This year's tour visited the Hebridean islands of Barra, South Uist, Benbecula, North Uist, Skye and Mull, with a bit of mainland cycling too! I did attempt blogging as we travelled, but this was problematic due to patchy mobile broadband coverage (Vodafone). I've now updated the reports and included maps and photographs.You can access the list of reports through this link - 2010 cycle tour - or via the Cycling menu (select Cycle Tours, then select the desired tour).I'm having one or two problems with the website just now (I fear a major restructuring is imminent).  If you have problems accessing these reports, please leave a comment to this article,

The forecast for today's time trial was for "white cloud", with quite gentle winds. And so it turned out (though there was a little. The event was held on the F1/50, which covers the A1 between the Sandy and Buckden roundabouts at the southern and northern points of the course (see map at the end of this report). I was feeling a little nervous - this was the first '50' in a couple of years, and I think the first time I'd ridden the northern section of the A1 that comprises the F1 courses since the unfortunate death of a time triallist a year ago.The course heads south, starting on the minor road running parallel to the A1 - I started at a reasonably steady pace southbound, and joined the A1. Once on the A1, I settled into a pretty good rhythm, but pretty soon found I has a "masculine discomfort situation". As it turned out, I put up with this for about 30 miles - but more later. After turning at the Sandy roundabout, the northbound leg seemed a bit tougher. I passed through the Black Cat roundabout with no problems, then at about 11 miles started catching riders.At the Buckden roundabout, the course retraces to the Sandy roundabout, which comes just after the halfway point. At around 26 miles, I decided to have drink of energy drink, and shortly after was caught and passed by Ross Clarke (who eventually finished in 3rd place). Once round the Sandy turn, I stupidly tried to rearrange my skinsuit (as a consequence of the aforementioned "masculine discomfort situation"), which nearly ended in disaster when I snagged the skinsuit on the saddle and came horribly close to crashing. I imagined the headlines: "Timetriallist crashes while massaging goolies!", grinned and settled back into a rhythm. As before, the northbound leg was a little easier, and the final turn is at about 39 miles (at least on my bike computer). heading south once more, it was mostly a case of hanging in against mounting fatigue. Once across the Black cat for the final time, the going gets unexpectedly tough, particularly (and annoyingly) when in sight of the race HQ in the Stuart Memorial Hall!At last! a car parked in a layby! Surely this must be the finish. I switched the computer to show elapsed time. Unfortunately this was a false alarm, and it was the photographer on the course a second time. Rats! Had to dig deeper to keep it rolling to the real finish.As far as I can tell, this is probably my fastest '50' for some years, and after searching the CTT website, possibly since 2004, when I won the North Middx & Herts CA '50' in 1:55:35. So far this season, I've improved my times at 10, 25 and 50 miles to speeds not seen for several years. So why is this? While it's undoubtedly contributed to by the new bike (which allows me to ride in a very aero position), I like to think that the new training regime in which I train BEFORE work, rather than AFTER work (which was becoming increasingly difficult) is at least partly responsible. I've also been monitoring my turbo sessions closely, using the Polar CS600X power meter.Preliminary results:1. Brian Walker, Team Swift. 1.47.532. Antony Stapleton, Chelmer CC 1.47.55.3. Ross Clarke Team M Keynes. 1.48.064. Dave Kendall. Finsbury Park CC 1.49.04.5. Chris Birch East Street Cycles. 1.50.45.6. J Moffatt. Team Spirit. 1.51.20.7. Tim Davies, Icknield RC. 1.51.23.Then some way further down the results, me with 1:57:45
View Finsbury Park '50' 13/6/10 in a larger map

Over the last few years, I've pretty much migrated my computing usage from Windows to GNU/Linux. This has been a somewhat halting process, moving from Red Hat Linux to Mandrake, before finally settling on Ubuntu some years ago. I've found Ubuntu to be a Linux distro worth sticking with. It fills all my needs, with a diminishing number of exceptions.The most significant has been the difficulty in persuading Evolution to work reliably with my work's Exchange 2007 system for handling email and calendars.  This more or less works, but requires a vpn connection from home, and occasionally the Exchange server locks me out.  I've ended up mostly relying on Outlook Web Access, which is far from perfect.I've recently upgraded to Ubuntu 10.04 (Lucid Lynx)

