12-15 mph NW wind - rather blustery.
Tragedy on the F1
Cycling shoes have a number of distinctive features - they generally have very stiff soles (with screw fixings to take shoe plates that clip to pedals), and often have exotic fastening systems (shoe laces are so last millennium!). Common fastening systems include velcro straps and a variety of ratcheting designs. Personally, I dislike velcro straps, and prefer the ratchet systems, as these are more amenable to adjustment while riding.
A couple of years ago, I bought a pair of Specialized S-Works shoes (see left), which featured a ratchet system that tightens up a criss-crossing string across the upper, and which fastens the shoe very effectively. Unfortunately, the other day, the string snapped, leaving me to compete with a shoe held together with gaffer tape. I disassembled the ratchet this morning and was struck by how the string resembled plaited dental floss. I repaired the shoe with three lengths of dental floss, and it seems to have worked. At least, it's stood up to full tightening with no sign so far of giving way!
148 Hits
Over at the Team Grumpy website, I've posted an article on the UCI bike regulations and how they relate to the design of time trial bikes. At the weekend, I'll measure up my bikes to see how they fare - I expect both to need adjusting to fit the criteria, but the dreadful 1:3 rule probably rules out the handlebars on both bikes, also the front fork and seat pin on the Cougar. Of course the main reason for this is the suggestion mooted a month or so ago on the timetrialling forum that the Duo Normand would be enforcing UCI regulation in all categories (not just the elite categories). Whether these rumours have foundation, I don't yet know. I suppose that formally time trials in Scotland, which are run by the BC-affiliated (and therefore UCI-affiliated) Scottish Cycling Union, ought to enforce these rules, as should the BC-CTT jointly run British Time Trial Championship.
105 Hits
This week's time trial event was the third counting event in the NBRC club time trial league, and the first of the 2009 interclub events with the A5 Rangers Cycling Club. It was held on the F5d/10 course, based on the Stoke Hammond bypass. At the club room, there was quite a bit of discussion of the tragic events of the previous Sunday's tragedy, and certainly it was with some trepidation that I lined up to start (particularly with the cavalcade of fast and noisy motorbikes that passed just after I started). I had chosen to ride the Cougar with a pair of Hed trispokes.
A minute in front of me was ace fast man Tim Carter, so I knew from the off that I'd not see my minute man! The wind has been strengthening all day, and must have matched that forecast (see symbols above) - it was pretty hard at the start, with a climb into a strong headwind, sufficient to make the bike quite a handful to control with the front trispoke seemingly determined to alternately trying to dump me into the verge then into the traffic. An added irritation was that my HRM/computer was registering completely aberrant speed details.
132 Hits
Sunny; Temp: 7°C; Wind: WSW 8mph; Hum: 67%; Press: 1031mB; Vis: Very good
It's been a very pleasant week here - mostly sunny, though rather cold first thing in the morning. Not an excellent week of training, unfortunately. I did manage a 20 mile morning road training ride on Tuesday (this was a mixture of level 2 and level 3), but later in the week I wasn't very well so didn't do further sessions.
129 Hits
Sunny Intervals; Temp: 3°C; Wind: NNW 3mph; Hum: 58%; Press: 1014mB; Vis: Very good
We awoke to a cold and frosty morning - with very little wind to make our racing hard - and all the predicted precipitation was noticable by its absence. Our customary preparation of Thai curry and Singha beer was having side effectsas we set off for the race HQ in Cheddington, but once we gained entry to the hall, we quickly got ourselves and our bikes sorted, and set off to the start. Gerry had decided to usehis Xentis wheels, and left the H3s in the car as reserve. As you'll see, this is significant.
To reach the start, riders need to cross two narrow bridges with traffic lights - it was just after the second of these that our plans unravelled. Hearing a muffled exclamatio, I looked behind me, to see my erstwhile team mate doing a U-turn. Surmising (correctly as it turned out) that he was having a technical problem, I did the same, only to get stuck at red lights on both bridges. By the time I got far enough that I was worried about missing our start, Gerry was nowhere to be seen. I returned to the start with about 2 minutes in hand, and anxiously looked back along the road. With Gerry absent at our appointed start time, I somewhat reluctantly decided to ride solo.
126 Hits
Light Rain; Temp: 8°C; Wind: SW 9mph; Hum: 95%; Press: 1016mB; Vis: Good
Stony '11.4' F5u/10 course description
The BBC website rather gloomily predicted light showers this morning - rather fortunately after a brief shower just after 7am, the morning was fine, with some sunny spells, which was nice. I warmed up by riding over to Stony Stratford. At that time of day the traffic was pretty light, and it was quite pleasant, despite riding on the main MK grid roads. I signed on as number 8 and had a quick spin up and down the opening mile or so of the course. By the time I started, i was feeling a little chilly, so I was quite pleased to get started. Unfortunately, the tough outward leg which climbs up through Beachampton to Nash was made a little harder still by a nagging headwind, and as I approached Beachampton I had a feeling of regret that I'd even started! I was, however, motivated by the presence 1 minute behind me of the 2-up pairing of Leigh and Wayne - despite their being on road bikes rather than time trial bikes, I was concerned they might catch me.
