This was the first event of the season with a major effort required for placing warning signs.Nathan and I went round placing signs - the whole exercise took rather too long and left me with a bit of a dash to get back for the race itself (thanks to Carol for the lift). Without a proper warmup, I felt pretty sluggish to start with, but pulled through to finish with a 24:01, which I was reasonably pleased with given the time of year and the lack of a warmup. Actually, I ended up in such a rush that I failed to engage the Garmin effectively - missing the start of the race!

I had reasonable hopes for this event - it's a nice DC course with a smooth turn at the Cambridge end. I travelled out with Katja, who's start was (as I recall) about 4 minutes after me. It was fairly breezy  on the day. In fact, when I went out to warm up it was obviously going to be quite hard on the return leg.Based in Cambourne, the F2D/10 starts on a minor road, but soon makes a sharp left turn at a roundabout to go down the slip road on the A428 in the Cambridge direction. There was a rather neat tailwind for much of the outbound leg, and it was good riding, with not too much traffic. Until, that is, when an enormous honking startled me just as I entered the slip road for the turn. It quickly became apparent that this was emanating from a correspondingly enormous truck, which came up the sliproad past me, though giving me plenty of space. Worryingly, it was followed by a line of at least 6 cars, and I feared I'd get held up at the turn. The turn is quite fast, with gentle and well-cambered curving turn to a roundabout - when I approached the roundabout, the entire train of traffic was in the left hand Cambridge-bound lane, and I had a clear run through to make my turn.As feared, the stiff headwind on return leg made things a bit difficult! On some of the rises, I was embarrassingly slow. I just grit my teeth and pressed on as best I could. The exit from the DC to finish is often a bit troublesome with traffic at the roundabout - today I had not real issues, and stamped on the pedals to record 22:32, about what I'd expect for the course and conditions. 

Quite breezy for this morning's time trial on the F15/10. Having "missed out" on the previous weekend's Hardriders event (I marshalled in Woburn Sands), it was good to get the cobwebs blown off. From home it's only a few miles over to the Brogborough course, and about the right distance to make sure the legs are spinning well!Getting down the Brogborough hill was pretty good - not too twitchy as I passed the underpass. I did see one club mate walking back with a puncture near the Marston Moretaine RAB - no such misfortune for me fortunately. The direction of the prevailing breeze was mostly affecting the return leg and as is so common, the last few hundred metres to the line seemed to take an eternity!I finished in 23:11, not too bad, but I had hoped for a quicker ride, I guess.

Just a brief report here, drafted a month late. This event was run on a lovely spring afternoon, very warm and dry. A bit breezy, but no too bad. I'd travelled over with James, and we were about an warming up with plenty of time. Sadly, while James pulled off a 49:51 (I think he was 23rd, on a day when the third fastest '25' was recorded), all I could manage was 56:35, probably about a minute slower than I'd have expected. I have no idea why my form dipped so much (but I have some worries on that score). On the day, I just couldn't get comfy on the bike, and couldn't keep a steady effort. And getting slowed up at the turn wasn't a great morale-booster either. Oh well, onwards and upwards. I hope! 

After a couple of weeks without racing (and indeed a week off the bike), I turned out for the club '10' on a sunny evening at the end of May. I've been getting a little concerned about the downturn in my form lately, which is partly why I took a bit of a break from training, so I was keen to see how this evening's '10' would go.I was quite a late starter in the field, and it was clearly quite a nice evening for a '10'. The starting stretch was OK, I avoided overcooking it at the start. Sadly, once I turned left up the DC drag, things went a bit pear-shaped. I clipped the edge of a large pothole (the whole course suffers from too many road defects), which bounced out my bottle, and caused me to run into the grassy verge. I was rather exasperated, at this and decided to get off to retrieve the bottle and check the bike was OK. I noticed that the impact had loosened the ratchet on my left shoe! So, by the time I'd got sorted, given the bike a quick once-over, and tightened up my shoe, I'd lost about a minute and 20 seconds. Despite that, and the fact I was having to get going on an uphill stretch, I decided to complete the course.After my altercation with the pothole, I was acutely aware of the remaining numerous potholes, which I managed to avoid. Also, there were no traffic related holdups! I finished with 24:40, not too shabby given the disastrous ride!

