Somewhat to my surprise, the other half of Team Grumpy volunteered to organise the 2010 British Time Trial Championship.  This meant of course that I felt duty bound to offer a spot of web support.  We ended up deciding to use the Team Grumpy website to host the course description and other contact information.Now riders are beginning to think about entering, Team Grumpy has swung into action to add information to the site.You can see a listing of BTTC pages.Entry forms are available on this page.You can follow website updates on Twitter or by our RSS feed.An outline of the course.

Well, a bit of a change from the weekend's racing - a lovely sunny and warm evening greeted us as we gathered for the NBRC's club event on the Astwood circuit.  In actual fact it was the sort of evening that would have been rather pleasant to spend sitting in a pub garden sipping beer...but that was not to be as I lined up, yawning, to ride as #13 in this evening's event.We had a good turnout of 18 riders plus a tandem pair - we even had a visiting rider, Emma from Gillingham & District Wheelers, who'd enquired about the event via the NBRC website.  Emma turned out on her mountain bike.  Other notable riders included the "legendary" Karlo Porter.  I say legendary because people where he and I work keep saying "You must know Karlo", and because his club hill climb record for the Bow Brickhill course will be 20 years old next year.The light wind was enough to take the edge of my speed as I headed off towards Chicheley, but once round the corner the speed picked up substantially and before I knew it I was approaching North Crawley. I was riding without speed most of the time as the GPS kept dropping connection. By this time I was feeling a little "dry", but decided to hold off on drinking until the finish.Once through Crawley, it was the usual scramble to get back up to speed, but I felt pretty much OK other than being a bit thirsty!  The final push up the climb to the finish was really tough as I was determined to catch #12 (Darren) - unfortunately I failed!Tony took the honours, despite suffering a broken spoke on his from Zipp.  I was pretty pleased - according to Tony F.'s records, this is my fastest ride at Astwood since May 2006.

Here's a photo of me on the new bike, in action in the VTTA '25' last weekend.  Apologies for the vanity posting![caption id="attachment_902" align="alignnone" width="622" caption="Riding the VTTA '25' on the E2/25, 19/6/10"][/caption]As noted, the photo is copyright Sarah Brooke.  Visit her website for photos of this event (and other events).

It certainly seemed as though summer had arrived when I arrived at Launton for the Hemel Hempstead '25', held on the F13/25 course.  Riding out to the start, it was immediately clear that my headset adjustments made before leaving home had left the bearings too tight.  I returned to the HQ and retrieved my mini allen key set.  A quick adjustment and I was on my way (with the allen key set in my pocket to be on the safe side).Before starting, I reconnoitred the finish area, since on a previous outing in this event, I'd been misdirected off-course by a charity ride marshal. It was quite clear that the finish comes after an annoying little climb.  I also straightened my handlebars a little. Lining up at the start, rider #4 asked if I had an allen key, as his saddle clamp (this was also on a Cervelo P3) wasn't tight enough - I was happy to oblige, and I think he was rather relieved.  Unbeknownst to me, #3 also had a mechanical - the nipple on his front mech cable had just popped off the cable en route to the start.  I've never seen this happen before!  He bodged a permanent shift to the big ring by wedging a stone in the front mech, which must be the most enterprising start line tech fix I've ever heard about!Anyway, my start finally arrived, and after some banter with the start line crew, it was off and joining the A41.  The F13/25 cruises along the A41, through Waddesden (where there is a pedestrian crossing with traffic lights - running red lights earns a DQ), turning at the first roundabout in Aylesbury.  The course is cerainly not flat, and there are some quite stiff, but fortunately short little climbs.  In particular, the road surface has degraded quite badly between Waddesden and the turn, particularly after the turn.  I'd caught all three riders in front of me before the turn, so the return leg was a little lonely.  And surprisingly tough - more so than the outward leg.  At least I never got caught at the lights in Waddesden (unlike the unlucky rider #3).By the time I reached the little rise to the finish turn, I was really hot, tired and my HRM was reaching in excess of 190bpm.  At last, I turned and yanked the gears up a notch for one last hammer down to the finish line.  My time of 58:50 was good enough for 10th place (start sheet of 49 riders had several non-starters.  the event was won in impressive style by Danny Axford with a 53:22.After the event, we pushed off to the Waddesden Garden Centre so C. could buy some requisites for the garden.  Oh and coffee and cakes.  Then home, where after lunch we nipped out on the Longstaff tandem for a 20 mile circuit.  A bit hot, really, and my legs knew about this morning's effort.
View F13/25 27/6/10 in a larger map

