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I reckon I need to look at one of these HDTVs myself...here's xkcd's take!

I had expected a nice morning for this 10 mile time trial on the F1B/10 but as it turned out, while it was quite a quick morning, the weather wasn't too great.  It rained for the whole time I was on the course, at times rather heavy.  And I spent rather too long out on the course! I travelled out with Chris Hartley (Team Salesengine), and we were conveniently close in the start sheet (he was 64, I was 67, with his team mate Dave off a minute ahead of me).  The rain had started while the early riders were on the course (e.g. the 2-up teams), and had properly set in by the time Chris and I left his van.  I just did a quick warm-up, and persuaded the GPS transmitter to behave properly. The start of the course is rather closer to the slip road onto the A1 that for the F1B/25: accordingly I was going pretty briskly as I negotiated the flyover roundabout (it has acquired some new potholes over the winter), and joined the A1 at well over 30mph.  I kept up a strong pace pretty much all the way across the Sandy roundabout, to the turn. Coming round the turn, I could see Dave ahead of me, tantalisingly close.  The realisation I was gaining gave me further impetus.  Then all of a sudden I heard the tell-tale pshh-pshh-pshh of a punctured tubular.  Hoping it was just a slow leak, I pressed on.  Unfortunately the tyre went down pretty quickly, and with a curse or two I pulled over to the side of the road and dismounted. It was still raining, as I started the long trudge back to Tempsford  - it must have been 4.5 miles to the finish.  Before I'd reached the Sandy roundabout, a passing marshal (from the turn, I guess) stopped and picked me up.  On the way back to Tempsford, we saw Chris driving south in the van trying to find me! After all was said and done, this turned out to be a pretty quick day, with both Chris (a 23) and Dave (22:37) doing PBs.  One can only speculate what I would have finished in, but it would probably have been my fastest '10' for more than three seasons. So, a bit disappointing, but an indicator that my form is returning. Next weekend, I'll be on the F1B/25 for the Icknield '25', and the following weekend the F12/10 for the Bossard Wheelers '10'. Here's a map of the F1B/10, though I turned the GPS off soon after I started walking.
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On the face ofit, a lovely evening for a time trial.  In fact, as I rode up to Astwood from work, the temperature had begun dropping significantly.  Also, my bike computer was behaving rather aberrantly, and wasn't receiving much in the way of speed/distance, and to add insult to injury, its heart rate display was really very wobbly.  Maybe there's a battery issue. These issues notwithstanding, I arrived in good time for the event, signed on, and awaited the start.  My hope was to continue my recent run of good form and ideally finish in less than 24 minutes - an achievable gold.  I started feeling pretty damned cold, and indeed decided to ride with my long sleeved cycling jersey over my skinsuit.  I lined up as number 6, and at the allotted time, off I went.At first, all seemed well, though due to the computer problems, I had no way of know how well I was going.  I got through Chicheley still feeling OK.  A brief flurry of enthusiasm from the bike computer indicated my pace was pretty good after the turn.  Around the time I reached North Crawley, I discovered my left tri-bar extension had worked loose (this has happened repeatedly of late, and doesn't seem to respond to bolt-tightening, even with loctite).  From here on, it was a bit of a struggle, as my forearm was now resting directly on the base bar - not very comfortable! As I passed the right turn to Cranfield University, some blasted 4x4 pickup driver looked directly at me, and pulled out right in front of me, causing me to slow down nearly to a stop.  When I shouted "Oh, come on!", he stopped dead.  I thought about this for a moment, and pulled round him.  For the next few miles, the driver followed me close behind my front wheel.  I found this really quite worrying, as I was suspecting the driver might be about to do something dangerous.  In fact, he stayed there until the Bourne End turn off, when he eventually passed me.  Perhaps I'd just surprised him a bit - he certainly didn't seem aggressive. By the time I reached the descent before the finishing climb, my left forearm was a bit uncomfortable fro the base bar.  I wa still hopeful of a sub-24, in that delusional way that time triallists sometimes have.  Unfortunately, the "Grumpy Bob time compression effect" seemed to take hold - time which seemed to be passing pretty slowly through most of the ride appeared to speed up in the last few hundred yards, and ticked well past 24 minutes.  I estimated my finish time as around 24:33.  The offcial result is somewhat worse, at 24:36. To be honest, I'm a bit disappointed, and don't know if this reflects the circumstances of the ride, or just a temporary dip in form.  Hopefully the latter.  I've an open '10' on Sunday, and the next club event (Stony Stratford '11.4') on Wednesday, which should offer another opportunity to gauge my form.  In the meantime, it's getting quite urgent that I address this tri-bar problem. Results are tabulated below.

