This event was originally to be run on the new Stagsden course, but was relocated to the nearby Astwood circuit because the start (or maybe finish) point in a layby was rendered inaccssible as the layby has been used to store road-mending materials.  This was a bit disappointing, as I haven't ridden that course before.  Still, of the courses we use in the club league, Astwood's probably my favourite.  The morning was really windy, and quite blustery (in a continuation of the weather patterns of late).

During the day, the wind strengthened alarmingly.  Fortunately it moderated a bit by the time we started the event.  The strong wind had a curiously variable effect out on the course.  I presume this was because it was a rather blustery wind.  Anyway, it proved quite a slog much of the time down to Chicheley, but once round the turn, things were a bit easier.  Indeed the section through the village of North Crawley, which is usually a bit tough to pick up the speed was quite brisk.

I entered this race with some trepidation - it would be my first outing on the F1 since the Icknield RC '25' back in May, during which there was a fatal accident.  I hadn't originally planned on riding out to Tempsford, but after doing so on the road bike last weekend to help with the finish timekeeping, I thought I'd give it a bash for this event.

After a false start occasioned by forgetting my pump, off I went at around 5.30am, and across the M1 at junction 13.  Once over Brogborough Hill, the view was one of roadworks - there's a major effort to dual the A421 from J13 to the Bedford bypass.  This meant the ride over had me a bit anxious, particularly in the coned-off sections.  In fact I didn't have much trouble.  I left the A421 at the Moggerhanger exit, and rode through Willington and Blunham on the way to Tempsford, where the race HQ was (I was 10th man off, with number 50 at 6.50am).  After signing on, I nipped over to the start and rode gently around, and had a few sips of energy drink. I was certainly well warmed up!

I guess a week at residential school with its heady mix of cafeteria diet, excessive drinking and late nights isn't really the recommended preparation for a time trial, and so it proved.  I'd also not trained for a fortnight.

The event was held on the F1/25, on a very calm but slightly oppressive morning - indeed as I left Tempsford after I'd finished it began to rain, and this would presumably affect the later starters.  One other factor was that I was riding my newly installed USE Tula handebars.  I was a little concerned about the location of the brake levers, and whether I'd be able to reach them quickly enough in an emergency.  Well, I found them pretty good, and the slightly altered position seemed very comfortable.  For the first five miles or so anyway.  Throughout the race I was keeping my HR up at well above 180bpm - I presume I am well-rested!

A warm and sultry day, with several quite heavy showers suggested that this evening's event might be a little damp.  By the evening, however, the weather had moderated to cloud and sunny spells.  Even the wind strength was rather modest.

After the weekend's '25' over on the F1, when I suffered on my hard carbon saddle (probably as a consequence of an altered riding position in turn due to new handlebars), I had replaced the saddle with a (still quite minimal) SLR saddle.  At least the replacement has a modicum of padding!

When we (Richard and I) left for the race, it was a glorious sunny morning, albeit with a rising wind.  Perhaps, I thought, this would be a morning when I'd have a confidence-boosting performance.  I arrived at Tempsford in good time, got set up and rolled off to warm up prior to starting.  No problems there.  The event was on the F1B/25, which heads south to the start of the A1(M), where we turn and return, finishing just north of Tempsford.  I had chosen to ride with tubs this morning - a Hed Stinger 90 front wheel and a Corima disc rear wheel, both with Tufo tubulars.  This makes for a satisfying rumbling noise!

The starting section up to joining the A1 was quite sheltered by trees - unfortunately once out on the A1, the headwind (which was quite a side wind) was quite apparent.  I felt pretty good, though I found some sections quite a struggle.  This didn't worry me too much, as I knew that the return leg is (overall) a descent, and with a tail wind should be quicker.

The weather broke a few days before this event - this came as something of a relief for me, as I find the hot and humid conditions we've had recently as something of a trial.  I got a little damp riding down to work (I usually ride to club events directly from work), but the temperature was nice at around 13 degrees C, with only a gentle wind. 

This club event is the North Bucks time trial championship.  Last year I had trouble with the seat pin slipping on my Planet X frame - this year I rode the steel-framed Cougar, with its guaranteed "no-slip" aero carbon seat pin.  In fact, it's more than "no-slip", it's usually "no-budge", at least when servicing the bike.  As it turned out this was the least of my troubles.

