Another windy evening promised a tough outward leg to Chicheley before the first turn.  But at least it didn't rain on us - we had heavy showers earlier in the day, but they'd all pushed off into the distance by the time the riders congregated at Astwood for this evening's North Bucks evening 10 mile event.  A bit of a disappointing turnout of 13 riders, and not many of those were NBRC first claim riders, for this counting event in the NBRC league.Having dashed up to Astwood after a day of seemingly interminable meetings at work (and with not having consumed much food prior to the event), I did feel a bit tired and jaded as I lined up at the start.  At least it was reasonably warm, though not quite what I would expect for a late evening in June.  I had a pretty uneventful ride, though the climb up to Chicheley (gentle though it is) seemed very tough into the headwind.  Once round the Chicheley turn, I was really just fighting my general lassitude.I crossed the line in just under 24 minutes (I made it 23:53, but I await the results coming in).  Not too bad in the conditions, but I clearly need to work a bit harder at the training!On a more optimistic note, Gerry and I have entered this year's Duo Normand.Results to follow.

Today was forecast as a hot and sunny prelude to three days of heavy rain.  Some disappointment, therefore, when the skies were darkly clouded at the start of this event.  It was at least warm, with a rather gentler breeze than we've had at recent time trials.  This event was nominated as the North Bucks Road Club's championship '25' time trial.  Disappointing that I was the only NBRC rider taking part.  I was off at #10, with only three riders ahead of me (and one of those was a DNS).

The event was on the F13/25, which runs along the A41 from Launton Road to the outskirts of Aylesbury and back, and isn't really a very quick course - it's quite lumpy, and the road surface (particularly around the new Aylesbury Vale Parkway roundabout) leaves quite a lot to be desired.  There's also the issue of the pedestrian crossing traffic lights in Waddesdon (directly outside the police station!) - racing through when the lights are at red is a disqualification offence.  And, yes, I've seen a rider DQ'd for running the red light there!  No such problems for me today.

I woke rather early this morning, and was elated to see that conditions were well-nigh perfect for time trialling - quite warm, and virtually still.  Over at Tempsford (the event was on F1/25), I signed on and got ready to go and warm up.  Unfortunately I didn't even get out of Tempsford before suffering a rear wheel puncture.  Back to the car and a change of tube!  I availed myself of another competitor's track pump to whack the tyre up to pressure.  Sadly, the tyre didn't hold pressure, and with a substantial cut in the tyre casing, it was pretty clearly game over. This was pretty disappointing, given it was the only decent morning I've had this season for a time trial.Back home for a ride on the tandem.

After a few days of quite pleasant calm weather, it was back to altogether rougher conditions for tonight's time trial, held over two laps of the Astwood circuit and counting as the NBRC time trial championship.The wind had been building all day, and had become rather strong and gusty during the day.  We were fortunate not to be clobbered with the heavy showers that blew through during the day, though I imagine all riders got a light shower at some point in the race.  The potential for difficulty due to the wind was obvious during the ride up to the course.  Indeed, at various points in the event, I was finding it slightly difficult to keep a straight line, and found myself easing off slightly.  In particular, the leg from Astwood to Chicheley seemed to me to be particularly difficult - though I was repeatedly buffeted by unexpectedly capricious gusts of wind.  In fact on the second lap one gust of wind pretty much blew me to a standstill.Interestingly, given the conditions, some good times were recorded: Tony Parks won the event with a 46:37, I was second (I think) with 48:34 - my first lap was 23:31 - and some riders recorded PBs, including John Buchanan.All in all, a worthwhile outing on my favourite club event course.Results to follow!

This time trial, the second counting event in the 2011 series of NBRC time trials, was the first evening event.  Somewhat disappointingly, the rather pleasant weather of recent days had disappointed us, and was replaced with dark, cloudy skies and cool (if not cold) conditions.  There was also the sense of a comedy of errors, as a group of shivering cyclists gathered at the club room to await the start-line crew.  At 15 minutes to go, we decided they must have been down at the start area, so we all dashed down hurriedly...Once there, we got proceedings in order quite quickly.  In fact Lindz was so late getting there he had to act as pusher -off for the first couple of riders while Dick dashed back to his car for the numbers.  The evening wasn't just cold, it was quite breezy, with a headwind facing the riders as they started up the inclines to join the dual carriageway section.  Once on the dual carriageway, the breeze could be felt tugging at my front trispoke.On the encouraging side, this event was the first time since last season that I've felt comfortable riding in the aero tuck position - a problem that almost certainly results from my back injury back in February.  I finished in 23:37 - not too bad, I feel, for the conditions and in relation to recent events.  Simon won with a great ride, chased by Steve (who was clearly stung by his performance in the New Year's Day event!) and Lindz.

