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Astwood '10' 27/3/10 - the return of Puncture Bob

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symbol_11A very similar morning to last week's time trial: however, the rain was confined to the ride up to and back home from the event rather than the event itself.  The time trial was the first counting event in the 2010 NBRC time trial league.  A dozen or so riders turned out for the event. I rode the new Cervelo again, and once again with the tubular-shod Corima wheels, of which more later.  As with last week's event, there was a stiff headwind down the opening stretch to Chicheley, but I found it a bit easier than last week.  The whole course was a bit nicer this week without the driving rain.  I rode all the climbs seated rather than out of the saddle.  Unfortunately I found the saddle slipping in the clamp, which meant sometimes I was comfortable, sometimes less so with the saddle nose pointing upwards! I crossed the line in 24:03, an improvement of 27 seconds from last week - this was enough for second place behind Tony, who finished in 23:15.  Back at Astwood village hall, we all regrouped to await the results from the timekeeper.  Unfortunately, upon departing, I discovered my front tyre was soft - clearly a slow puncture.  JayBee kindly lent his track pump and I topped it up before setting off for home.  Conveniently, Clive was behind me in his car when I stopped in Cranfield University to top it up again, and once more I had the use of a track pump. All was now going well until my back tyre popped with a loud hiss, at about two miles from home.  Since I was unable to budge the tub (it was pretty slippery and wet, and fixed with tub tape), it was an annoying trudge home, spoiling a rather good morning.  Ho hum, perhaps I need to keep a 2010 puncture log!  In the meantime I'm going to switch back to using Continental tubular glue, which in my experience is easier to deal with for replacing tubs at the roadside. Results
Pos. on
Pos No Name Club Time Cat Vets Std .+ / - Vets Std
1 8 Tony Parks NBRC 23.15 V45 26.30 .+ 3.15 3
2 10 Rob Saunders NBRC 24.03 V50 27.33 .+ 3.30 2
3 12 Lindz Barral i-team.CC 24.14 S
4 11 Ian Marshall TeamMK 24.31 V41 25.42 .+ 1.11 5
5 5 Andy Sharman TeamMK 24.35 S
6 3 Glenn McMenamin NBRC 25.33 S
7 7 John Buchanan TeamMK 26.32 V40 25.30 .- 1.02 6
8 9 Gilbert Wheelwright NBRC 27.45 V67 31.30 .+ 3.45 1
9 4 Clive Faine TeamMK 27.49 V64 30.45 .+ 2.56 4
10 2 David Skeggs NBRC 28.05 V41 25.42 .- 2.23 7
11 1 Alan Lawson NBRC 29.45 V41 25.42 .- 4.03 8
12 6 Tony Brunton NBRC 30.48 V45 26.30 .- 4.18 9
Time Keepers :- Steph Cousins & Tony Farmborough NBRC
Pusher off :- Bryan Scarborough NBRC

Wordpress Integration for Joomla! 1.5

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Well, here we go!  Another website reorganisation - these re-jigs seem to happen every couple of years.  This time, I've taken the plunge and decided to switch from Azrul's MyBlog (and its counterpart commenting system jomComment) to corePHP's Wordpress Integration for Joomla! 1.5. This will no doubt be an ongoing overhaul, but first impressions are pretty favourable.  CorePHP have developed a set of Joomla! components and modules that integrate the very popular blogging software Wordpress into Joomla! 1.5.  Installation of the principal component was straightforward, as was the import of my existing blog entries from MyBlog.  The system seems pretty neat: there are some sidebar modules that can be set to hold the various Wordpress widgets.  I suppose there are some downsides to relying on developers keeping up with the latest Wordpress releases, but the version installed seemed not to be particularly old (though not the latest). Documentation appears to be a little light - sufficient for installation to be easy, but not so helpful on aspects of installing the Wordpress plugins that have been modified/developed for the integrated Wordpress.  However, corePHP's website has an active support forum, and it seems that support is good - which is as it should be given this is a paid subscription. So, why did I switch from MyBlog?  Mostly because I found the MyBlog interface (both front- and back-end) rather clunky, and the JomComment component seems to build up a very large file cache.  And I mean very large - if not manually cleared, the backup component I use cannot work, and I run out of server disk space. And, of course, my experiences with a standalone Wordpress installation (Wonderful Life) had exposed me to the inner workings of running a Wordpress blog.

Did Valve (Piti) implicate another rider?

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Cyclingnews.com reports that Alejandro Valverde has been accused (by the Spanish media) of implicating a team-mate as the owner of the Operacion Puerto blood bag  during his failed defence against the recent CAS blood doping case emanating from Operacion Puerto (Valverde Denies Naming Teammate In CAS Appeal | Cyclingnews.com).  Interesting, since according to the report, the blood bag was labelled "18 Valve. Piti".  Now, who among the 2002 Kelme-Costa Blanca team could that label possibly correspond to?  Well, Cyclingnews.com has a nice archive that generously lists the members of the 2002 squad:
Santiago Botero Echeverry
Francisco Cabello Luque
Juan Miguel Cuenca Martinez
Juan José De Los Angeles Segui
Isaac Galvez Lopez
Carlos Garcia Quesada
José Javier Gomez Gonzalo
Aitor Gonzalez Jimenez
Ignacio Gutierrez Cataluna
José Enrique Gutierrez Cataluna
Jose Cayetano Julia Cegarra
Francisco Leon Mane
Joaquin Lopez Torrella
Roberto Lozano Montero
Jesus Maria Manzano Ruano
David Munoz Bañóz
Leandro Navarrette
Gustavo Miguel Otero Gomez
Javier Pascual Llorente
Santiago Perez Fernandez
Jordi Riera Valls
Alexis Rodriguez Hernandez
Oscar Sevilla Ribera
Antonio Tauler Llull
Julian Usano Martinez
Alejandro Valverde Belmonte
Angel Vicioso Arcos
José Angel Vidal Martinez
Constantino Zaballa Gutierrez
Now, just who in that gang would have their blood labelled "18 Valve. Piti"?  I mean, apart from the obvious.  Valverde's legal team have denied that anything other than a general comment that the blood could have come from a team mate was made:
"Alejandro Valverde has never accused any rider forming part of the peloton and, as a consequence, what [has been] written in relation to that point is totally wrong," read a statement released by representatives of Valverde on Sunday.