It was rather wet when I set off from this house in the morning, and while the weather dried up, the rather strong wind did not moderate appreciably.  A modest field of 13 riders was possibly due to it being holiday season.  The strong wind was blowing almost directly in our faces at the start, and so made it hard on the ride up to the dual carriageway section - at times I was well below 20 mph, though having the rider in front getting closer was a bit of a carrot.  Once up on the dual carriageway, the bike was a bit twitchy at times to the turn (I was riding the Hed trispokes). 

As usual the lovely smooth surface on the new road made things easier, and in particular, the return leg was pretty quick, and I finished with 23:31, which must be one of my better times on this course.

Well, this event marked my return to racing after a 4 week layoff (away for cycle touring - see elsewhere in this blog, then last week's event got called off).  It did feel a little strange.

The evening was really quite nice, probably a little over 20 degrees, and sunny, though rather windier than the BBC's predicted 14mph easterly, I reckon.  Still, it made for a fast opening leg to Chicheley.  In fact it was pretty fast almost to North Crawley.  As usual, I lost focus a bit during the drags after North Crawley, but even so I was surprised when Tony P. came past at about 18 minutes.  Still, he didn't get far away from me, finishing in around 22:37 to my 23:40.

This was the hottest evening event so far - it was humid and temperatures reaching towards 30 centigrade made it tough for me (though, it has to be said, not for some other riders).  My roar up V10 to reach Stony was a good warmup, and after noticing several new riders (this was a "Come and Try it" event) and explaining how time trialling works, I started in the #17 spot.

Actually, to start with, I was feeling pretty good, but pretty rapidly I found my pulse rate soaring, furst up into level 2 (so far, so good), but then onwards into level 4.  The opening mile or so seemd good, and I felt quicj, but I just lost it climbing towards Nash - I tried to keep the gearing down, but this just led to slower speeds!  After turning, the bigh descent from Nash to Beachampton was harder than usual, as I failed to get the speed up (and was seeing very high pulse rates - on a descent!).

Unbelievably, this was only my first solo '25' of the 2009 season.  In part this has been because there seems to have been a smaller number of events in the London North district, but also because of calendar clashes with, for example, our cycle tour in June, and in part my reluctance to return to racing on the F1 courses after the Icknield RC '25' back in May.  Anyway, the long and short of it was that my performance was not what I would have liked.

The morning was rather nicer than the forecast indicated during the week, while is was quite breezy in a blustery way, there was no rain and with the sunny spells was quite pleasantly warm.  The event was held on the F13/25, which runs along the A41 from near Launton to the outskirts of Aylesbury and back,  and it's not a particularly quick course, including some quite tough sections, including a steep bank about 9 minutes in to the event.  There's also the dreaded traffic lights at a pedestrian crossing in Waddesdon (immediately outside a police station!), at which a marshal is stationed to spot errant riders running the red light.

I had originally expected to be unable to ride this event, due to work commitments.  After several days of really quite bad weather, I was quite pleased to have been able to ride the event, as the wind dropped (and I am sure it was considerably more gentle that the forecast 14mph!), and the sun came out.

Judging from the readout on my HRM, the ride out to Stony Stratford was  quite an effective warmup, especially when keeping the speed up negotiating the roundabout over the A5!

Unusually for a bank holiday weekend, the sun's been shining.  I had committed myself to showing people round my Department's research laboratories, but it was such an excellent sunny morning I took the long way round, scoring 27 miles en route.  Fortunately I avoided coming to grief at the paws of a particularly dim lagomorph - happily, as I would have cut a sorry figure for the lab tour otherwise.

Once that was done and dusted, I rode home for a spot of lunch before nipping out for a tandem ride on the blue tandem (it was the other one I overhauled yesterday).  This was pretty uneventful, though we went down lanes new to my stoker.   Home and a bottle of Speckled Hen beckoned irresistibly.

This event saw the return of Team Grumpy to the NBRC club time trial scene. Unfortunately, this wasn't accompanied by nice time trialling weather.

I rode to work on the Cougar TT bike, in pretty steady rain.  It wasn't until I got there that I discovered that I'd not brought my racing aero helmet.  well, that was annoying, but not terminal.  During the course of the day, the rain eased, but the wind seemed to build up so that it was considerably stronger than the 15 mph forecast by the BBC.

This time trial is an annual event for me - and in fact Richard (the organiser) this year emailed to remind me of it!  As has so often been the case this year, it was a pretty windy day, with all the signs indicating the race would be a flyer on the outward leg, but a real grovel back to the finish.