This event features fairly regularly on my annual race calendar.  It's always good to do open events on one of the most-used courses in our club event calendar.  This year Gerry and I entered to two-up section of the event.  As it turned out, there was a relatively small turnout for the solo event (30 riders), and only three 2-up teams.  As may have been surmised from recent event reports here and on the Team Grumpy blog, the early season events have been a bit of a struggle for both of us as we fight injury and illness, compounded by demands of work.  Still those are the breaks, I guess, but nonetheless, sets the background for our early season race performance.Unlike the North Bucks club events, the start for this version of the course is between Cranfield and Bourne End, but otherwise the course follows that described here.  Team MK's version of the course also means that the finish is not at the top of the climb into Astwood, which changes how I at least ride that climb.The organiser seems to have a magic touch in arranging weather for this event.  This year, I was a bit disappointed as clear skies gave way to dark clouds.  However, by time we rolled up to the start line as the first 2-up team to start, the clouds had begun to break, letting the sun through.  Unfortunately the performance of Team Grumpy was not as stellar as in previous seasons.  I had neglected to pack my bike computer and so was riding blind to speed, time and heart rate.  As it happened, this was rather good - at least in the context of a 2-up time trial, as I could focus on team riding without worrying about our speed.At the start line there was a single pusher-off, which meant that I would have to clip in once Gerry had started.  Of course, this then led to the usual situation of Gerry pausing to look back, while I need to avoid careering into his back wheel!  Anyway, we started reasonably efficiently, then dropped into a good style of changeovers.  We climbed to Astwood, negotiated the potholes and bumps and joined the A422 where we proceeded at a decent pace towards Chicheley.Here the problems started.We could see a solo rider ahead, and we were gaining quite rapidly.  Gerry was leading, and we were due a changeover.  Unfortunately as we started the climb to Chicheley, it became clear the solo guy wasn't giving up without a fight.  Eventually, we managed to execute the changeover, and I led us up the climb.  By this time Gerry had been dipping into the red, and as I got to the top, I could hear a strangled shout.  Looking back, Gerry was some way off my wheel.  I eased back to let him back on, but in our race post mortem, he reckoned he never really recovered from that effort (this could be seen in a reversal of our usual roles, where Gerry leads us up climbs with me generally hanging on for grim death).While this represented something of a lapse in Team Grumpy race skills, at least we can say that we altered our strategy to give me longer pulls at the front, rather like we did at last year's Duo Normand.  So how did we fare in the results?  Not too well, I am afraid.  We came third and last in the 2-up section, with a time of 49:51.No course map for this report, as I had no Garmin with me!

This was a glorious evening for a time trial: clear, sunny and warm with a light breeze.  The ride up to Astwood from work was really quite pleasant, and I lined up to start with a rare bit of enthusiasm (usually, I'm a bit shattered from a dash from a hectic day at work but today hadn't been too bad).However, from my perspective, there's not much to report.  I set off in good style and felt like I was going well, only to suffer a front wheel puncture just before the Chicheley turn.  I had enough air left to get me most of the way back but for the last mile I was just bumping along. The event was won (I think - results haven't been sent in yet) by Chris Dunwoodie with a long 22, with Tony Parks a few seconds back.  Also worth a mention is Lindz's hird place in 23:12 (or thereabouts).  And many thanks to the start crew: Tony, Steph and Dick.Fortunately I could cadge a lift home, otherwise by the time I'd have got everything sorted, it would have been quite gloomy.  Like me.

This was a beautifully sunny evening for a time trial - good visibility, and it brought out a rather larger field I think than in recent events.  Unfortunately a stiff breeze rather meant it was tough going in some parts of the course, and brought a distinct chill.I was, as usual apprehensive at the start - coming straight from work without anything to eat always seems to leave butterflies flapping in my stomach (not actually nerves, I hasten to add - this was after all a club event), but I'd strained my back again earlier this week.  Fortunately, it didn't seem to give me any grief while on the bike.Once started, I certainly didn't seem to fly up the gentle climb to the main DC section of the course as I'd felt on our last outing on this course - perhaps the cross-wind I felt was denting my speed a bit.  And things got a bit stickier on the main dual carriageway section of the course, where the wind was nagging at my front wheel a bit - particularly noticeable when I passed lower areas of the verge, and gusts caught me.  I was closing in on my minute man at the turn - I entered the roundabout pretty much as he was leaving it.  But the return leg seemed to give him a new lease of life, and it took  a long time to close the gap.  Because he had a rear-facing video camera, he should get some tedious shots of my gurning gob at that time.From there, the return to the finish was it's usual mixed bag - quite quick on the descent sections, but the final stretch between the last roundabout and the finish line was, as ever, hard going  Still, I finished in a long 22 (I think), which is about 30 sec slower than my best ever on this course, and I didn't regard it as a particularly quick evening.After the results, there's the map of the event and if you're particularly interested, you can see more telemetry by clicking link.Results

