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After last week's 50 mile event, I had hoped this time trial, held on the same course, might offer the possibility of a better result!  On Saturday afternoon, the wind strengthened, and in direct proportion, so did my apprehension as the forecast for Sunday morning was for rain.  True to the forecast, the rain was just starting when I got up at 4am (Tony was calling en route at 5.15am).

The rain strengthened and by the time we left for the event, it was heavy.  The event HQ was the entrance hall and kitchen of Moggerhanger village hall - the usual venues being booked up for weddings.  The F1/50 start was about 3 miles, and by the time I got to the start, my rear LED lamp had stopped working.

If anything, the wind was stronger than last week's event, but from roughly the same direction.  So the southbound legs were much faster than the northbound legs.  On the first north bound leg, I was just a fe miles north of the Black Cat RAB when I saw Tony ambling south shaking his head (he'd started 10 minutes before me), and it later transpired he had punctured , and lost his drink bottle at the first turn at the Sandy RAB.

In any event, I pressed on.  Given the conditions, I felt reasonably OK and caught several riders, though in the second half my pulse rate drifted down, possibly as I got colder in the rain.

I finished in 5th place - 13 riders finished of 15 starters in a 25 rider start sheet, with a time of 2:01:53 - only 20s slower than last week, on a harder morning.

Results... 

No	Rider	Club	Time	Notes	25
1	Martin Smith	North Bucks RC	01:53:25		0:55:58
2	Dave Kendal	Finsbury Park CC	01:56:19		0:58:08
3	Sam Hayes	Bedfordshire Road CC	01:56:48		0:58:25
4	Hugh Vivian	Finsbury Park CC	01:58:35		0:58:15
5	Robert Saunders	North Bucks RC	02:01:53		0:59:54
6	Malcolm Steer	Finsbury Park CC	02:03:14		01:01:09
7	Nicholas Hay	Verulam CC	02:08:27		01:03:34
8	Lyndon Lewis	Bedfordshire Road CC	02:14:56		01:07:27
9	Trevor Parrish	North Bucks RC (2nd Claim)	02:19:29		01:09:27
10	Scott Edwards	Hitchin Nomads CC	02:23:26		01:10:28
11	Clive Collins	Hitchin Nomads CC	02:23:48		01:11:01
12	Helen Shulver	FVS Tri (2nd Claim)	02:36:34		01:17:39
	David T Ledgerton	Hitchin Nomads CC		DNF	01:10:27
	John Harrison	Hitchin Nomads CC		DNS Ap
	Richard J Miller	North Bucks RC		DNS
	Tony Parks	North Bucks RC		DNF
	Daniel Northover	Finsbury Park CC		DNS Ap
	Richard Gray	Icknield RC		DNS
	Graham Stogden	Whitewebbs CC		DNS
	Matt Chudley	Bedfordshire Road CC		DNS
	Samuel D Skuce	Verulam CC		DNS Ap
	Barry Gilzean	Icknield RC		DNS
	Christopher Lodge	Finsbury Park CC		DNS Ap
	Tom Boulton	Finsbury Park CC		DNS Ap
	Ian R Bibby	Finsbury Park CC		DNS
	Ian Stokes	North Bucks RC		DNS

After a rather chilly ride down to work, I was pleased that the evening was pleasantly warm, albeit with a stiff breeze.  Still experimenting with routes from the OU over to Stony Stratford, on this occasion, I zoomed up V10 and then along H3.  Actually the best route so far, in terms of avoiding the need to use redways and the busier MK roads.

I'm never too keen on the Stony Stratford course, mostly due to the lengthy climb up to Nash, which I usually take in too high a gear.  Tonight was no exception.  The return leg was pretty quick, as I'm happier riding that section in the dry.

The event was the third round of the club league, so I was reasonably happy with my third place (second NBRC rider), though the margin between Tony and me was a bit big for comfort! Interestingly, this event hd more riders than next Sunday's North Middx & Herts CA '50'! 

I rode home via Whaddon, V1 and H8, then my usual commuting route - took me just under an hour.  Unfortunately I must have picked up a flint as I had a "garage puncture" the next morning!  See my log of TT punctures.

I was very pleased to see three "first-timers"  - I had met two of them in the cafe at Ivinghoe  a week or so back and invited them along.  They seemed to enjoy the event, and I look forward to seeing them again next week!

 

Result of the NBRC Time Trial held on Wednesday 21th of May 2008
Course:- F5u/10 (Stony Stratford) League Round 3
								Pos. on
Pos	No	Name	Club	Time	Cat	Vets Std	.+ / -	Vets Std
1	8	Simon Cannings	TeamMK	26.21	S
2	9	Tony Parks	NBRC	26.30	V43	30.01	.+ 3.31	3
3	16	Rob Sauinders	NBRC	27.25	V48	31.11	.+ 3.46	.= 1
4	22	Kevin Stokes	NBRC	28.10	V46	30.43	.+ 2.33	6
5	17	Geoff Perry	TeamMK	28.13	V48	31.11	.+ 2.58	5
6	19	John Buchanan	NBRC	28.15	S
7	23	Lindz Barral	TeamMK	28.25	S
8	20	Glenn McMenamin	NBRC	29.01	S
9	12	Ian Stokes	NBRC	29.08	V48	31.11	.+ 2.03	7
10	7	Martin Paul	NBRC	29.34	S
11	11	Brian Primett	NBRC	29.40	V41	29.33	.- 0.07	12
12	27	Neil Mitchell	Private	29.49	S
13	5	Chris Hartley	NBRC	30.24	V51	31.56	.+ 1.32	8
14	2	Andy Lambeth	NBRC	31.43	V50	31.41	.- 0.02	11
15	10	Stuart Chung	NBRC	31.50	S
16	6	Gilbert Wheelwright	NBRC	31.53	V65	35.39	.+ 3.46	.= 1
17	1	Alan Lawson	NBRC	31.58	S
18	25	Steve Wood	Private	32.12	V52	32.11	.- 0.01	10
19	21	Mark Kleanthous	TeamMK	32.21	V47	30.57	.- 1.24	13
20	4	Tony Brunton	NBRC	32.27	V43	30.01	.- 2.26	14
21	26	Richard Golding	Private	32.55	S
22	15	Gordon Batcock	NBRC	33.01	V67	36.13	.+ 3.12	4
23	18	Chris Selley	NBRC	33.21	S
24	13	Dave Garrard	NBRC	33.35	V60	34.16	.+ 0.41	9
25	24	Leah Williams	Private	33.53	L
26	3	Chris Parkes	NBRC	34.30	V48	31.11	.- 3.19	15
27	14	David Skeggs	Private	34.43	S
Time Keepers :- Mary Hartley & Tony Farmborough NBRC