It's been a while since I updated this blog. After the 2017 season finished, I began my usual winter training programme - after a short break I started a build up towards the New Year's Day '10'. Unfortunately a series of events significantly more important than training impacted on me, and my training suffered, and I did not ride the New Year's Day '10' for the first time in many years.I'd been looking forward to the opening event of the North Bucks Road Club time trial series. This was a Saturday morning event to which we'd hoped to attract newcomers. Unfortunately we have had a modest snowfall, and the event got cancelled. So, not much of a blog entry. Perhaps there will be a bit more action next weekend!In the meantime I discovered that the left hand Speedplay pedal on my main time trial bike (which hasn't been ridden since the Duo Normand) has pretty much seized up. I've tried injecting copious grease but that doesn't seem to have sorted the situation, which is sufficiently serious that I have taken the extraordinary steps of resorting to eBay to buy a set of replacement bearings. Hopefully they will arrive in time to overhaul the pedals before next weekend's time trial (which is the first open event of 2018 for me -  a 25 mile 2-up).

Team Grumpy assemble for two regular events each season - aside from the Duo Normand in September, the team generally opens the season with a ride at the Port Talbot Wheelers 2-up '25' in early March. 2018 was no exception. This year (as last year), the event was shifted to the fast R25/3H instead of the more rolling course usually used, owing to roadworks.

The team had the usual preparation of curries, beers and crisps in the preceding days, and after a little worry about the weather (there was heavy rain the day before and on the day after the event), was more than a little relieved to have dry conditions. There was some wind, of which more later.

This is an event that's always a good start to the year, despite the generally cold weather: it's good to blow the cobwebs off, and it's a change from turbo training! The weather forecast was pretty appalling: heavy rain starting well before the event, and continuing all day. Despite this, we had 17 riders show up, along with two timekeepers, a marshal (and sign placer) and a pusher off - thanks, Steph, Tony, Bryan and Dick!Fortunately, the forecast rain wasn't in evidence as we all signed on and rode the event. For me, the race was a bit of an eye-opener. Quick at times, I found it pretty tough going a lot of the time. I have no idea why this was - there wasn't really much wind out there. Every time the road went gently up, my speed dropped away. At least I was reasonably comfortable on the bike. I finished in 4th place with a disappointing 25:24. Still, I was first NBRC rider (I think the other guys were on rod bikes!).The rain held off until I was setting off to ride home - it got pretty heavy, and I got home completely drenched and cold.Due to the problems I've been having with the eTap Aero setup on the P5, I had decided to ride the P3 today. It's current configuration has Powertap P1 pedals, with vintage wheels: Hed Stinger 90 front and Corima disc rear. I've recently upgraded this bike to 11-speed, to ensure interchangeability with the P5. This itself was a bit complicated as 9-speed freehubs won't take a Shimano 11-speed cassette.Full results at the NBRC website. Here's the Garmin trace:

After the uncertainty around this event, it went off almost without a hitch and with a sizeable turnout of riders.I rode up to the BikeBus in time to see Tony setting out the signs around the start, and then went out with Bryan to place signs out on the course (at this point, there seemed to be about 5 or 6 riders). Out near Chicheley Hall, we found a car that had rolled off the road. Luckily, there didn't seem to be casualties, but police had been called and there was a copious amount of mud on the road. And the car seemed to be pretty badly bashed up.We returned to the BikeBus to alert riders to this hazard, and discovered well over 30 riders had turned out! At this point Ian Stokes offered to drive down to the scene of the crash to check it was still passable - in fact he remained there while the riders passed through and made sure the road was kept passable for us (when I came through as number 37, most of the mud had been removed).I finished with a modest 25:17. Full results are at the NBRC website.Apart from that, the event went very smoothly. I didn't feel particularly ready to race, what with being off the bike for 5 days for a trip to the USA. On the other hand, I felt pretty comfortable in an aero tuck, and it was good to confirm that the bike was fully functional again after the Blipbox failure of November-December.  

The Port Talbot Wheelers 2-up event is usually my first open event of the season, and the first of Team Grumpy's two regular 2-up events in the season (the other being the Duo Normand, of course). In recent years, the event has been run on a course that is half dual carriageway and half lumpy back roads - actually an excellent test of a 2-up team. This year, the organisers used one of the R25/3 variants, including the descent of Neath bank, a hill riders don't have to race back up. Consequently it's a course that delivers consistently fast performances. My view is that it's not so good as a test of 2-up skills, but it does make a change.My preparations for the event were somewhat hampered by a 4 day trip to the USA, followed by a mucoid cold I presumably picked up in my travels, so I didn't really have too much optimism for the event. But at least the cold was pretty mild other than having blocked airways - and who breathes through their nose when racing anyway!The version of the course started in an industrial estate near Rhigos. While we were 'warming up', the forecast rain started. It wasn't particularly cold though. We set off briskly and joined the main road into a relatively gentle headwind, but enough to make us look forward to the descent! Gerry felt the beginnings of his exercise-induced breathing issue at this point, but I think this eased as we began the descent. In the past, Gerry has had alarming moments on this fast descent, albeit in windier conditions, so he's often a bit nervous - not today, though.Once at the bottom, it was a matter of keeping up reasonably frequent changeovers. I think we rode well technically, though an inspection of my Garmin trace indicates our speed tended to fluctuate rather a bit. We did get slowed twice at roundabouts, once in the outbound leg by a car, and then on the return leg by what appeared to be a funfair (!) travelling up the course.We crossed the line in 56:18, I think giving us 27th place. Full results at the CTT website 