After the NBRC club time trial on Wednesday, when I felt my form was beginning to return, I was rather looking to this event to reaffirm this judgement.  By Friday, however, I was rather annoyed to see the weather forecast for Saturday afternoon was for heavy rain.  On the day, however, the rain didn't materialise (rather, the BBC had changed their story, now forecasting it for first thing Sunday morning - just when I was supposed to be riding the Norlond '30' on the F1).  So, as I lined up at the start it was dry, though rather warm and humid.  I felt really quite sleepy!  The main climatic obstacle was the rather strong and blustery cross-wind that looked as though it might be most troublesome on the outward leg.And so it proved.  It felt as though I was riding through treacle for the first half of the event.  For the first time when riding this course, I had no problems of being baulked by traffic at any point.  Instead, I was just finding it quite difficult to build up and maintain speed.  The return leg was marginally better, but really only marginally.I crossed the line in about 23:07 - not far different from my time of 23:02 in last year's event.  Perhaps the form I had last year is returning after my injury setbacks of February.  As usual, this was a very sociable event - plenty of conversation.  Maybe it's because a relatively early event in the calendar, and usually with modest number of riders.  Anyway, it was good to touch base with riders I'd not seen since last season.

Well, all the weather forecasts for this morning were diabolical - heavy rain and strong southerly winds were forecast.  I'd decided that there was no way I was going to race on a major dual carriageway in heavy rain, so I was more than a little apprehensive.  In the end, the BBC changed their forecast to sunny spells (and they got it wrong - we had a little light rain, but it was pretty heavily overcast).  What they did get right was the stiff breeze, which promised to make the southbound legs really quite tough.The event was on the F1/30 (my first ever 30 mile time trial): starting near Tempsford, riders head south, joining the A1, crossing the Sandy roundabout to turn at Biggleswade North (Warden Lane) roundabout, heading north across Sandy and Black Cat roundabouts to turn at Buckden for the final 10 mile southbound leg to finish near Tempsford.  There's a map of the course, with some heart rate and speed data at the end of this report.As I got started, I was appalled at the state of the miniroundabout that takes the riders onto the sliproad to join the A1 - successive harsh winters coupled with an evodent unwillingness to repair damage has left it in appallingly pitted and potholed condition.  Indeed one to the riders I talked to at the start said that he'd punctured in the potholes at the Beds Road CC '25' a few weeks ago.  This was good to know, and I took the roundabout  very carefully.  On joining the main dual carriageway, I was already regretting having done the '10' on the preceding afternoon.  Slogging into the headwind was really quite miserable and mostly I was only holding 23mph or so.  Of course, once round the Biggleswade North roundabout, things looked up considerably and, benefitting from a helpful tailwind, I must have averaged over 29mph to the Buckden turn.Returning to the finish was a 10 mile slog into the headwind, a section in which I really lost the will to race.  Bizarrely, there were stretches which were presumably quite well sheltered, where I saw my speed creep up, but on the whole I was knocking out 23-24mph.  I passed the 25 mile point in about 57:52, and eventually finished in 1:10:43.This being my first 30 mile time trial, I suppose this represents a personal best.  I'd have been happier had it been in more comfortable conditions though!

At least the forecast showers held off for this evening's time trial, though blustery wind remained to try my patience.  A good turnout of about 19 riders produced some fine rides, with a bit of a gulf between Tim and Jason and the 3rd and 4th placed riders with a tightly fought 1 second difference.From my perspective, I've been trying to pull back form lost through February's injury: at last week's event I was about half a minute shy of that event in 2010, tonight I was 4 seconds slower than in 2010.  On the other hand the margin between Tony and me was somewhat smaller, around 5 seconds.  By and large, though, I'm reasonably pleased with this evening's ride.The wind meant the outward leg to Chicheley was a little tough, but once round that corner, things were a bit brisker, and I managed to catch one or two riders.  Traffic was pretty light this evening, which is always good!Read on for the results table and map