Pez Cycling has a brief article (Toolbox: What Does Every Masters Athlete Have in Common?) which touches upon the physical decline that faces the ageing athlete, and what to do about it.  For one in his second half century, there's always something a little depressing about such articles, but at least there is advice, most interestingly on the subject of recovery from training:

To me, the key is fitting workouts together like a puzzle. For example, perhaps one day the focus of the workout is strength type efforts, where the cardiovascular system is not overly stressed, but the essential component of strength is benefited. The next day, a focus can be more aerobic. In other words, you are working on different “systems” on different days.One addition item. In a recent study, 75% of athlete’s polled (not sure of the amount in the study, but it was large) said they applied some type of recovery program to their training, like recovery drinks, massage, etc. I still think the biggest and most important, regardless of all the other things you try is sleep.

Another lovely evening (though rather too hot for me) for this club event.  A depleted number of "regulars" was augmented by some cyclists keen to give time trialling a shot - this was a nominated "come and try it" event.  I pounded out to the meeting point, getting there with a little time to spare.I decided to play around with gearing on the evening, and chose to tackle the main climb in a slightly lower gear that I would usually muscle up the hill.  It didn't seem to help - either I need to drop it further or I need to carry on grinding out big gears!  More problematic were the obstacles on the course this evening.  Firstly, a large tractor/trailer combo seemingly abandoned just outside Beachampton; secondly some silly kids leaping out into the course near the turn; and finally, I got stopped at the turn roundabout ("foot on the ground stopped") by a nose-to-tail line of cars coming from the right.  I don't know how much time that cost me, but I had to re-catch a rider I'd just past, and was myself caught shortly after while I was struggling back up to speed in a rather high gear.Anyway, roaring back down to Beachampton was pretty quick, and I was helped a bit by having a bit of a ding-dong with the guy who's caught me - I think I could descend a bit quicker, especially with my enormous top gear engaged.I finished with 27:51, which I wasn't hugely pleased with.  But I suppose taking into account my "excess baggage" and the hassles at the turn it wasn't too bad (any anyway this course doesn't best suit me).  I have a rare outing at an open '10' at the weekend, and it'll be good to see how that goes.

Over the last couple of days, the fine weather had continued, but since Wednesday it had become less humid making for better racing conditions.  I travelled over to the race HQ in Great Amwell with Tony.  The course for the event was the F20/10 (map is at the end of this report), a course I'd not ridden for a few years,The HQ's about two or three miles from the start which, once reached, there's no exit from (other than the course), as it's in a layby on the A10.  En route to the start I stopped to check my wheels - they've taken to making an annoying ticking noise - and found myself talking to rider #1 who strangely had the same model/colour of frame, same overshoes, same shoes, same helmet as I did!  Anyway, after a bit of banter with the start line crew (during which they let slip Bradley Wiggins' performance in the Tour de France prologue), off down the A10 I went.After a bit of heavy traffic just before I started, traffic levels seemed OK, though I did keep a careful look-out at each sliproad.  Soon after the start is a gentle rise that knocks the speed a bit, from an initial burst at 30+ mph, I found myself falling back briefly tp 23-24 mph.  However, soon back up to speed, I made it to the turn in good time (I estimated about 10 minutes) and set off on the return leg.  The gentle start-stop breeze had I think helped me to the turn, so I wasn't surprised to find it a little harder on the return leg.The finish lies at the far end of a very long layby, and by the time I crossed it, I'd been closing down on #2.  I'd also been looking at my computer, and was a little disappointed not to sneak below 21 minutes.  On the other hand, 21:05 is not half bad - as far as I can tell, the last time I went faster was on 6th July 2002 (8 years ago!) when I set my all-time personal best of 20:51 on the F1/10.  At that time, the F1/10 was a course that's no longer used - south on the A1 from Little Paxton to turn at the Black Cat roundabout.A gentle ride back to the HQ to find my result just going up on the board (I'll post results later when available).  Tony returned from his race a few minutes later, having recorded 20:46.  Altogether we felt pretty damned pleased with ourselves!
View F20/10 3rd July 2010 in a larger map