There was rain forecast for this day, but nothing prepared us for the scale of the late afternoon downpour! Fortunately the rain had long stopped by the time we assembled for this evening’s club event, which had been relocated from the scheduled course to the Stoke Hammond course due to roadworks. The prospect of splashing through water seemed to have put off some riders, so we had a reduced field of 6.

In the end, it was warm and fairly sunny, but with two huge puddles to negotiate (one at the final RAB and the other just before the finish) each occupying a whole lane in each case, I think we were all a little apprehensive.

This blog's been a bit quiet lately - I missed a couple of club events due to weather and having visitors, rode the Stony course twice (the the NBRC website for those), and missed the cut for a couple of time trials over on the E2. Last night's time trial on the Stoke Hammond course was relocated from the Stagsden course due to traffic lights (which also affect the Astwood course) - there's no indication when these lights will be removed. This, together with the ongoing work on the Brogborough course means that we are down to two regular courses.Anyway, this evening's event was forecast to be wet and windy. As it turned out, it was a bit windy for comfort, but the rain held off until the event was over. Only five riders turned out. I found my front trispoke a bit of a handful, and was off the tribars for a most of the outbound section on the dual carriageway. However, the return leg was pretty quick and not too twitchy aside from one very alarming buffet from the gusty wind.I was second equal (with Andy), and first on vets standard with 23:58. Not too bad for the conditions. Full results at the NBRC site.I'm looking forward to my upcoming cycle tour, once again in the Outer Hebrides, I feel I need a break from work pressures and I'm running out of steam for the training and racing!

Rather a windy morning on the F1B/25 for this event, and mostly it manifest itself as an unhelpful sidewind! There's a website which uses the weather forecast to predict conditions for a given time trial - MyWindsock - so actually I had a pretty good idea what it was to be like. I was mostly worried about steering in a strong crosswind, but in fact that wasn't so much of a problem. Instead the windy conditions just made the ride hard.As an early starter, the road was pretty quiet, and I had no hold-ups on any of the roundabouts. I reached the turn in a shade under 30 minutes, and the finish in 58:20.Davey Jones was out again with his camera - the picture below is exiting the final RAB at Sandy with about three miles to go.[caption id="attachment_3691" align="alignnone" width="474"] Three miles to go![/caption]Results at the CTT website

After the previous weekend's '25' on the F1B/25 (the Beds Road CC), for which the meteorological conditions were challenging to say the least, I had high hopes for this '25', on the same course. On the morning, it was cloudy and pleasantly cool and with only the lightest of breezes in the air - if anything it offered a slight tailwind to the turn.As the Duo Normand is now only 6 weeks or so away, I thought I might try out the new skinsuit which Team Grumpy will be using for the Duo. It's one of the Bioracer SpeedConcept TT skinsuits, and is made from some superspringy lycra. Actually, the main issues with skinsuits (for me, at least) are (a) comfort at the contact point, and (b) whether the skinsuit fabric fits as wrinkle-free as possible. I can comment that the skinsuit is excellent on both counts. I guess that compensates that the garment apparently makes me look like an old inner tube!I was starting a bit later in the field than the previous week - #53 at 7.53am - numbering started at 10, so there were 51 riders on the start sheet. That was quite good from a transportation point of view. The southbound leg was uneventful, with clear runs through the roundabouts, and with one rider passed. In fact, I didn't see many riders out there, as there were some DNSs up ahead on the start order. I reached the turn in a little over 28 minutes, which usually bodes well for me on the F1B/25.  Katja had nudged me last week to put a bit of back into the race - I had planned to go for a 56, so the rapidity of the outbound leg looked good.On the return leg, there was effectively no headwind, and other than a minor slowing by a Kingsmill delivery lorry at one of the roundabouts I had a clear run back. All the way back, I was doing calculations in my head about my pace - I was figuring on a quite short 56 as a likely result. Passing under the Tempsford flyover I was digging quite deep - a bit of support  as I passed Tempsford spurred me on a bit - and I finished in 55:40.This is my best '25' result since 2010, and one that I'm really pleased with. 