As last year, this event was nominated by my club as it's 50 mile championship event, which was an added impetus to my participation.  On the morning, however, I felt distinctly unwell.  Perhaps this situation had something to do with a couple of days of hosting family, with attendant over-eating, but it really wasn't ideal for a race.  Because the organiser was in my club, he'd done the traditional thing and put a member of the organising club off first (#9) - this also meant I'd be back and able to help with the results board.Anyway, at the appointed start time, there I was at the line.  It was very cold - probably only a few degrees over freezing.  I negotiated the dreadful road surface on the sliproad roundabout and descended the slip onto the dual carriageway.  There was a particularly nagging side wind, which promised to make the race rather hard in both directions.  By the time I rounded the first turn at the Sandy roundabout, it was pretty clear this wasn't to be an event in which I would bang out a decent performance.  In fact I was feeling as though my stomach was going to empty at any point, and during the race occasionally had to com off the tri bars to avoid being sick (which wouldn't have been good for the bike, I guess).  Along with this, I had horribly weak feeling legs and couldn't raise my heart rate to its usual racing level.[caption id="attachment_1464" align="alignright" width="152" caption="Heading north on the F1/50"][/caption]As I came past Tempsford Carol and my father were there to give an encouraging shout (and take a photo -see right).  Actually, I was probably looking better that I felt as at that point the road's quite sheltered and pretty level.  Unfortunately I knew what was up - by the time I reached the Black Cat roundabout, I reckoned I'd not get below 2 hours.  But I persuaded myself to keep on going.One factor working against me was the lack of riders ahead of me to catch.  It was pretty solitary for the first lap - no-one passed me, and there (of course) was no-one to catch.  As I passed the slip road at the start for my second lap, I did start seeing riders on their first lap (and did actually catch one or to of them) - but of course the counter to this was that some of the faster guys came past me!Eventually I made it to the finish, and rolled back to the HQ.  I got changed and went over to the HQ where I assisted with the results board.  There were some cracking rides - notably Ian Cammish (1:45:23) and Jason Gurney (1:48:06).  I ended up in 33rd place with 2:02:08 - almost 17 minutes slower than Cammish!Click Continue Reading for results and ride detailsResults (to 33rd place)

This event is the usual curtain raiser for my racing season, and it's also the first 2-up event that I ride each year and as such gives an indication of how Team Grumpy's form is at this early stage in the season.  Usually, we also take advantage of the journey over to Wales to visit interesting archaeological sites, previous visits having included the Avebury stone circle, the Uffington White Horse and Wayland's Smithy.  This year was slightly different: we stayed in Bath for a couple of nights en route to Wales.I'd never visited Bath before - we enjoyed traipsing about seeing the Royal Crescent and visiting sites such as the Assembly Rooms, the Roman Baths, and the Herschel Museum.  Bath appears to be astonishingly well endowed with restaurants, and we visited a fish restaurant (One Fish Two Fish) and a Moroccan restaurant (Cafe Du Globe), both of which were excellent.On to Wales for the main event, and the signs were ominous.  Gerry's training programme had recently gone slightly off the rails, while as observed over at the Team Grumpy blog, I had suffered an extraordinarily painful back injury three weeks before the event which not only prevented training but threw my participation in the event into question.  To add an interesting frisson of excitement, it transpired that the Team Grumpy entry had been lost in the post, and only a phone call of enquiry from Gerry earned us a start in this event.Absorbing medical advice, I did in fact manage to recover in time turn up in South Wales in a relatively pain-free condition.  All that remained was to see how we'd perform on the day.In time-honoured fashion, we conducted our usual preparation: consumption of sufficient energy drink. Thus fortified (and indeed entertained by 80s pop music courtesy of Sky TV), I retired to dream soothing (and deluded) dreams of time trial success.The morning of the event dawned rather cloudy and cool - but not as cold as the sub-zero conditions faced by riders in the 2010 edition of this 2-up.  We set up the bikes with clear apprehension: what would the consequences of our combined lack of training and form be?  And would my back hold out for the whole 25 miles?  More to the point, what was the road damage on the second half of the course to which riders' attention was drawn on signing on?  And, indeed, how significant was the presence of traffic lights on the same section (to which the instruction that riders must 'obey the highway code' was appended?In an effort to answer these uncertainties, we mounted the bikes and nipped out for a brief warmup. It was quickly apparent that (a) the road was in a shocking state, and (b) the traffic lights were at the top of a climb and looked like they could present real problems if at red.With reconnaissance over, and all too soon, we were lined up and ready to go.  We launched ourselves onto the course (see map below), with only a brief backward glance from Gerry.  The opening dual carriageway stretch proved to be very fast, with a gentle tailwind.  We were pleased that we were able to fall back into 2-up mode straight away.  After the first turn, the going got a little harder, as the head wind was nagging.  We were gratified to see our "Manager" on a bridge apparently videoing proceedings as we made their way past the start area (see video below).  Once off the dual carriageway, the usually efficient Team Grumpy changeovers became rather ragged as the pitted and potholed road surface made it difficult to judge whether a rider was pulling out to let his team mate through or merely to avoid crashing through a pothole.A massive sprint pulled us into the traffic lights on amber, but at the cost of a bit of an oxygen debt: this rendered the approach to the turn somewhat arduous.  Returning to the traffic lights, delays were once again avoided.  This was just as well, as by this time we were hanging on for grim death, looking for the finish line, which seemed to take an eternity to arrive.  Eventually it did, at 1:04:36.This wasn't an excellent result (though not as bad as it sounds: the course is rather hard at times), but enough to take a composite team prize.  More to the point, at least Team Grumpy proved their ability to ride well as a team, even after a lengthy winter lay-off.Results are here.  And here's a map of the course: Here's a video, showing us coming out of a roundabout, and doing a changeover: PTW-2-up 6th March 2011.