This year, as I enter my second half century, I've seen consistent improvement in my time trialling performances. As I write, I have ridden my best times at 10 miles (21:05, my best since 2002, and my second best time ever), 25 miles (55:29, my best since 2004) and 50 miles (1:57:45 and again, my best since 2004). So, what's this down to?The sceptics out there seem to reckon it's due to my new time trial bike, built around a Cervelo P3. I suspect it's more down to changed training practices. Back in mid-2009, I figured I needed to re-evaluate my work-life balance, since my working pattern was leading to ever-later finishes each day, and directly impacting on my ability to schedule training sessions. And as anyone should realise, the key to decent performance is a detailed and thoughtful training schedule. Indeed, way back when I was setting my personal best times in 2002-4 I was rigorously following Pete Read's Black Book, which is actually a fixed schedule of sessions based on heart rate monitoring.On the basis that a change is as good as a rest, I've been dabbling with power-based training for my time trialling habit since October (after last year's Duo Normand, in fact). I've reviewed the hardware I selected over at the Team Grumpy website - the Polar CS600X cycle computer with the WIND power meter attachment.Thus far, I've principally used the device on the turbo trainer bike. Despite frequently offered advice that the power system doesn't work on a turbo trainer mounted bike, it does seem to deliver pretty robust data. I also plumped for the Polar G3 GPS device. This bit of kit picks up the GPS satellite data and relays it to the CS600X head unit. My main reason for investing in the G3 was that I'd not need to get speed sensors for all my bikes. I'm pretty pleased with the G3, it seems to generally work well, once one has figured out the hopelessly inadequate documentation.I don't particularly like the Polar Pro Trainer (PPT) software that came with the CS600X - I have continued using the training software that I've used since about 2003 (VidaOne Diet and Fitness - formerly known as MySportTraining), but need to use PPT to get the GPS data downloaded. Both the Polar and VidaOne applications lose out quite markedly on the matter of displaying and analysing power data. After a spot of Googling, I came across an Open Source project - Golden Cheetah - which produces releases for Windows, Mac OSX and (most importantly) Linux. This offers a neat set of analytical tools which mean that power metering can be really very effectively used to deduce the effectiveness of training sessions.I have found Hunter and Coggan's book Training and Racing with a Power Meter to be realy invauable in making sense of a lot of the graphs and charts that GC can use to display data. The book's just come out in a second edition. GC aims to display data derived from a number of devices (and their individual file formats). Unfortunately the Polar CS600X produces two files - the first containing the session data in hrm format, and the GPS data within a second file in gpx format. GC imports GPS data in the Garmin tcx format. In itself, this isn't a major problem (for example the GPSies website offers format conversion, except that the session and GPS data remain in separate files.Fortunately Rainer Clasen has developed a series of perl scripts to do a number of tasks with such data files, including merging datasets - see perl Workout library. These do an excellent job, though you do need to know a little command line work. I got the scripts installed with a minimum of perl expertise (and I mean minimum!), though there were one or two snags in the files I was seeking to merge that required a little help from Rainer (for which, many thanks). Now I'm able to merge hrm and gpx files into a tcx format file, which imports well into GC.Next on my plan is to take power-metered bike(s) out on the road. I have fitted a second Polar WIND power sensor to one of my road bikes, and over the last week I've been evaluating the kind of training I can do with the extra information at my fingertips. Whereas on the turbo I principally use the power data to analyse my training sessions after completion, on the road I tend to keep an eye on the power output. In part this reflects the nature of the sessions - extended efforts on the road vsintervals on the turbo - but also that the readings are a little more stable than on the turbo. Neatly, GC has a Google Earth display which shows the GPS track of the ride, coloured to show 30s average power readings along the ride. Now, I'm not convinced of the importance of the power colouring, but seeing the route is quite useful.Despite all this movement towards power-based training, my main emphasis has remained on using power metering to analyse the training sessions rather than dictate effort applied. In particular, I've been using it to estimate my threshold power in order to monitor my progress through the training schedule. Instead, I rely mostly on the physiological readout of my heart rate. What remains is to incorporate all this information into a much more structured scheme over next winter in preparation for the 2011 season.