It's been some time since I commented on the dreadful Phorm system of deep packet inspection, and BT's intention to use the Phorm system to snoop on your browsing habits and supply targeted advertising.  (Recall that Phorm are a known spyware maker - in their previous incarnation of 121Media).

Alexander Hanff, who has made a series of appearances on the media to make robust criticisms of the system has posted a detailed description here. The day that BT implement this, I will leave them for another (Phorm-free) ISP.

BT Retail, who manage the ISP business have behaved quite appallingly over the matter, ignoring (and even trying so suppress) discussion on their forums -  all the signs are that they are holding fire until the furore dies down.  We should all try to ensure that this doesn't die down.  Visit BadPhorm for more information.

This was my first '50' since the 2006 season.  When leaving the house for the event, I was fairly optimistic, but upon arriving at Tempsford I realised that the northbound legs would be tough going due to the head wind. Anyway. onward I rode, fuelled by the knowledge that this was the event nominated as the North Bucks '50' championship event - one other NBRC rider had entered.

The start for this version of the F1/50 lies quite close to the Tempsford flyover, so pretty quickly I found mself roaring down the sliproad onto the A1.  As expected, the ride to the first turn, at the Sandy RAB was splendidly quick.  Unfortunately, once I'd rounded the turn and  started on the long leg north, it was apparent just how tough it would be (I don't know what my average was, but I saw 22mph quite a lot).  I grovelled northward, across the Black Cat RAB, to the turn at Buckden, where I caught number 55, a rider  apparently on the comeback trail, and riding a bike with a single speed freewheel and no tribars.  This seemed to spur him on a bit, it took me to the Sandy RAB to shake him off (and even then not by much judging from the final result).  Number 60 caught me for 4 minutes just before crossing the Black Cat RAB - at somewhat less than the halfway mark.  (My split for the first 25 miles was just sub-hour).  The southbound leg was pretty quick, but being the indomitable soul I am, I wasn't too worried about the second northbound leg.  Well, actually it was just as horrible as the first time I headed north!

During the event, I'd been looking out for my club mate and not seen him - at the finish, it transpired he was a DNS due to back problems.

After the event, I had still hamstrings - felt like someone had been  kicking me in the buttocks!  I had 2:01:33on the result board (about 17th place), while the event was won by Barry Charlton in an almost unbelievable 1:48!

Top 20 results (as it turned out, I just snuck into the top 20)

No	Rider	Club	Time	Notes	25	+/-	STD	MPH
1	Barry Charlton	Lyme R.C.	01:48:35	V42	00:54:12	+	0:30:30	27.629
2	Laurence Harding	www.agiskoviner.com	01:49:52	V42	00:55:08	+	0:29:13	27.306
3	Andy Jackson	Pedalsport/Giant	01:49:52	S	00:55:19			27.306
4	Aran Stanton	V.C. St. Raphael	01:51:18	S	00:55:29			26.954
5	Paul Holdsworth	Hounslow & District Wheelers	01:52:23	V44	00:56:11	+	0:28:47	26.694
6	Paul Haggerty	API-Metro	01:52:56	V43	00:55:55	+	0:27:12	26.564
7	Charles Zanettacci	diamond-hf. Com Racing Team	01:53:23	V45	00:55:55	+	0:28:51	26.459
8	Brett Harwood	Wheelspin Cycles/Scott	01:55:12	S	00:58:28			26.042
9	Dave Kendall	Finsbury Park C.C.	01:55:13	S	00:57:41			26.038
10	Duncan Smith	High Wycombe C.C.	01:55:53	V48	00:58:16	+	0:29:35	25.888
11	Hugh Vivian	Finsbury Park C.C.	01:56:42	V43	00:57:53	+	0:23:26	25.707
12	David Johnson	High Wycombe C.C.	01:57:26	V50	00:58:27	+	0:30:12	25.546
13	Darren Treadaway	Shorter Rochford Exclusive Ranges	01:57:28	S	00:58:48			25.539
14	Andy Stuart	V.C. St. Raphael	01:57:39	S	00:58:08			25.499
15	Darren Jewell	Gloucester City C.C.	01:58:28	S	00:58:40			25.324
16	Peter Galpin	St. Ives C.C.	01:59:56	S	00:59:11			25.014
17	Ian Penrose	Leicestershire R.C.	02:00:28	S	01:00:00			24.903
18	Chris Nudds	C.C. Breckland	02:00:59	V59	01:00:10	+	0:36:54	24.797
19	Dave Candy	North Road C.C.	02:01:08	V42	01:01:32	+	0:17:57	24.766
20	Robert Saunders	North Bucks R.C.	02:01:33	V48	00:59:51	+	0:23:55	24.681