This event was the first in the 2011 series of North Bucks club events, and followed a period of injury and ill-health on my part: beginning with a spectacularly painful back injury (which led on to sciatica) and followed by a cold for most of the week prior to the event.  This has been particularly disappointing, since all the signs were that my winter training had been going well as far as early February.It was with some trepidation, therefore, that I set out for the event, which was being held on the popular Astwood 10 mile 'sporting' course.  There had been some discussion about whether the village hall had been hired: in the event, it turned out it hadn't, and a last minute booking enhanced the social aspects of the event.  In fact, the morning proved quite mild, with overcast skies, with sunshine peeping through and a 13 mph SE wind.The event itself was a bit of a struggle for me.  I couldn't get particularly comfortable, nor could I bash out enough effort on the tougher uphill sections.  I finished in 25:28, a rather disappointing time though not surprising given the last few weeks.  Simon Cannings pulled off a long 22, which was pretty damned good for the time of year (he'd said before starting that he'd done masses of base training but little speed work and was unsure how he'd do - well I guess he answered his question!).Result of the NBRC time trial 12/3/11 (Astwood, F5v/10 - including medium gear event)

A lovely sunny morning greeted me when I got up: unfortunately it was slightly deceptive to start with: there was a heavy frost which made my ride up to Astwood rather nippy on the fingers.  Still, by the time the small and select group of foolhardy riders lined up to start, the conditions were getting milder by the minute.The event was really billed as a 10 mile 2-up, but at the time we all went to the line, there were only five riders.  Now this, ignoring the 'odd man out', wasn't really much cop for a 2-up event, so we decided to ride it as a solo event.  Needless to say, a few more riders turned up, so there was at least one 2-up team riding.Off I went, and after about a mile, I was seriously disappointed by the lack of energy in my legs.  I actually toyed with the idea of packing - but of course this would have been the beginning of the slippery slope.  I pressed on with the idea that it would at least be a good training session, and help to regain fitness lost recently through injury and illness.  The frankly pretty moderate head wind on the Chicheley leg of the course (the BBC weather page suggested it was a measly 4mph) did seem to dent what little speed I could muster, as once I rounded the turn at Chicheley, I found my speed picking up.  Unfortunately, this didn't last, as I climbed the awesome 'Col de North Crawley' (it's a tiny rise in the road - it just seems big when racing!) and wound my way past the University and returned to the finish line.As usual, the elastic nature of time when time trialling was evident - I genuinely though I'd improved to a long 24, but in the event I finished in EXACTLY the same time as last week (25:28).  Most disappointing, though I must be honest and say that training has been minimal over the past week.  Still, onwards and upwards.  I hope.2-up event:

This event was the first in the North Bucks Road Club time trial league, and a designated 'come and try it' event.  As it turned out, we got a good turn out of at least 20 riders from local clubs, a few NBRC riders, but no new time triallists as far as I know.  It was slightly chilly as I rode over to Astwood, but nowhere near as cold as last week.  Lightly overcast, the sun was just trying to peep out from behind hazy clouds, and managing to warm the conditions up.  In fact the racing conditions seemed pretty similar to the previous two events.After my last two events, I was needing the confidence boost of an improved time, but as I rode up to Astwood, I really had little enthusiasm for racing (partly due to the fact I was to race the Icknield RC hilly 30k the following morning).  Anyway, once I started I soon dropped into racing mode, and for a change found I was able to stay a little bit more focussed.  I had my pal and arch-nemesis Tony starting one minute behind me - given my present form and his recent Majorcan mileage, it was really a matter of when rather than if he would catch me.  This he did shortly after North Crawley and a little over two-thirds of the way round the course.Ultimately I finished with 24:51 - still not great, but an improvement of 37 seconds on my last two rides on this course.  It was really good to see so many riders turn out for an event: it gave the impression we were all emerging from the long winter hibernation.Here's a map, with associated speed, heart rate and altitude traces (if you click the link).And the results:

Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear!A chilly morning greeted me as I left to ride over to Pitstone for the Icknield RC hilly 30k time trial.  This is a regular feature on my early season, which I enter either solo (as this year) or as a 2-up event with my Team Grumpy partner.  No problems riding over to the race HQ: I chose to ride along the new Stoke Hammond bypass, a nicely surfaced dual carriageway.  Having left in good time in case of incident (punctures spring to mind!), I arrived at the hall in plenty of time.  Well, actually, a bit too much time.After a spot of conversation, I trundled off to the start line.  By this time I was feeling rather chilly, and I noticed that all the riders lined up at the start were shivering, so I wasn't alone there.Eventually, my start time came, and off I went.  The course leads past a recreation ground and through Ivinghoe.  The recreation ground is a bit of a problem, with parents in large 4x4s stopping to deliver children to Sunday football matches.  As has happened before, I got stalled quite badly by one such monster vehicle.  Shortly after Ivinghoe, the course turns left and climbs up the shoulder of  Ivinghoe Beacon.  At this point, I knew I was in for a tough ride: I really struggled over the top, and indeed got caught for a minute on the way down the other side (only about 10 minutes into the race!).At the bottom of the descent it's a sharp left to join the road out to Billington.  This was characterised by some pretty bad potholes, and then the sharp climb that is Billington Hill.  This year I decided against muscling a big gear and slipped the chain into the small plate.  Nevertheless, I crested the hill in an embarrassingly small gear.  Fortunately the speed picked up as I descended to the roundabout where I joined the Leighton Buzzard bypass. from there it was reasonably quick, past a couple of roundabouts and up to Wing.  During this stretch, I was passed by #78, and was caught by the scratch rider (Steve Golla, #80) in Wing.  The roads continued to be of really poor quality* as I descended from Wing.  Dodging the potholes and traffic, I eventually reached the turn to Wingrave.  Up the slight hill and through Wingrave - turned left at the duckpond (has to be one of the more quaint course descriptions), where my right tri-bar pad decided to leap off into the abyss**.  Ignoring the abrasive possibilities of riding on the remaining velcro patches, I pressed on to Mentmore crossroads and turned right towards Mentmore and the final climb.  Not too bad, though #79 caught me shortly after cresting the hill - now I was the last rider on the road!  The descent could have been fast, but I found myself inhibited by the big red signs exhorting road users to go slowly: "Failed Road Surface" was the hazard*.  Dodging huge potholes and associated gravel, the descent past the Mentmore country club was quite quick.  One last sprint and I crossed the line to finish in 50:41.This wasn't a particularly triumphant performance, but hopefully will contribute to returning form as I return from the injury and illness of recent weeks.*I rode a total of about 1o9km today, including riding too and from the event, and I can say that I was appalled by the state of the roads I was on: they would embarrass a third world country, and this must be one of the wealthiest counties in England.  Shame on the local councils!  Last winter has absolutely trashed them.  It made riding the event rather unpleasant at times.**I chose to ride home via Wingrave and retrieved the tri-bar pad, which will henceforth be secured with a rubber band.

This was a gloriously sunny morning: chilly when I set out to ride over to Stony Stratford, but warm for the race and even warmer for the ride home.  This event was the last of the early season morning time trials - the next event being on Wednesday evening.This isn't my favourite course - I dislike the climb to Nash, which doesn't really suit an overweight time triallist, and the road surface is pretty poor in places after two harsh winters.  I arrived very early and hung around for about 40 minutes or so before I started.  Once off, I felt pretty good for the first few miles, despite having to dodge some new potholes a dead rabbit and a live pheasant.  I still felt OK when I started the Nash climb, though I intentionally selected a lower gear than I normally would (this generally slows my ride overall).  I got to the turn in reasonably good shape, and could see that Richard, who'd started a minute before me was on a good ride (he did a PB, I later found).The return leg from the turn was fairly straightforward - I'd noted some of the worst potholes and road surfaces on the way out so I expected the really dreadful section just after passing through Beachampton (why can't those responsible for the roads repair the blasted potholes?).  Unfortunately I felt the time on my computer just slipping away as I made a last effort before the line to finish in 28:52.All in all, a really good morning - lovely weather, very sociable - I had an enjoyable ride home with Richard.