This evening's club event was the Club Time Trial Championship, held as usual over two laps of the Astwood circuit.  We had a pretty good turnout at the event (including at least one newcomer on a road bike), and though I felt a bit tired and unenthusiastic I felt pretty good at the start.  Unfortunately things most certainly did not go according to plan!After a lengthy period of hot and sunny weather, it was quite heavily overcast and rather windy.  The opening leg to Chicheley was harder than usual, due to the head wind, but as usual once round the sharp turn after Chicheley, the leg up to North Crawley was quite brisk.  Coming out of North Crawley I rapidly picked up speed again, and indeed was feeling rather good as I caught and passed Gilbert, who'd started three minutes ahead of me (#12 - #13 was Tony, #14 was the tandem pair).  Passing the turn to Cranfield University, I was momentarily distracted by a small car that pulled out in front of me, but on this occasion the drive rmanaged to get up to speed without holding me up.Unfortunately at the left hand turn towards Bourne End and Astwood, disaster struck.  Since I was approaching the corner rather fast (about 27mph, I think), I thought it prudent to brake as I entered the turn.  At this point there was a "clonk" and I lost all front stopping power and found myself heading rather fats towards the verge.  Somehow I avoided the low kerb and found myself bouncing along the grassy verge.  Which might have been OK, except there was drainage ditch which propelled me upwards and off the bike.Picking myself up, I checked myself and the bike.  Gilbert stopped to check I was OK, which was much appreciated - he accompanied me back to Astwood as I rather gingerly returned to the finish area.  It turned out my front brake's bolt had come loose (something I've never had happen before), and when I applied the rake it had shot out of the front fork.  Still, not other damage seemed to have happened (pending a close look at the bike).  Physically, I received a large bruise on my right shin and my wrists took some of the impact (as I write the following morning, they are rather sore).  So apart from those injuries and one or two smaller scrapes and bruises, I seem to have escaped without major injury.Oh, well. there's always next year...

Looking out of my office window before riding up to Astwood for this evening's time trial, one might have been forgiven for thinking it was going to be a balmy warm late spring evening.  Well, it was fairly balmy - there was only a light wind - but warm it most certainly wasn't.  As we lined up at the start, the temperature was falling quite rapidly, and it was quite chilly.We also didn't have a pusher-off, so watching riders start by failing to clip into their pedals was really quite amusing,  Until it was my turn to start!  Anyway, roaring off down the main road to Chicheley, I was quite pleased that my ride up from work had been brisk (rather later leaving than I'd intended): my heart rate was rapidly raised to a decent racing level.  I roared down to Chicheley, I think in part because of a gentle tail wind.  I stayed in the saddle and on the tribars all the wayto the Chicheley turn, then as usual took the bend quite cautiously as it's often rather gravelly.  On up to North Crawley, and I was convinced I could see another rider ahead of me.  But who?  I couldn't figure it out, and for the rest of the race kept seeing the rider, then not, as the mystery rider moved round bends ahead of me.  I tried hard to keep on the tribars round the bends after North Crawley, which I think helped to keep my speed up along those sections.As I approached the final mile or so, I reckoned the mystery rider was #10 (and so it proved).  I scorched down the final descent and nipped up the climb to the finish, again staying on the tribars, finishing with 23:49.  As it turned out, this was only 5 seconds behind Tony P, and good enough for second place.  Actually, my best time on this course is a mid-23, so this was really quite a good ride for me (and certainly my best this season).Results (map of the course follows)

Another lovely sunny evening for a North Bucks Road Club evening time trial, and a return to the Stony Stratford course for another counting round in the club league.  There was also a gentle breeze that promised to toughen the outward leg.  Oh, and a profusion of greenfly in the air!There was quite a bit of discussion as to whether we should use the replacement Nash-Whaddon circuit, as on our previous event at Stony Stratford when the course was affected by roadworks.  In the end, we decided to go with the usual course, as riders who'd ridden the course earlier in the week said the road was clear enough (and so it proved).  What was more worrying was the comments that travellers had caused problems near the turn on Monday, with kids playing 'chicken' with the riders as they passed.After a slightly delayed start occasioned by a parade of sports cars and a group of horses, we were off.  For my part, I found the outward leg really very tough.  The first few miles are quite twisty, and the winter has most certainly not been kind to the road, with even more potholes added to the existing unrepaired road defects near Beachampton.  Dodging the potholes, I reached Beachampton and began the climb up to Nash.  I really suffered on the final stages to Nash (probably I need to lose a bit of weight to improve my power to weight ratio!).  In Nash a motorist had kindly parked on the bend, leaving their car door wide open while they looked at the back end of their car.  Avoiding this stellar parking act (and hoping that other riders, and indeed passing motorists would too), I pressed on up to the turn.  A clear ride round the turn and off on the return leg, where I felt I wasn't reaching the usual speed on the first section back to Nash.  Once through Nash the speed was up well over 40mph at times - though tempered with concern over bends in the road and assorted road defects to come.I roared through Beachampton and on over the twists, turns and astonishing potholed surfaces, putting a big effort to cross the line in 27:19.  This was better than I'd felt I was doing, but I really need to work on the climbing!  On the other hand, it was faster than any ride I did on this course last year.Results