And so it proved.  However, to backtrack slightly.  It became immediately obvious that there were real problems with my HRM bike computer.  For a start it was registering about twice my actual speed.  This was (and remains) something of a mystery.  I've checked in case it was some kind of prank played by a clubmate - but no.  I can only assume it's the transmitter on the fork blade playing up.  And to cap the dismay, the heart rate display kept leaping up to unfeasible levels, such as 228bpm.  I was using a chest transmitter unit that was really rather old, and I suspect that the battery life was pretty much expired.

After forecasting horrendous weather for today, in actual fact the conditions weren't too bad.  The wind has been coming from the east all week, which has made it rather cool.  The other consequence being that the outward leg of the event should have been pretty quick, and the return somewhat harder.

I was feeling a bit wobbly in my stomach as I lined up at the start - probably due to the excessive consumption of fried finger food at lunchtime.  It was also much colder than last week, which wasn't great.  Fortunately, I had Tony P a minute behind me, which I hoped would spur me on a bit!

Sunshine and showers today...and flipping strong wind!  Intrepid as ever, I set off in good time to ride over to the race HQ in a Scout hut in Leighton Buzzard.  Unfortunately, this ride came to an abrupt halt half a mile from the house, as I suffered a front wheel puncture.  To add insult to injury, a shower passed over as I was replacing the tube!  Since this was the only spare tube I had with me, I returned home, where I pumped it up properly with the track pump and grabbed two new tubes (and, in a fit of paranoia, some preglued patches).

Off once again, with a bit less latitude in timing.  The wind was really rather strong, and was causing a bit of trouble with the front trispoke.  I was quite confident, based on pat experience, that the wheel woudn't prove too much trouble when racing (higher speed and more weight on the front).  Fortuitously, Alan "Tintin" roared by in his big 4x4 and offered me a lift over to the race HQ, an offer that I accepted after about two nanoseconds of thought.

The first evening event of the NBRC club time trial series! It was also the first event on the F5d/10 since the New Year's Day'10'.

Somewhat ominously, I woke to the sound of a 5am thunderstorm.  Still, I reckoned, over 12 hours before the event, plenty of time for the weather to clear up (the BBC forecast was for sunshine)!  Indeed, when I turned up to the club room at about 6.20, it was not only sunny, but very warm. 

Wind: ENE 14mph; Hum: 48%

Another nice day forecast for this event, which I normally ride as part of a Team Grumpy 2-up entry.  This year, I entered as a solo rider, but due to a misunderstanding with the organiser, ended up starting in the 2-up field. Team MK use a version of the Astwood circuit course that differs from that used by the North Bucks Road Club because the start/finish are located nearer Cranfield.  The event once again used Cranfield University's new sports centre as its HQ, and Ian had managed once again to arrange pretty good weather: on the day, cool and cloudy condition changed to sunny, cool and surprisingly windy conditions which, while I had no trouble with the front trispoke, did make the going quite tough.

We had a splendid evening for this North Bucks RC club event, once again held up at the Astwood circuit - sunny, and with not much more than a breath of wind.  This event was designated as a "Come and Try It" event, and riders were requested to be there by 6.30pm (also, starts were limited to 30 due to the failing light as this is still early season for an evening event).  I had brought along a couple of guys along from work, but sadly we were thwarted.  By the time we arrived, there appeared to be hundreds of riders milling around and all 30 slots had unfortunately been allocated.  Fortunately, this didn't seem to disappoint my two new acquaintances, and Ian Stokes kindly suggested I ask someone of they'd be interested in riding a 2-up.  At this point my beady eye cast around and spotted Lindz Barrall, with whom I had ridden a 2-up at Astwood earlier in the season.

Fortunately for me, Lindz was up for a two up, and set his Garmin for a 23:30 pace.  Last time we had finished in 24:19, so that was quite a proposed improvement.  But then again, this was a lovely evening...  The only strategic discussion we had was to decide that this time I would lead off from the start.  Once out on the road, we didn't exchange a single word - all chanegovers (bar one) were accomplished smoothly, and all in all we rode very well.

A very pleasant evening for the latest NBRC club event, over on the Stony Stratford course.  Following a few days for rainy weather, I chose to ride the trusty steel Cougar, which doesn't let the rain and road spray into the inner reaches of the frame (also, the saddle is a little less rigid than that on my other TT bike).  In the event, the weather was really rather pleasant - sunny and warm.  Unfortunately, of course, it also became quite breezy during the day.

By the time I arrived to sign on, at about 6.30pm, there were quite a few people milling about: I started as #17.  I got ready then rode up towards Beachampton to evaluate how the breeze would be - sure enough, it seemed as though we'd get a stiff headwind for most of the outward leg, and in particular as far as  Beachampton.