"Mr. Valverde’s lawyers limited themselves exclusively to defend the rider’s interests and they never made such accusations against the cyclist mentioned in the [Spanish] newspapers."

I haven't read the said Spanish newspapers, so I am not sure which of the riders listed above might be a likely target for the accusation, and Cyclingnews.com aren't saying - other than to say that the rider is still in the pro peloton.  If Valverde's bizarre claim is true, and Dr Fuentes was liberally spreading false ID around the blood bags in his tender care, that represents another layer of dubious and dangerous practice in the doping scene.



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Astwood '10' 20/3/10 (2-up event)

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Heavy overnight rain had passed over, leaving just a dreary cloudy sky when I set off to ride up to Astwood for the second event of the North Bucks Road Club time trial series.  Upon reaching the Astwood village hall, it was clear there was an excellent turnout.  Unfortunately, I didn't manage to sort out a 2-up partner, and chose to ride solo.  Ian Stokes was there with his exclusive hand-painted NBRC aero helmet, which I wasn't permitted to avoid complimenting - actually it's rather well executed.

After a bit of pootling about (and a little saddle tightening), I lined up at the start.  By this time the drizzle had started, and with a minute to go, the wind whipped up a bit and the rain turned rather heavy.  By then I was rather glad I wasn't paired up with a new TT partner, since the wheels I was using had carbon "no friction" rims!

Off down the opening stretch towards Chicheley, and I found things a bit twitchy, probably the combination of a new bike, the crosswind and the trispoke.  Prudence suggested I ease back at some points along that stretch, but once round the Chicheley turn, things got a bit better.  But the rain didn't ease until near the finish.

The icy winter hasn't been kind to the Astwood course, with numerous potholes having opened up - another potential problem in a 2-up.  Unusually, I stayed seated and on the tri-bars up the finishing climb.

Results

Course:- F5v/10 (Astwood)




2-up Event






Pos. on
Pos No Name Club Time Cat Vets Std .+ / - Vets Std









1 3 Jason Gurney TeamMK 21.53 V40



4 Simon Cannings TeamMK
S


2 19 Stuart Tarry Team Sanjan Design 23.50 S



20 Lindz Barral i-Team.CC
S


3 13 Mark Booth TeamMK 24.01 V41



14 Aleck. Hornshaw TeamMK
V47


4 7 Steve Torley TeamMK 25.02 S



8 Jamie Hawthorn TeamMK
S


5 11 Richard Gunner TeamMK 29.17 V41



12 Leah Williams TeamMK
L


6 1 Alan Lawson NBRC 31.47 V41



2 Frank Horwitz NBRC
V55


DNF 9 Ollie Creighton Roy Pink Cycles RT Off Course S



10 Paul Wright Roy Pink Cycles RT
S











Solo Event






Pos. on
Pos No Name Club Time Cat Vets Std .+ / - Vets Std









1 22 Rob Saunders NBRC 24.30 V50 27.33 +3.03 1
2 16 Ian Marshall TeamMK 24.31 V41 25.42 +1.11 2
3 17 Andy Sharman TeamMK 25.33 S


4 5 Matthew Barton TeamMK 26.35 V41 25.42 -0.53 5
5 18 Alan Crane Team Sanjan Design 26.45 V41 25.42 -1.03 6
6 15 Trevor Hook TeamMK 27.40 V52 27.59 +0.19 3
7 6 Ian Stokes NBRC 28.15 V50 27.33 -0.42 4
8 21 Tony Brunton NBRC 32.03 V44 26.18 -5.45 7









Time Keepers:- Steph Cousins & Tony Farmborough NBRC




Pusher Off :- Bryan Scarborough, Steve Abraham, Clive Faine

CAS confirms Valv. (Piti) Italian ban: UCI wants it extended worldwide

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I missed this story on Cyclingnews.com the other day (CAS Confirms Valverde's Italian Ban | Cyclingnews.com), but it would seem that CONI's ban on Alejandro Valverde's in Italy (which includes races passing through Italy) has been upheld by CAS.  Valverde was banned in May 2009 after it was found the blood stored as part of the "Fuentes affair" contained his DNA. The Cyclingnews.com report goes a little further, saying:
According to analysis performed in a Barcelona laboratory as part of the initial Spanish investigation, the bag of blood contained EPO and so the CONI banned Valverde for two years.
It's also reported that the UCI plans to take action aimed at extending Valverde's ban worldwide.  In my view there's a wider issue - how can one of the biggest doping scandals have failed to result in more action being taken against offending riders?  Is it fair on the few riders who have been penalised that others involved have not been challenged? 

[The cyclingnews.com page linked above has a useful timeline of the Operacion Puerto case as it relates to Alejandro Valverde]



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