I'd entered this event before I left for our tandem cycle tour in the Highlands and Islands.  In my experience, tandem touring's reasonably good endurance training, but does damn all for one's time trialling speed.  And so it proved!A pretty good morning - warm but slightly misty.  When we got to Tempsford there was not much in the way of wind, but a very gentle breeze sprung up later, offering some return assistance from the turn.  There had been a last minute change from the F1/25 course to the F1B/25 (see map below)  It didn't do much to alleviate my suffering on the drags that characterise the southern end of the course!  From the start I felt a bit slow, as if something was dragging on the bike.  Hopefully I'll regain some speed in time for next weekend's '50'.I finished with 58:55, which was at least a minute slower than I'd have hoped for.   When I left the race HQ, the fastest time on the board was Jason Gurney's very excellent 52:51, but Ian Cammish and Sam Barker were yet to finish.  My club mate Tony Parks did a short 55.
View Hitchin Nomads '25' in a larger map

This evening's event was scheduled to be run on the 11.4 mile Stony Stratford course.  In the end we used a backup course due to roadworks and traffic lights in Nash: a 9.4 mile circuit running from Stony Stratford through Beachampton to Nash, where we took the left turn to Whaddon and back to Stony Stratford via Calverton (see map below).  I rode a small section of this course en route to sign on, and it didn't enthuse me particularly: the road surface was gravelly, rough, potholed, and the road twisted around a lot.  One or two of the riders had ridden this course earlier in the week in the TeamMK event on Monday, and had some experience.  This was good for them, but the did keep telling alarming tales of the course - horror stories of gradients and potholes!  In the event, it wasn't too bad, but rather tough!  It was a nice warm evening, but rather breezy.  Unlike our usual Stony 11.4 mile course, there isn't a flat section to get the rider started: instead it's straight into the lumpy section of the course.  And this bit had something of a headwind!  It was rather depressing to see how the various potholes and defective road surface have still not been dealt with - the ravages of the winter haven't helped!  The course was familiar until the Nash crossroad, where it turned left to Whaddon.  In fact as far as Whaddon, the road surface wasn't too bad, it was just that the road was kind of lumpy, which a brief climb up to Whaddon for the left turn.  From Whaddon there's a long fast straight section.  Fast, that is, as long as you stayed well into the road and away from the dodgy surface!Then another short, sharp climb and we were on the really rough bit, with gravel and tight turns as we raced towards Calverton.  The finish came as something as a surprise -I'd thought it was a bit further down the road.  Nevertheless, I was quite pleased with my 24:32 - if we need to use the course on our next visit to Stony Sratford, I'd hope to go that little quicker through familiarity with the course.  Congatulations to Lindz for taking the honours (and keeping the "grudge match" going!  I'm already looking forward to next week's event on the Stoke Hammond course (which is an inter-club event with the A5 Rangers and League Round 3).Map
View 10042804 in a larger mapResults

I was really looking forward to another excursion on the F1B/25, since I posted a 58:24 at the Beds RCC '25' a couple of weeks ago.  And, indeed, the weather forecasts earlier this week looked promising, with a headwind to the turn, and sunny weather.  Unfortunately as the weekend approached, the forecast worsened.  Last thing yesterday, I checked, and it looked as though seriously heavy rain would abate in time for the event.As it turned out, the overnight weather was appalling - I lay in bed hearing the wind and rain thrashing around the house, and I was dreading the time trial.  I was travelling over to the race HQ in Tempsford with Richard, and at the allotted hour, he turned up - we both looked apprehensively at the rain, but headed over to Tempsford nonetheless.  (I always try to ride an event, after all the poor old marshals have to stick it out).  When we arrived at Tempsford, there were only a few cars, and a bunch of folk hanging about: the event had been cancelled (quite rightly) on safety grounds.  A turbo training session now beckons.This event was the anniversary of the event at which Gareth Evans rider was killed on the F1, and there was a prize in his memory.  Probably quite fitting that the event was cancelled.Back home, I discovered a roof leak.  Something else that'll have to be dealt with.

