Last week's event was something of a disaster from a technical standpoint. Of the three instances of this event (Wednesday evening, Saturday morning and Saturday afternoon) I entered the Saturday morning event. I was out in the garage in good time for a warmup before heading over to the event. Thirty seconds before I was to start, the system announced I needed to pair an HRM - which is strictly enforced by the organisers. That was odd, because I had one paired. Anyway, I got bounced from the race as I didn't have enough time to re-pair the HRM.

So I entered the 4pm event. And the same thing happened, except both power and HRM apparently got disconnected seconds before the off. I found this mighty frustrating since I'd been looking forward to the rather mountainous course in Innsbruck. But what was going on?

For the third weekend in a row, I lined up for one of the CTT winter series. This time we were on three laps of the Richmond Fan Flats course. I made sure to have a look at the course, which was good because there was a significant lean-in before the first of the three laps. In fact, I used the warmup to ride round the lead-in and first lap.

As you'd expect from the name, it's a pretty flat course though perhaps a bit more undulating than Tempus Fugit used for the first event. Despite feeling quite good for this event, it didn't go quite according to plan.

After last week's Zwift time trial which was held on a pretty much pan-flat course, I was hoping for some improvement. Of course I rode last week's event after a week away with limited training and the day after a horrible journey home, which I think one must bear in mind. Also, I muffed the last few km, when I thought I'd finished with a couple of km still to go.

This week's time trial was on a fairly hilly course: Watopia's Triple Twist. 24.3km with about 201m total ascent. I was hoping that the undulations in this route, together with the two climbs might make the riding better resemble riding in real life than last week's route. And overall, I think it did. I still find holding consistent power rather harder in Zwift than on the road.

It's that time of year when Zwift riding is pre-eminent in the weekly schedule - and the CTT have set up a Winter Series of time trials on Zwift, Unlike the VTTA series I've ridden for the last couple of winters, they've selected a range of courses from flat to hilly, which promises to be a bit more interesting that riding the super flat Tempus Fugit course week in, week out as the VTTA have used.

That said, the first event was indeed on Tempus Fugit, but with a different finish point than the VTTA used last year, at 20km. Approaching this ride, I really wasn't sure how ready i was for it: after the best part of a week away from home with real disruption to my training routine and with a rather stressful journey home the day prior, most of my rHR and HRV metrics were a bit off kilter.

Two Bossard Wheelers 10 mile time trials were added to the calendar recently, both on the F15/10 - probably the closest time trial course to where I live. I entered both of them (4th and 11th October).

The first was abandoned in the face of Storm Amy.

This evening ’10’ came after a fortnight of dealing with a right leg injury (bizarrely incurred while mounting the tandem) and a longer period of family related stress, both significantly denting my training, all mixed in with a few hospital appointments.

Last week, I rode a club event on the Cranfield course, which I won with a narrow margin, but at some cost to my right leg’s recovery. Frankly I didn’t really pull out a strong performance that evening. So I was keen to see how I was going via this evening’s event.

I was rather pleased to have more moderate weather for this event - rather than hitting the 30 degree mark, we were in the low 20s. I looked at the weather and decided it was sufficiently blustery that I needed to take care with my front wheel choice. In the end I think that my decision to ride the P3C with its Hed trispokes was wise. In any case, I want to get some rides on on it to do any fine-tuning before the Duo Normand (if they ever open entries).

The opening section along the bumpy University Way ends with a left turn onto the road to North Crawley and Newport Pagnell (we turn just after the 'civic amenity site'. Much of this leg is downhill, but the expected speed didn't really materialise because of the haed wind. Additionally it was quite difficult to see the many road defects in the evening sun. This particularly bad as you approach North Crawley.

This event was moved from the scheduled Brogborough course owing to roadworks. I decided to try the backup Cervelo P3C TT bike for this event, largely because I was interested to see if my recently resolved foot pain issue might move my L-R balance back closer to 50:50. The bike has Favero Assioma power meter pedals and venerable Hed H3 trispokes front and rear. I think it looks the part...here I am just after turning left onto the main road.

I have this set up with SRAM 11-speed Red eTap - there are gear switches on the base bar but I'm using the blip box as switches while on the aero extensions - you can see it by my right hand in the photo. This works well, but I'm going to try and sort out a more rigid way of affixing the blip box. 

A very warm morning for this open event. While it was held on the Astwood circuit, the start and finish were in different locations and I never do well on this version. I finished in 24:53 in the middle of the field. I think having the hardest climb on the course after a mile and then having to race to a T-Junction and along Astwood Hight Street just slows me down a bit.

Full results via CTT.

We had a warm evening for this club '10' on the Astwood course. I was somewhat concerned by a hospital visit the day before, which preyed on my mind through this event.

The warmth was a bit oppressive, but the first section down to Chicheley and the first turn was fairly quick. Once round that turn, I found it a bit harder to keep the power up. Whether that was a lack of focus or the tail wind (or maybe both), I'm not sure. In any case I felt decidedly lacking.

This time trial didn't go according to plan! We did have quite a nice evening - warm but maybe a bit windy out there on the dual carriageway section. Issues began with a missing magnet on my helmet, which meant my visor wouldn't stay attached. I rode with my Bolle sunglasses, which meant I spent a lot of time peering over the top of the frame - plus my helmet was rendered quite non-aero! 

Also the traffic flow out on the course seemed a little odd. This was noticed by a number of other riders, and meant I got a bit held up at three of the roundabouts.

Another Wednesday, another club ’10’. This time we were back on my favourite course, Astwood, and as usual I prepared the signing on and timing sheets for Dick to use. I’d also reverted to my deep rim front wheel as I didn’t think the wind would too much  for me to handle the wheel.