								Pos. on
Pos	No	Name	Club	Time	Cat	Vets Std	.+ / -	Vets Std
1	9	Tim Carter	Virgin Active	22.29	V44	26.18	.+ 3.49	2
2	16	Simon Canning	TeamMK	23.01	V40	25.30	.+ 2.29	8
3	17	Aaron McCaffray	AWCycles	23.04	S
4	12	Tony Parks	NBRC	23.17	V45	26.30	.+ 3.13	5
5	18	Dave Glossy	Team Corley Cycles	23.43	S
6	14	Lindz Barral	i-team CC	23.53	S
7	6	Rob Saunders	NBRC	24.36	V50	27.33	.+ 2.57	6
8	13	Geoff Perry	TeamMK	24.43	V50	27.33	.+ 2.50	7
9	8	Glenn McMenamin	NBRC	25.02	S
10	19	Phil Jenkins	TeamMK	25.03	V41	25.42	.+ 0.39	.= 10
11	2	Julian Lane	Unattached	25.27	V43	26.06	.+ 0.39	.= 10
12	15	Robert Chaundy	TeamMK	25.45	V58	29.20	.+ 3.35	4
13	7	David Carrington	TeamMK	25.50	V44	26.18	.+ 0.28	12
14	10	Ian Stokes	NBRC	26.30	V50	27.33	.+ 1.03	9
15	3	Clive Faine	TeamMK	26.55	V64	30.45	.+ 3.50	1
16	11	Gilbert Wheelwright	NBRC	27.49	V67	31.30	.+ 3.41	3
17	4	Marcus Buksh	Kettering CC	28.47	V46	26.42	.- 2.05	14
18	5	Nick Crook	NBRC	29.33	V59	29.34	.+ 0.01	13
19	1	Tony Brunton	NBRC	30.42	V45	26.30	.- 4.12	15
Time keepers :- Steph Cousins & Tony Farmborough NBRC
Pusher off :- Bryan Scarborough NBRC

An absolutely clear and still morning greeted me as I loaded up the car to drive over to Tempsford for the Bedfordshire Road CC '25'.  This event, a 'slowest 90' time trial, was to be held on the F1B/25, a version (among many) of the time trial courses based on the A1 dual carriageway near the Black Cat roundabout. This course runs south from Tempsford to turn at the Baldock interchange, where the A1(M) begins (see map below). This version of the course undulates severely at the southern turn and is popularly regarded as slower than the versions of the F1 which head north to turn at Buckden.  On the whole, however, the return leg can be quite fast as the turn is higher than the start/finish. Of course, a clear night meant it was rather colder than it looked!  By the time I started at 8:54, two things had happened - firstly it had warmed up to a rather pleasant conditions for the event, but secondly, an annoying breeze had appeared.  This was oriented diagonally, but offered assistance southbound but a headwind northbound.  In my experience, this is the wrong way for a fast time on this course. I had a good start, though the two riders in front of my minute man didn't start, leaving rather a gap ahead of me.  I found the opening stretch up to the sliproad onto the A1 quite quick, and this was maintained, except for the climbs later on in the southbound leg.  There was little traffic, so I was surprised to be held to a stop at the Sandy roundabout.  I was unfortunately in a bit of a tall gear at the time, so getting the bike up to speed again was something of an effort.  I carried on, making it through the next two roundabouts with no trouble, and catching my minute man well before the turn.  At the turn, I was again held up by a driver, this time a learner, for whom the Baldock interchange seemed to be a bit daunting (and maybe not helped by having blokes in garish lycra on funny bikes turning up at roughly one minute intervals!). The second leg was pretty uneventful - other than it being surprisingly tough at times up the hills with the headwind.  Still, I made it back to the finish in 58:24, which I think was quite a respectable time.  My all time best for the F1B/25 is a 54:38, but I did that about seven or eight years ago and on a pretty good day for the course.
View 10041804 in a larger map Results

Pos	Rider	Time
1	Tim Davies	00:55:54
2	Sam Hayes	00:56:04
3	Peter Galpin	00:56:52
4	Kevin Gill	00:56:53
5	Malcolm Woolsey	00:57:58
6	Tom Boulton	00:58:17
7	Dr Robert Saunders	00:58:24