Another dreary morning for a North Bucks club event.  In actual fact the rain (mostly) held off for the event itself, but it was rather wet for the ride over to the start.  The NBRC hardriders course (F5x/22) starts at the bottom of the steep climb at Bow Brickhill, proceeds in a westerly direction towards Bow Brickhill station, then heads over to the A5, where the course climbs steadily past Little Brickhill and down to the Flying Fox roundabout, where it turns left to Woburn.  From Woburn, the course turns northwest to Woburn Sands, where it turns to Bow Brickhill at a double roundabout.  After completing two such laps, the finish lies up the climb from Bow Brickhill (the climb used for our Hill Climb Championship, which gives an idea of how steep it is).Anyway, this was the first time I had ridden the course, and I was rather dreading taking my TT bike up the final climb - my lowest gear is 46x21.  The opening leg wasn't too bad, predominantly downhill, the major issue was dodging potholes, and getting stalled by traffic at the first roundabout.  It was a different matter on the road up to and along the A5 - predominantly uphill with a head wind.  From the Flying Fox roundabout, it was surprisingly quick to Woburn, largely I guess due to the tail wind on that section.  Then a steady climb and descent to Woburn Sands.  I got held up slightly by traffic at this roundabout on both laps, but nothing serious.The major issue was the series of appalling potholes just after leaving Woburn Sands.  Unlike one rider I saw, who coped by riding in the gutter, I decided the prudent course was to ride it wide.  Through Bow Brickhill and onwards for a second lap.  Ultimately, I was really mostly worried by the prospect of the final climb.  Firstly I didn't have any spectacularly low gears, secondly the geometry of my bike doesn't I think suit hill climbs.  In the event, I chose to take it easy rather than blow halfway up and suffer the ignominy of having to get off and push!I finished in 1:00:56, which I was quite pleased with.  Full results, and hopefully a map of the course to follow.

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A consequence of the events that followed a recent club event at Astwood was that I needed to replace both tubulars on my Corima wheelset.  Veloflex Records appear to be hard to find - and when you do, they are rather pricey, so I plumped for a pair of Continental Tempo tubulars.  I've always found that Continental tyres are rather hard to fit, and always need an undue amount of heaving and effort to get them on the rim, so I guess I should have expected to have hassle getting these blighters on.I'd recently bought a few tubes of Continental rim glue, as I'd found that tub tape is just a bit too tight for rapid removal (for example after said club event).  In the past, during my (so far only) ride in a 12 hour time trial, I have successfully and rapidly replaced a Veloflex Record when I punctured during the event.  This was using Continental glue to fix the tub to the rim.  With this in mind, I've been keen to return to gluing tubs again.Then the problems began.  Here's the Continental instruction leaflet, which makes it look oh so easy:[caption id="attachment_702" align="alignnone" width="550" caption="Instruction sheet for fitting Continental tubulars"][/caption]What I particularly like is the suggestion that a mere 8h after wrestling these things onto the rim, I'd be winning an event.  Heh, some hope!Anyway, I found the tubulars so tight I even checked I'd ordered the right size.  In desperation, I arranged for my long-suffering Team Grumpy team mate to show me how to fit the blasted thing onto an unglued rim (stage III above).  Even he had some hassle, but at least on went the first tyre.  Last night I deflated the tyre and, following stages VIII to X above.  Glue went on fine, dried for an hour, but then there was an almighty struggle to stretch the damned tubular back onto the trispoke wheel (Team Grumpy team mate was not available).  By the time I'd managed this, the air in the garage had turned decidedly blue and my thumbs hurt spectacularly.  Fortunately a Corima trispoke wheel is fairly robust and stood up well to the "manipulation".Tonight will see the attempt to fit the rear tubular to a disk wheel, a wheel that has already suffered from impressions of fingers and thumbs from prior tubular fitting experiences (most carbon disk wheels appear to be constructed from a carbon fibre skin over a foam interior).  I may not be able to grip the handlebars firmly for a few days, so it's a good thing my next event will see me mostly on the tri-bars.