How did the 2010 time trialling season pan out?I approached the 2010 timetrialling season having made some changes in the organisation of my training.  I had decided that I was no longer able to continue training in the evenings after work because I was getting home later due to work commitments.  Instead, I was to be found pounding the turbo trainer in the garage at 6am…often dark, generally cold (sometimes extremely so!), but as it turned out a more effective strategy.Another change made at the outset of the training phase had been the adoption of a power meter on my turbo trainer.  I have never been particularly impressed by the concept of power measurement in cycle training: too often I’d seen riders become obsessed with their power data (“Oh, but I rode a power personal best” is a common refrain after a mediocre performance).  Because I was less than fully convinced of the value of power training, I chose the “budget solution” – a Polar CS600X with Power and Cadence, which I fitted to the rusty old turbo trainer bike.  The Polar power meter works on chain vibration (apparently rather like a guitar string and pickup) – the system needs to know the chain mass and length – and seems to work reliably enough.To back this up I used Hunter and Coggan’s Training and Racing with a Power Meter, now in its second edition.  This gives a pretty good overview of how to look at and analyse power data in the context of a training programme.  Of course all these data are pointless without some means of dealing with the number crunching – for this I chose the excellent Golden Cheetah, an open source programme with significant capabilities.  During the year I've been using it, it has seen significant development, reaching the version 2.0 milestone a few weeks before Christmas.A further hardware upgrade was the new time trial bike.  For my 50th birthday, I received a Cervelo P3 frame and forks – I built this up mostly by transferring kit from the old time trial bike to this one, with a few new components.  This machine has been a delight to race on, from 1st January to the Duo Normand in September.Pre Season TrainingMy preparatory training for the season generally begins in late October after a brief gap in cycling (at least intense cycling).  I decided that I would be rather circumspect in how I made use of power data, and pretty much continued my usual programme, which fairly closely follows Pete Read’s Annual Manual (aka the Black Book).  It’s probably inappropriate to detail this programme, as it’s undoubtedly copyright, but suffice it to say that it involves a steady base that gradually builds through progressive interval sessions to deliver one in good shape at the start of the season in late February or early March.The Black Book uses heart rate as a measure of effort: the main criticism by power meter afficionados is that this can be a poor reflection of effort due to “thermal drift”, and indeed this effect was quite clear in eyeballing the traces from turbo sessions ridden at a steady heart rate – generally power readings would start declining after bout 12 to 20 minutes.  This was quite interesting to see, and when I moved into the season, I focussed on interval training for this reason.Of course, I did monitor my progress by analysing the quality of each session, and by periodically estimating my threshold power.  However, the proof of the pudding was in the racing.  How did my season go?Early season events -  a mixed bagI turned out for the club’s New Years Day ’10’ and did a reasonable performance on a bitterly cold morning – it was about -4 Celsius.  I think this result surprised me a bit, and it was probably the closest I got to Tony P’s time all season!   Then it was back to the turbo treadmill before the NBRC club events got under way.As in recent seasons, the first four or so club events were held up at the Astwood circuit – these were rather uneventful.  This account really deals with the open events I rode in 2010, so I’ll mostly ignore club events.  The 2-up time trial outings with my regular Team Grumpy team mate Gerry are pretty rare nowadays since we live about 250 miles apart.  It has to be said that this year our two traditional early season 2-ups were not especially successful.The Port Talbot Wheelers 2-up ’25’ is held on the first weekend in March on a course near Neath in South Wales – the course is about 50% dual carriageway and 50% severely undulating back road, and this year the weather was dry but bitterly cold.  It’s actually rather a nice course, but not particularly quick.  Usually at this time of year, I spend a considerable proportion of the race grimly hanging on Gerry’s wheel.  This year I seemed to be setting the pace a bit more strongly.  Unfortunately Gerry punctured about 3/4 of the way through the event and despite pressing on (at his behest), it was game over for Team Grumpy.Team Grumpy’s second 2010 outing was at the Icknield RC’s sporting course time trial in late March on a 30km circuit.  Unfortunately the day before I’d punctured on the way home from a club event and had to walk a considerable distance.  the consequence was that I’d got mud in my Speedplay pedal cleats.  A tiny amount of mud, but enough to prevent me from clipping onto my pedal.  So my race was over before it began – Gerry rode solo in the event (but of course his ride didn’t count).  We rode no further 2-up events until the Duo Normand in late September, of which more later.Mid-season eventsThe first significant ’25’ was the Lea Valley ’25’ on the E2/25 over by Newmarket.  This was the first of three outings on this course in 2010, and saw Tony and I sitting in his car by the HQ before the event apprehensively anticipating how we’d do – this being our first ’25’ of the season.  In the end, we did rather well, and I did my best time in about 5 or 6 years, recording a 55:38.  I never managed to rival the E2/25 times with performances on the F1!On the two subsequent outings on the E2, I recorded 55:29 on a spectacularly horrible day that saw many riders DNS, and a 55:43 while trying to take it easy the day prior to riding a ‘100’ on the F1.  Actually, none of those events were on particularly ‘float’ days.That ‘100’ was the North Middx & Herts CA ‘100’, and by the time I’d plugged up and down the F1 for 86 of the 100 miles, I was getting distinctly bored.  Unfortunately the finishing circuit was truly brutal, with a nagging headwind adding to the misery of cramping legs.  I was riding unsupported, relying on a Camelbak for my nutritional provision.  This was rather problematic as the Camelbak’s bulge interfered with the tail of my aero hat.  Still, despite the previous afternoon’s ’25’ I managed to finish with a 4:25 – not as quick as I’d have liked, but not bad all things considered.‘10’s don’t figure very highly in my usual programme of open events, partly because there just don’t seem to be many locally, and partly because I prefer longer events.  Anyhow, a good ’10’ time certainly seemed to be likely by the time I rode the Norlond CA ’10’ (25/4/10).  This event was on the F1/10, and was on a particularly wet morning.  By the time I reached the turn, I was closing on my minute man.  Unfortunately just after rounding the turn, I suffered a puncture and had to make a rather soggy return to the HQ, pondering what might have been my best ’10’ in several years.It wasn’t until an evening event on the F20/10 (the Whitewebbs CC ’10’ on 3rd July) that I pulled off a decent ’10’ – a 21:05.  Once again this wasn’t a particularly quick feeling evening, but the time was only 14 seconds slower than my all time best ’10’ – and my second fastest ever.The club’s designated ’25’ championship event was the Hemel Hempstead ’25’ on the F13/25 – the odd course that has traffic lights at a pedestrian crossing!  The lights are marshalled, and anyone jumping the lights gets disqualified.   I was the fastest of the three NBRC riders to take part, and did a respectable time for this not-very-fast course.  Similarly, I was one of the few NBRC riders to ride at 50 miles this year, and I think the only NBRC rider to enter the nominated ’50’.  My top 50 mile performance was at the Finsbury Park CC event on the F1, where I recorded 1:57:45, my best in the last five or six seasons.The Duo NormandThis was Team Grumpy’s seventh ride in the Duo Normand, and we’ve posted write-ups online (see flies&bikes and the Team Grumpy blog).  Suffice it to say that while this wasn’t our fastest time, we did win our category (Corporate), had the glory of a motorcycle outrider, and climbed onto the podium to receive a glass trophy, a bunch of flowers and the all-important podium girl kiss.  Well, we got the podium kiss once they'd realised we were cyclists and not a pair of old duffers who'd climbed onto the podium van by mistake!All things considered, 2010 was an excellent season: my entry forms will have 2010 times for 10, 25 and 50 miles.  Sadly, I couldn’t quite get there at 100 miles (and there was no way I was riding a '12' this year!), but hey – not bad for someone just starting their second half-century!  But what of our touring?2010 Summer TourThis year's tour once again saw us returning to the Hebrides, with a route encompassing several ferry crossings - visiting Barra, The Uists, Skye, Ardnamurchan and Mull.  While a little cold to begin with, we got away with decent weather.  Except, that is, for the time we spent on Skye, when it pretty much tipped down mercilessly.  By the time we made it to Ardnamurchan, the weather was delightful.  Unfortunately, that didn't last, with the final day's cycling from Tobermory to Oban being rather murky and drizzly.  We stayed in B&Bs and Hotels, accommodation highlights being the Tigh Dearg Hotel in Lochmaddy (North Uist) and the Salen Hotel.Normandy 2010In September it was back to our stamping ground in Normandy - once again we took the trusty tandem for a spot of cycling, this year mostly after the Duo Normand.  As per usual with our cycling jaunts (and this is a recurring theme in write-ups of our tandem tours) a lot of our energy is focussed on finding nice food and drink to consume.

