be effective in controlling insect pests, but is really most effective where the female generally mates only once.  Drawbacks can include fitness of the males, either from irradiation used to sterilise them or because the laboratory-bred strains are uncompetitive in the wild.  Sophisticated technologies exist by which terile males can be made, so this may not be so major a hurdle in the future.Other, more traditional, methods of insect control are really very blunt instruments such as insecticide usage.  Obvious drawbacks would be collateral damage to other insect species, with the potential for massive ecological damage.  There are also health implications.  In the past, mosquito control by application of DDT was quite effective in Sri Lanka, then Ceylon, until over-enthusiatic and inappropriate use of DDT caused the appearance of DDT-resistant mosquitoes.  In the intervening years, malaria incidence had dropped, with the consequence that the resurgence of the disease as mosquito populations recovered was particularly severe (2).  I would be surprised if global eradication by insecticide would ever be approved.  And I cannot see a means by which wholesale eradication of many different mosquito species could be undertaken.  Fang's article provides a concise overview of the eradication/control techniques that have been tried in the past, and some that may be options in the future.In the context of should we eradicate mosquitoes, I'm really less well informed about the ecological implications of such a course.  Much of the online discussion seems to revolve around the ecological consequences of eliminating all mosquitoes, across all ecosystems, even in sub-Arctic tundra regions.  It would not be surprising to me if the ecological effects would be severe, but it also occurs to me that those consequences might well be unrecoverable. At the end of the article, Fang concludes that in her penultimate paragraph that:

Given the huge humanitarian and economic consequences of mosquito-spread disease, few scientists would suggest that the costs of an increased human population would outweigh the benefits of a healthier one. And the ‘collateral damage’ felt elsewhere in ecosystems doesn’t buy much sympathy either. The romantic notion of every creature having a vital place in nature may not be enough to plead the mosquito’s case. It is the limitations of mosquito-killing methods, not the limitations of intent, that make a world without mosquitoes unlikely.

Team Grumpy have been riding the Duo Normand since 2003, only missing one year since then. We've had quite good placings in that time, either in the Veteran or Corporate categories. We came second in the corporate category last year, but that doesn't quite indicate the magnitude of the whipping we got from the winners! The Duo Normand website has started listing riders registered to ride. At the moment there are only two teams in the Corporatif category, one being Team Grumpy. Plenty of time for more entries to flood in, though. So is there anything to be said in a preview for this event?Well, we're staying near Cerisy La Salle - in the same location as last year - though our travel plans will preclude any significant 2-up technique practice before the event. And Team Grumpy's 2-up outings this season have been less than stellar (the Port Talbot Wheelers 2-up ‘25′ and the Icknield 32k). I guess we're just hoping that we've done it so long that we'll just fall naturally back into the swing of things.As usual, we'll take the opportunity to do a little exploration of the Normandy countryside on our tandem, see for example 2008 and 2009, enjoying the local food and drink, particularly the moules et frites, a particular favourite of mine.  And of course, drinking freely of the Team Grumpy official energy drink.Finally, for those who've never ridden the Duo Normand and want to see what the course is like from the rider's perspective, can I recommend the world's most unlikely video, which we dubbed Silent Movie.  This was recorded on a small video camera mounted on Gerry's handlebars.Here are our previous performances:2009 - CorporatifsWe may have been second, but just look at that margin!  The BikeRadar team of Jones and Coomber came flying past us...and can be seen in the video of the event.1 COOMBER Robin - JONES Jeff 01:15:222 ORAM Gerard - SAUNDERS Robert 01:25:022008 - CorporatifsBy 2008, Gerry had persuaded me to switch to the Corporatifs category.  Not entirely sure why, but the effect is to ride at a better time of day than the Unlicenced and Veteran categories.  Also the Veterans category has no handicapping.  The guys who won rode a storming race, particularly since they didn't look much like time triallists and were riding road bikes with clip on extensions.