I'd entered this event before I left for our tandem cycle tour in the Highlands and Islands.  In my experience, tandem touring's reasonably good endurance training, but does damn all for one's time trialling speed.  And so it proved!A pretty good morning - warm but slightly misty.  When we got to Tempsford there was not much in the way of wind, but a very gentle breeze sprung up later, offering some return assistance from the turn.  There had been a last minute change from the F1/25 course to the F1B/25 (see map below)  It didn't do much to alleviate my suffering on the drags that characterise the southern end of the course!  From the start I felt a bit slow, as if something was dragging on the bike.  Hopefully I'll regain some speed in time for next weekend's '50'.I finished with 58:55, which was at least a minute slower than I'd have hoped for.   When I left the race HQ, the fastest time on the board was Jason Gurney's very excellent 52:51, but Ian Cammish and Sam Barker were yet to finish.  My club mate Tony Parks did a short 55.
View Hitchin Nomads '25' in a larger map

As reported over the last few days (Cyclist Alejandro Valverde banned two years for doping - USATODAY.com; Valverde suspended for two years world-wide, keeps results - Cyclingnews.com), Alejandro Valverde, aka Valv. (Piti) has been banned for two years effective 1/1/10 over the Operacion Puerto blood doping affair.  Not before time.  As I've said before, the ridiculous length of time it's taken to deal with the fallout of the Fuentes blood-doping ring has been bad for justice, not just for those who have been punished, and for those accused (mistakenly or otherwise) but for the non-dopers whose careers will have been affected by those who've doped.Of course, the Valverde supporters are now out.  Valverde's team mate Guitierrez has written an open letter (see Gutiérrez responds to Valverde ban - Cyclingnews.com) in which it would seem he takes the usual head in the sand approach to doping issues.  Let's not forget, there's DNA evidence that the blood bags labelled Valv. (Piti) did contain Valverde's blood.The bigger injustice is that the remaining cyclists involved in the Fuentes blood doping ring have not so far been punished.  And that other sports seem to have gone silent.

22 milesAn easy day, as we cycled down to the Craignure ferry terminal to return to Oban. We had shelved plans to cycle round the north of Mull, spending a second night in Tobermory partly because of the difficulty in finding accommodation, and partly because of the weather forecast. In the event, this was probably a good decision, as the cloud was very low, and for much of the morning we h drizzly showers.The first half of the day's cycling, as far as Salen, was quite tough with many climbs on singletrack road, made harder by vying with motor traffic while avoiding potholes. After Salen, the road's wider and flatter. Not much to report, with the only notable nature points being a pair of seals who took a great deal of interest watching us watching them watch us watch them...The ferry crossing to Oban is quite quick, taking only 45 minutes. Then we had to tackle the hurlyburly of Oban traffic (a bit of a shock after the last few days of relatively quiet roads) as we returned to pick up the car.
View 2010 Tour Day 9 Tobermory to Oban in a larger map

32 miles (but the hardest miles of the trip!)Today was the best weather of the trip so far, and we spent the cycling the length of Ardnamurchan. The eastern part of Ardnaurchan has some of the most glorious native broadleaf woodland - and is pretty tough cycling as the road rises and dips repeatedly from the shores of Loch Sunart. We stopped to talk to a couple of girls packing up camp to head back to Glasgow (train from Fort William), then carried on, to stop at a tearoom/wildlife centre with an RSPB person - tea and icecream, enlivened by the aerobatic antics of swallows.Shortly after, the landscape becomes quite bare, and the road climbs up - a long but steady climb that eventually descends to Kilchoan. In this section we saw numerous red deer.From Kilchoan we rode onwards to visit Ardnamurchan Point, which is the westernmost place on the mainland. This was 6 of the toughest miles of the trip, and we still had to ride back to Kilchoan! After walking up to the lighthouse, we rode back down the road a short distance and stopped to heat up some lunch. Checking our watches, we wondered whether we'd make the 15.15 ferry from Kilchoan to Tobermory. In the event the ferry men saw us whizzing down to the ferry and waited for us! The crossing was terrific, warm enough to sit outdoors.Once in Tobermory, we finally found a B&B - most had no vacancies (something of a pattern on this trip). This involved cycling the loaded tandem up some of the steepest streets we've ever ridden up. After a hot shower, we wandered around Tobermory, stopping for scallops and chips and then a beer.
View 2010 Tour Day 8 - Salen to Tobermory in a larger map

