NBRC Stoke Hammond '10' 22nd July 2026

We were scheduled to race over twao laps of the Astwood circuit for a 20 mile club championship time trial this evening, but we were thwarted by roadworks on the Astwood course. We relocated to the Stoke Hammond 10 mile course for the event. I was also planning to ride my Cervelo P5 with the new Ascalon aero extensions.

I duly got the bike set up and set off for Stoke Hammond at the usual time. Sadly, I only got one mile down the road before my gearing went awry. The up shift (right hand buttons) connection first appeared to have a short circuit, making the rear gear shift to the 11 cog. This meant I had two gears: 58x11 and 44x11 (pressing the left shift worked to operate the front mech, normally requiring simultaneould press of both buttons. Shortly after, the right hand shift buttons just stopped working entirely.

What to do? I dashed back home grabbed my backup bike, the P3, transferred the Garmin, transferred the toolkit in the bottle, attached front and rear lights, pumped up the tyres and dashed back out on the road. I went as hard as I could to get the the start in time, as I was carrying the sign on sheet and timing sheet for the timekeeper. I made it with 15 minutes to spare before the first rider started.

Lining up to start - I've still to position my visor!

The weather was really rather nice - warm and sunny with only the lightest of breezes. I was off 6th out of 8 riders, and dult rode off at 19:06. My objective was to try not to grind a big gear but try and turn a slightly lower gear than usual. In the opening section, I briefly lost focus, but I was going well by the first RAB and turned up the slope towards the second RAB, notching the gear down a couple of places. I stayed on the aero bars up to and round the RAB. Then it was into top gear as the road descended in the first undulation. I kept moving between the 11 and 13 cogs as far as the next RAB, which I crossed while on the aero bars. Down a couple of notches to rise to the fourth RAB (the turn). 

Riding back down the dual carriageway, I focussed on keeping the power as high as I could despite the undulations. I caught my minute man along here, and was in turn passed by Dan (number 8, last week's winner). One last rise to the penultimate RAB before descending to the last RAB and on to the finishing straight. I banged up the gears a bit and bashed out as strong a pace as I could manage to cross te line in 23:37. That's probably the fastest club 10 I've done this year, so I was pretty pleased. my average and normalised power values seem to be rising - not fast, but steadily. It was good enough for sixth place.

After the usual post race jibber jabber, several of us went to The Dolphin for rehydration therapy (Guinness Zero for me). I'd promised to buy Richard a beer in thanks for the transport over to the Verulam CC '25' the previous Saturday, but my mini phone stopped working. That was a bit embarrassing!