The Lea Valley CC '25' was held on the E2/25 course with an HQ in Exney, near Newmarket.  It was also the victim of a car break-in during which all the entry forms were pinched.  It's to the organiser's credit that the event went ahead at all, let alone so smoothly.  I went over to the event with my club mate Tony - both slightly apprehensive, and in particular in my case rather worried about the course, which is based on the A14 and A11 dual carriageways near Cambridge.Anyway, for a change I found myself setting up to race on a warm and sunny afternoon, rather than the wet and cold conditions I've raced in recently.  Both Tony and I decided that for our first '25's of the season, we'd be happy with results in the 57 or 58 minute range.  After we set up the bikes, we went to recce the ride up to the start, and do a brief warm up.  After that it was off to the start.  I was there good and early as I was a bit concerned about the start time (15:12 isn't usually correct for number 62!).  Eventually the start came, and off I went, down the sliproad onto the A14.As I joined the A14, I was surprised to find myself tearing along at over 30mph. On the face of it, the A14 is rather alarming, with three lanes in each carriageway. In practise, the E2/25 (this was my first ride on the course after last year's debacle) turned out to a be a rather nice course - quite flat with few sliproad junctions.  I didn't expect to keep up that pace, but much to my surprise, I found myself rocketing along at an average of 30mph.  I'm a realist, so I didn't actually believe I'd become Chris Boardman - most likely the breeze, which had got up during the afternoon was assisting me.I kept on roaring along, occasionally seeing speeds in excess of 34mph and never dropping below 28mph, to the junction with the A11 (see the map below).  Here riders just stick to the left and the lane scoots off to form the A11.  The only problem were the potholes, but having been pre-warned at the start, these presented no difficulty.  In my mind, the A11 ran at in a slightly different direction than the A14 (but this isn't the case), so I was pleased to see my speed holding up, and I found myself ascending the sliproad to the turn at about 25 minutes.Descending from the turn, it was clear that there had been significant wind assistance - once out on the A11 again, I found it hard to keep up 23mph most of the time.  As usual in these circumstances, I started mental calculations of my likely finish time - I figured I was heading for a 57.  However, by the time I rejoined the A14 I found my speed picking up again.  At the time I though this must reflect a change of direction relative to the wind, but looking at the map, this can't be the case.Very soon, I passed the two service stations that flank the course not far from the start, and saw the sign for the exit slip where the finish is (this is nice, it gives the rider half mile notice of the finish!).  And with some delight I crossed the finish in what appeared to be a long-ish 55.Back to the car to change and recuperate, while waiting for Tony (who's start was 47 minutes behind me) - when he turned up, he thought he'd done a long 53 or a short 54.  In the end, it turned out Tony had recorded a 53:54, and I'd done 55:38 - results we were both very pleased with.Reviewing my old records, this might be my fasted '25' since 2004 when I recorded  54:38 on the F1B/25.  I'll need to check more carefully!  I'll post more results when they become available. The map below includes some of the warm up prior to starting.
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This was the first of the evening club events, and the start list was limited to ensure we'd all get finished before sunset.  On the face of it, we had a rather nice evening, quite sunny and dry.  In fact there was a stiff easterly that was rather chilly.  Anxious that I be able to get home safely without lights, I signed on as number 3.Lining up to start, I felt distinctly chilly, but this soon dissipated as I set off.  Fortunately, the breeze afforded me a helping hand all the way up to the Stoke Hammond bypass (beginning at the left turn on the third roundabout - see map below).  This was most welcome, and the tail wind remained as I set off along the dual carriageway section.By the time I'd reached the turn, I'd caught both riders in front of me, and I was looking forward to the return leg, unfortunately not as quickly as on the way out.  This was particularly noticeable once off the dual carriage way section (and having negotiated the appallingly damaged road surface at the roundabout), when even the downhill section was hard!As I approached the finish, I retained some hope I might pull off a long 22, but the headwind was just a bit too much, and I ended up finishing in about 23:11.  I don't at this stage have the final result, as I left pretty quickly, before the light faded too much.  This may be my quickest time on this course...Results below the map