40 milesAt last we woke to no rain! As we ate breakfast at the Western Isles guest house, we could look over the harbour and saw various boats and ferries. It was Sunday morning, so not much activity - though the CalMac ferry sneaked out for Armadale while we were loading up the bike. We rolled out of Mallaig along the recently upgraded Fort William road. This set the tone for much of the rest of the day, with a succession of uphill and downhill sections, but as with all new roads is a bit soulless with wide and bare verges. Accordingly, we waited until we were on the banks of Loch Ailort before we stopped for a teabreak. This part of the west coast is rather pleasant, in no small part due to the broadleaf woodland. However there's abundant house building along the lochside.A long climb took us over to Loch Moidart. We stopped for lunch on the shore of Loch Moidart, watching herons fly by, and sea kayaks in the distance.Another succession of climbs and descents took us to Acharacle, where the shop was unfortunately shut, this being Sunday! A few more miles saw us reach our destination, the Salen Hotel, on the edge of the Ardnamurchan peninsula, tomorrow's route. After a very welcome hot shower, we wandered down to the bar for a beer and to make a reservation for dinner. Then a brief wander around Salen before returning to the hotel for dinner - warm goat's cheese salad with aubergine chutney, followed by roast venison with a rather good fruity sauce. Dessert was Dutch apple crumble.
View 2010 Tour Day 7 - Mallaig to Salen in a larger map

45 milesThis was a second wet day, but not seriously so until the afternoon.  We set out from Portree shortly after 9 am, and pretty quickly got fed up with the traffic on the main road south from Portree - this road isn't very nice (except for the splendid scenery wreathed in  misty cloud) and seems to be a succession of long drags and descents, perhaps the most notable being that to the Sligachan Hotel and campsite.At Sconser we decided to evade the traffic by turning left at the golf club and quarry, taking a rickety little road round Moll.  No traffic, no rain so we stopped for a drum up.  This brought out our first midgies!  A little further on we rejoined the main road for Broadford.  The rain started up again, and about the only thing that kept us going was the sight of the prolific bluebells.  In Broadford we stopped for tea and scones, and met three mountain bikers who we'd last seen on Barra.  Also a couple planning to camp, and who seemed to have an optimistic weather forecast.On to the Coop, where we bough bananas, banana flavoured milk (at last!) and a huge bar of chocolate.  Shortly after leaving Broadford, the rain came on with a vengeance, making the 17 miles to Armadale very soggy.  Still, while parts of the new road to Armadale are a bit dull, this is made up for by the woodland in Sleat, with many many bluebells (and wild garlic).We arrived a the ferry terminal with an hour to go, and found it packed.  It turned out to be pasengers awaiting the Waverley paddles steamer, and once that had departed the waiting room was ours, along with a large number of motorcyclists dripping everywhere.We found the B&B with little difficulty, and quickly unpacked.  A hot shower and we were ready to explore Mallaig!Dinner was very good - excellent moules mariniere followed by hake with a mixed shellfish sauce and braised fennel. C had no starter and had scallops on lentils.
View 2010 Tour Day 6 - Portree to Mallaig in a larger map

A day of short mileage mostly due to the ferry times. When I woke it was still sunny, but by the time we loaded up and trundled down to the ferry terminal, it was raining quite significantly.The rain persisted on and off all day. At the start we still hoped to ride over the Quiraing, but the low cloud and rain dissuaded us.So on through the rain to Portree, along a regular double track road, which after a few days in the Outer Hebrides seemed vast and busy. Most of the B&Bs we passed seemed to have rooms available, so it came as something of a shock to find most of the B&Bs in Portree full. We did find one at last, then strolled down to the Tourist Information office to book accommodation in Mallaig for Saturday.Then to a bar for a beer or two before going to a restaurant in the harbour. We both had cullen skink for starter; I had scallops on lightly spiced lentils while C had cod mornay.Then back to the B&B.
View 2010 Tour Day 5 - Lochmaddy to Portree in a larger map