With the Astwood circuit (and the Stagsden course) still sidelined by the weak bridge for which the current remedy appears to be to install traffic lights, it was something of a relief to be able to shift this evening's event to the Brogborough course. Our last outing on this course was something of a flop, since the event was abandoned due to freshly laid chippings. Tonight, all was well - and not only that, the weather was in our favour!22 rider lined up, and a considerable number recorded PBs. Full results are over at the NBRC website. It was a pretty nice evening, and I felt pretty good, especially having signs of returning form on Sunday's open '25' on the F1B/25. This evening, I was trying to keep an eye on the power - once down the starting hill, I hoped to keep focus on power through the event. In the end, I didn't have too much trouble with the new roundabout, though the last half mile always seems a bit tougher that one might expect. I took second place to Richard, and first place on veteran standard.We also got a glimpse of the 'flying bum' airship on its maiden flight from the Cardington hangars!

A warm and humid evening saw 17 riders line up for the last evening event in the 2016 time trial series. The weather seemed continually about to break into rain, with short spells of light rain which fortunately didn’t amount to anything much.

As usual I found the outbound leg a bit of a trial, but on the whole I felt pretty good. There seemed to be quite a bit of traffic out on the course with several riders complaining of being stalled by vehicles, notably a tractor with a trailer full of straw bales. In fact Kevin Stokes was DNF as a consequence. For my part I was only slowed a little by a very timid car driver, going through Beachampton on the way out.

Left to my own devices for the weekend, I decided to ride the 22 or so miles out to the Bossard Wheelers ’10’, held on the F11/10 course out by Tring. I had a slight delay while I tried to persuade my Garmin Edge 520 to start up beyond the opening splash screen. In the end, I set off with it in my pocket, while I used the Garmin Edge Touring to give me basic data. The 520 popped into life a few miles down the road. Other than that, the ride out to the race HQ in Aston Clinton was rather nice - it was misty and cool on departure, warming up as I went.

I arrived with plenty of time to get changed into my skinsuit, eat a banana and ensure the Garmin 520 was now playing ball properly. As I rode off for a warmup, the promised rain began to fall, big raindrops that had quite a cooling effect. Fortunately, the rain had stopped by the time I lined up at the start, and with only the lightest of breeze, I was hopeful of a good ride. After a spot of banter with Mary (timekeeper) and Richard (pusher off), I launched myself off down the slip road and onto the A41. The F11/10 isn't a course I've ridden much - two prior outings - so I was playing it by ear a bit. To begin with, the road surface is quite rough, but after a bit it becomes quite smooth and I'm sure I speeded up there.

I’d entered this event on the back of a recent 55:40 at the Finsbury Park CC ’25’ on the F1B/25 - I hoped to do a decent ride on a quick course. Of course, after Alex Dowsett’s storming ride on the E2/25 earlier this year, the course is very popular, and it wasn’t a huge surprise not to make the startsheet. On the other hand, I’d ticked the ‘Reserve’ option, and so I ended up as 8th reserve. The day before the event, with the weather forecast looking decidedly iffy, I was slotted in the field in place of number 120. Probably the only occasion I can recall riding #120! I travelled over to the event with James, one of the newer NBRC members (he’s also rather quick at time trials).

After signing on (and in James’ case, borrowing a front skewer!), we drove to nearer the start to get set up and ‘warm up’. I thought the wind was going to be a bit of a headache - it was going to be pretty much a head wind on the way out, and the question was really how twitchy would it make the steering. Here’s a screen grab from the very excellent MyWindsock.com showing the conditions for the event.

Prologue

So, the usual features of Team Grumpy's preparation for the Duo Normand are generally not conducive to a good performance! This year was no different.

My bike had some real issues with its gear indexing. This was noted in training over in Normandy a month before the Duo, and also back in Blighty. I was optimistic that when he re-jigged the tri-bar extension before the Duo, this might have been rectified - but… Team Grumpy Rule #2 may well be violated again this year!

This was my second trip over to Normandy in 2014. Along with my Team Grumpy team-mate Gerry, I had a long weekend away to make another assault on the Corporatif category of the Duo Normand.

As something of a prologue to this year’s event, I’d decided to modify my P3’s set up. For the last few years, I’d had flat handlebar extensions fitted to the USE Tula bars, but since getting a Cervelo P5, I’d decided that returning to extensions with upturned ends would be beneficial. I ordered the required replacement parts and set about fitting them. It was soon apparent that I had a problem on my hands - I just couldn’t persuade the left hand extension to go through the base bar. After several days effort, I gave up and reverted to Plan B: to buy a new base bar and use some old Deda GCB extensions I had previously used on a fixed wheel TT bike.