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An absolutely clear and still morning greeted me as I loaded up the car to drive over to Tempsford for the Bedfordshire Road CC '25'.  This event, a 'slowest 90' time trial, was to be held on the F1B/25, a version (among many) of the time trial courses based on the A1 dual carriageway near the Black Cat roundabout. This course runs south from Tempsford to turn at the Baldock interchange, where the A1(M) begins (see map below). This version of the course undulates severely at the southern turn and is popularly regarded as slower than the versions of the F1 which head north to turn at Buckden.  On the whole, however, the return leg can be quite fast as the turn is higher than the start/finish.Of course, a clear night meant it was rather colder than it looked!  By the time I started at 8:54, two things had happened - firstly it had warmed up to a rather pleasant conditions for the event, but secondly, an annoying breeze had appeared.  This was oriented diagonally, but offered assistance southbound but a headwind northbound.  In my experience, this is the wrong way for a fast time on this course.I had a good start, though the two riders in front of my minute man didn't start, leaving rather a gap ahead of me.  I found the opening stretch up to the sliproad onto the A1 quite quick, and this was maintained, except for the climbs later on in the southbound leg.  There was little traffic, so I was surprised to be held to a stop at the Sandy roundabout.  I was unfortunately in a bit of a tall gear at the time, so getting the bike up to speed again was something of an effort.  I carried on, making it through the next two roundabouts with no trouble, and catching my minute man well before the turn.  At the turn, I was again held up by a driver, this time a learner, for whom the Baldock interchange seemed to be a bit daunting (and maybe not helped by having blokes in garish lycra on funny bikes turning up at roughly one minute intervals!).The second leg was pretty uneventful - other than it being surprisingly tough at times up the hills with the headwind.  Still, I made it back to the finish in 58:24, which I think was quite a respectable time.  My all time best for the F1B/25 is a 54:38, but I did that about seven or eight years ago and on a pretty good day for the course.
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On the face ofit, a lovely evening for a time trial.  In fact, as I rode up to Astwood from work, the temperature had begun dropping significantly.  Also, my bike computer was behaving rather aberrantly, and wasn't receiving much in the way of speed/distance, and to add insult to injury, its heart rate display was really very wobbly.  Maybe there's a battery issue.These issues notwithstanding, I arrived in good time for the event, signed on, and awaited the start.  My hope was to continue my recent run of good form and ideally finish in less than 24 minutes - an achievable gold.  I started feeling pretty damned cold, and indeed decided to ride with my long sleeved cycling jersey over my skinsuit.  I lined up as number 6, and at the allotted time, off I went.At first, all seemed well, though due to the computer problems, I had no way of know how well I was going.  I got through Chicheley still feeling OK.  A brief flurry of enthusiasm from the bike computer indicated my pace was pretty good after the turn.  Around the time I reached North Crawley, I discovered my left tri-bar extension had worked loose (this has happened repeatedly of late, and doesn't seem to respond to bolt-tightening, even with loctite).  From here on, it was a bit of a struggle, as my forearm was now resting directly on the base bar - not very comfortable!As I passed the right turn to Cranfield University, some blasted 4x4 pickup driver looked directly at me, and pulled out right in front of me, causing me to slow down nearly to a stop.  When I shouted "Oh, come on!", he stopped dead.  I thought about this for a moment, and pulled round him.  For the next few miles, the driver followed me close behind my front wheel.  I found this really quite worrying, as I was suspecting the driver might be about to do something dangerous.  In fact, he stayed there until the Bourne End turn off, when he eventually passed me.  Perhaps I'd just surprised him a bit - he certainly didn't seem aggressive.By the time I reached the descent before the finishing climb, my left forearm was a bit uncomfortable fro the base bar.  I wa still hopeful of a sub-24, in that delusional way that time triallists sometimes have.  Unfortunately, the "Grumpy Bob time compression effect" seemed to take hold - time which seemed to be passing pretty slowly through most of the ride appeared to speed up in the last few hundred yards, and ticked well past 24 minutes.  I estimated my finish time as around 24:33.  The offcial result is somewhat worse, at 24:36.To be honest, I'm a bit disappointed, and don't know if this reflects the circumstances of the ride, or just a temporary dip in form.  Hopefully the latter.  I've an open '10' on Sunday, and the next club event (Stony Stratford '11.4') on Wednesday, which should offer another opportunity to gauge my form.  In the meantime, it's getting quite urgent that I address this tri-bar problem.Results are tabulated below.