As usual, I turned out for the club's New Year's Day 10 mile time trial on the F5d/10, which makes use of the new Stoke Hammond bypass.  This year, eight hardy souls rode the event (but two as a two up team on road bikes with mudguards, I believe.This year's event benefited from above zero temperatures, but it was still rather cold and clammy with periods of drizzle.  Immediately from the off, I noticed my additional bulk (accumulated as my mileage dropped off during December's snowy conditions) as the road rises to join the new dual carriageway.  Annoyingly (having remarked on how light the traffic was earlier), there seemed to be a bit of an increase in traffic levels around the time we started event.  I got a little slowed by traffic at the first roundabout (and again by a single driver at the penultimate roundabout), but to be honest the road surface at that roundabout is so poor I always take it rather cautiously.Once on the dual carriageway, I focussed on catching my minute man, which I did shortly after the turn.  After that, it was a rather uneventful ride.  However, I did feel rather awkward on the bike - it was the first time I'd been out on the time trial bike since the Duo Normand on 19th September, and not only did it feel both very twitchy in the steering but I certainly didn't feel comfortable in my aero tuck!I finished in 24:21, about 14 seconds faster than last year but beaten into second place by Lindz Barrall with a very fine 23, who increased his margin over me from last year's 10 seconds.  Nevertheless, it earned me the New Year's Day '10' trophy for the fastest North Bucks Road Club rider.Results below the map...