When I arrived up at the meeting point in Astwood, I discovered to my annoyance that the paperwork had fallen out of my pocket en route. That was easily remedied using Dick’s blank signing on sheets, so no real problem.

At the end of last season, we were casting around for a course to use instead of the Stony Stratford course, which was proving so unpopular, that we mostly cancelled the events owing to a lack of interest. The reason for its unpopularity was probably threefold: it has a stiff climb on the outbound leg, there's some rough road surface which makes the high speed sections of the return leg rather unpleasant and it's a non-standard distance (11.4 miles). There's also a lot of competition for parking with loads of paddle-boarders and other river-users.

After a lot of head-scratching, we decided to adopt a course developed and used by Team MK, the Cranfield course. This begins just outside Cranfield University and runs down to Newport Pagnell before finishing near the BikeBus. This isn't a particularly flat or quick course - check the link, and see the course profile below.

Another warm and sunny day, leading to a sunny evening. Unfortunately, another evening '10' on the Brogborough course with a headwind out to the turn! On the bright side, I'd made a better front wheel choice than a fortnight ago, plus the wind wasn't as strong as on that occasion. I remained a little cautious on the starting descent, and stayed on the base bars till just before reaching the under pass. I could see Jim waiting to photograph riders! Here's a link to Jim Eastment's gallery - I'm grateful to Jim for photos.

 Settling in after the starting descent

Once again, I was back on the Astwood course, this time for two laps, for the Team MK open '20'. Team MK use a different start/finish combination than we do for our club events, starting just past the BikeBus cafe and finising right outside the BikeBus. This has the advantage that the BikeBus can be used as an event HQ (and their coffee is good!), but in my opinion it has the disadvantage that the climb into Astwood is located shortly after starting the time trial. 

Anyway, I rode up to the HQ with plenty of time to spare. Too much time, as it was really quite cold. Fortunately I'd made a last minute decision to bring some arm warmers. After a further spin up and down the road, I made my way to the start.

After a delightful warm spring morning, I think all of us lining up for this North Bucks Road Club evening '10' on the Astwood circuit course probably expected a nice warm evening. Unfortunately we were a bit disappointed as the temperature started falling quite quickly. I was quite glad I'd brought a warm jacket with me for the ride home.

Aside from the falling temperature, there was a distinct breeze which served to help me along the way down the A422 from Astwood to Chicheley and the first turn. Of course, there would be a downturn to that, but it's always good to get off the main road quickly. And aside from a double decker bus buffeting me, I had a pretty quck ride on this section.

I had high hopes for this time trial on the fast Brogborough course. Unfortunately, the weather featured a much stronger wind than I had expected - with some obvious (adverse) consequences! On the basis of the conditions when I left the house, and the forecast, I decided to ride with a deep section front wheel. We had 19 riders entered for the event, and I ended up not starting in my scheduled #7 spot, but as #20, having started the last dozen or so riders so that the timekeeper could get to the finish before the first riders. Accordingly, I was pretty cold by the time I started.

It was clearly going to be tough out to the turn. I'd not anticipated quite how strong the wind was, and my bike felt really quite unstable - dangerously so - coming down the start descent. And with that in the back of my mind I didn't really use the tribar extensions on the way ot to the turn. In fact, the headwind was considerably tougher than the graphic below - and with the gusts seemed to be wrenching my bike around.

After a spell of fine sunny and warm weather, this event took place on a windy and cold morning - conditions to which I'd become unaccustomed! As usual for events on the F11/10 course, I rode out to the HQ, a distance of about 24 miles (including a ride from the HQ to the start) - this was rather good as I mostly had a rising tailwind, and it offers an excellent warmup. I was a bit concerned about how strong the wind would be and its impact on my ride, as I had decided to ride my deep section front wheel.

I reached the HQ in good time, but by the time I rode up to the start, it seemed to be even colder. I decided to keep my woolly gloves on! The F11/10 runs along the A41 as it bypasses Tring and Aston Clinton. It has the notable feature of a descent that riders don't ride back up, so it is usually considered a fast course. But in my experience this depends quite a bit on the wind direction (though the top riders don't seem so badly affected). The course is also notable for pretty poor road surface, with much of it very rough. The organisers had noted several new pothols and flagged them up with fluorescent paint. As it turned out, this worked well.

36 hours before this event, it looked like we'd have to shift to a backup course owing to planned roadworks. But only 5h later, these had (remarkably conveniently) been pushed back by a week. So everything went pretty smoothly on a delightful sunny and warm evening with only the slightest wind.

I was feeling pretty good, and ahead of the race was hopeful I might get under 24 minutes. After the usual ride up to the meeting point and an extended warmup, I was on the line and ready to go. I had a pretty clear run, with the exception of a couple of timid drivers waiting behind a rider I caught quite early on. I know it always feels like time is ebbing away in these circumstances, but really I doubt it would have been enough to account for my place in this event.

My 2025 time trial season continued with this club event on the F5d/10 Stoke Hammond course. This is a reasonably quick course, with about 6 miles of dual carriageway. Initial weather forecasts were for light rain (and very heavy rain very early on that day) but, though the early heavy rain showed up on schedule, we were spared the early evening rain. Wind was fairly light, but it wasn't very warm, and indeed was quite chilly by the time we were done and dusted.

We'd offered to roll over entries from the New Year's Day event, which we'd abandoned owing to spectacularly windy conditions, and several riders took up that offer. So this evening we had 12 riders, largely comprising the usual suspects, but with four riders from the Leighton Buzzard Tri Club.