Uncategorised

The Astana professional cycling team has certainly been an interesting team this year.  From the reappearance of Armstrong (for me, an unexpected force at the Tour de France), and the subsequent soap opera that ensued as Armstrong and Contador jockeyed for preeminence through the duration of the Tour, to the reassertion of Kazakh control and the departure of Bruyneel, Armstrong et al to form the new Radio Shack team, it's been pretty exciting.

Now, Cyclingnews.com reports (Vinokourov to head to the Tour of Spain with Astana) that Vinokourov is back in the Astana fold after serving his ban for blood doping, and will lead the team at the Vuelta.

But what happened to the rule that doping bans were extended to four years for Pro Tour racing? Am I deluded in remembering that rule, or does/did it actually exist?

This was my last open event before the Duo Normand (20th September) and, given the hopeless character of my season thus far, I was hoping for some indication of returning form.  I decided to ride over to Tempsford, a ride made slightly dodgy by the huge roadbuilding exercise going an along the A421 - but of course at about 6am, there's not too much traffic.  The ride was an excellent warm-up, and I felt pretty enthusiastic as I lined up at the start - and this despite the stiff breeze that had sprung up, and which would make the going a bit tough on the south-bound legs.

Fortunately the F1/25 starts with a short southbound leg to the Sandy roundabout, then a 12-13 mile leg north across the Black Cat roundabout to turn at the Buckden roundabout, then there's a final leg of about 8 miles that today was into the teeth of the breeze.

I did feel good as far as Buckden (I must have been averagig 27-28 mph, and in fact kept a reasonable speed up for the first half of the return leg south.  What was an absolute killer was the last five or ten minutes before re-crossing the Black Cat roundabout - this section seemed to be into the teeth of the wind, and it was a real struggle to keep any sort of speed going.

As is usual, the elastic nature of time during a time trial was really evident.  Through the main part of the event, time seemed to go very slowly, and it's only in the last mile that time seems to pass increasingly quickly, as the hoped for 58 morphed into a 59.  In the end, I finished in 59:55, just squeaking under the hour.

After the event, Chris gave me lift back to Cranfield, so I could look at their Mercian tandem frame (we're looking to replace the Dawes touring tandem frame some time).  More on those deliberations in a separate blog posting, maybe.

So, where does this leave me as the Duo Normand looms?  Well at least I felt pretty good out there for the most part.  It's just a shame I didn't pull off a result that would give me some confidence!  Team Grumpy will post a Duo Normand preview soon over at the Team Grumpy website.

Event results

The Guardian reports (Office of Fair Trading to investigate targeted ads and pricing online) that the Office of Fair Trading is to investigate aspects of behavioural advert targeting. 

"We are also considering including the use of personal information in advertising and pricing," said the OFT. "In particular, we may look at behavioural advertising where information on a consumer's online activity is used to target the internet advertising they see.

The only company named in the article is Phorm, now bereft of likely UK ISP partners following a widespread grass-roots campaign against their intrusive ISP-level data harvesting system.  The Phorm system is currently the object of EU attentions, the UK Government having washed its hands of responsibility in enforcing data protection legislation.

The news seems to have instigated a fresh drop in Phorm's share price, now doen to an all-time low of 108p.

Not only was this event the final evening event of the North Bucks time trial series (the remaining events are weekend morning), but it was the seventh counting round in the League. A cloudy morning gave way to brilliant blue skies and high temperatures.  Oh, and strong wind!

I rode over from work to the meeting point at Stony Stratford, dodging the usual strange driver-roundabout situations.  The good weather resulted in a good turnout of riders.  At the appointed minute, off I went, and pretty soon found the outward leg was to be blighted by the strong wind.  Still, I persevered through Beachampton (fortunately avoiding the tractors that were going to and fro along the course), and on up to the climb up to Nash.

Now, one might have thought that, in the years I've been riding this course, I'd have cracked the Nash climb but, no, I still found myself dipping into the red zone with my heart rate rising and speed dropping.  Once in Nash, things got a bit easier.  I saw a rider pushing his bike, with a flat rear tyre.

The return leg is always much easier as it's got a fair old amount of descent in it.  I was interested to see how the new Tula bars would affect both my confidence and ability in the turns.  As it happens, I found them fine for negotiating the course.

After Beachampton I rode through the corner with the rough old surface unable to avoid the holes (due to a passing motorbike) and was pleased that the Tulas didn't slip in the handlebar stem.  On the other hand, my bike computer stopped registering speed - presumably the sensor had bumped down on the forks.

Around the final corner and on to the finishing line.  The ride had felt pretty good, so I was disappointed with my time of 28:28, though in th grand scheme of things, that won't have been too bad.