On the climb to Nash I was finding that my rear wheel was spinning slightly on the damp tarmac when I was making out of the saddle efforts. This was a little worrying given the speed I was likely to be making on the return leg descent. I always pass through Nash quite tired from the climbs and find it quite difficult to pick up the pace on the relatively level section to the turn, and today was no exception. But once round the turn, I felt really much better, topping 40mph in 55x11 at times on the descents. The final section between Beachampton and Stony was a little wind-assisted, which was rather nice, and I roared past the finish timekeeper in 28:22, which isn't a bad time for such a tough course at this point of the season.
201 Hits
Not content with a blog, Team Grumpy have now set up a website. Team Grumpy is the nom de plume of the two-up team time trial team featuring Grumpy Bob and "Grumpy" Art Vanderlay - the website will include reviews of Team Grumpy's events and of cycling equipment.
The Team Grumpy website can be found at http://teamgrumpy.org - the blog will continue operation.
144 Hits
Wind: WSW 7mph
Hum: 90%
Press: 1009mB
Vis: Very good
Not the nicest of mornings, but a bit warmer than of late. The rather grey and overcast conditions eased a bit and the sun was peeking through by the time the riders started. This event was billed as a 72" medium gear event, and it was good to see many of the riders turning out either on fixed or limiting their gears. For my part, I decided this was a training event for me and rode my regular Cougar TT bike. And training I need, judging from this result!
The outward leg to Chicheley seemed rather hard, but after the turn there, things were easier with a bit of a tail wind. The rest of the event was a bit uneventful, I continued to feel a bit drained. It all seemed a bit of a comedown after the Port Talbot Wh 2-up last week. I did have a bit of a heart-stopping moment near the Bourne End junction, when my back wheel skidded sideways suddenly. I've no idea why, and at least one other rider had a skid at that point. Perhaps a greasy patch on the road.
I finished with a pretty underwhelming time of 25:00. On the other hand, the pulse trace revealed I rode at the right HR level throughout. So at least this was a good workout, even though the take-home message is that the fitness level is not what it should be. It's also possible that large quantities of Thai curry and copious Singha beer last night might not have been the best preparation for the event!
Result of the NBRC Time Trial held on Wednesday 7th of March 2009 | ||||||||
Course:- F5v/10 (Astwood) Medium gear event - 72" |
129 Hits
White Cloud; Temp: 9°C; Wind: W 16mph; Hum: 83%; Press: 1011mB; Vis: Very good
I have to confess to having had another poor week's training - I had intended to force evening turbo sessions, but frankly working 8am to 6.30pm, cycling home, then cooking and eating dinner means that by the time I've let dinner begin the digestive process it's rather late to blast myself on the turbo. Still, since last week's event, I cycled every day (even if some of those days were merely the 12 mile commute to work), and I managed one level 2-3 session and a set of 1' intervals. With the usual excuses now out of the way, on to the event, billed as a two-up team time trial.
111 Hits
This event has become Team Grumpy's annual season-starter. It's a well run two up team time trial event run on the R25/24 course. This course uses a dual carriageway section for the first half, before switching to the old road running roughly parallel to the dual carriageway, but which is quite a bit hillier, with several short but quite steep climbs.
Over at the Team Grumpy blog, we'd been doing a count down to this event, ruminating on training and preparation. In the event, we finished our "rigorous" training programme off with quite a lot of Belgian beer, takeaway curries and (on the evening before the event, pasta). Two evenings-worth of system abuse was not, perhaps, the ideal fine-tuning of our finely-tuned physiques (in particular, I've had trouble keeping and/or getting the weight off), so we were feeling a little apprehensive and 'inwardly disturbed' on the way over to the course.
112 Hits
For the last few seasons, my availability for training has declined steadily. This, coupled with the passing years, means that each year when I start reviewing past performances for completing CTT entry forms for the coming season, I find it a little depressing. This season is no exception.
But at least the Cycling Time Trials website back again after yet another SQL injection attack, this time using a different platform. Hopefully this'll be more secure. Actually, I think it would look a lot better without all the flashing, moving adverts, but perhaps that's just me being a grumpy old man (and anyway, as a Firefox user, I can always use the AdBlock plug-in).
109 Hits
The omens weren't good for this event. In early December I came down with a long-lasting cold that kept me from training for much of the month. This, coupled with festive season food consumption, resulted in my carrying several kilos over my racing weight. So it was with some trepidation that I set off for the club room to ride the New Year's day '10'. The event was held on the F5d/10 Stoke Hammond bypass course.
As usual, I rode down to the club room, where we were meeting and signing on. Fortunately, the weather was warmer than of late, and was just slightly over freezing. Less fortunately, it was kind of a damp, penetrating cold, that had us all shivering on the line. To add insult to injury, there was a gentle amount of tiny, almost imperceptible, snowflakes. Just before I was due to start, I decided against removing my outer thermal layers. This was all to the good, I think. I had a quick spin up and down the opening leg of the course, which was enough to confirm that was the correct clothing choice. In all, we had a good turnout for this event - 13 riders.
149 Hits
The Duo Normand two-up team time trial is held annually in September on a 54.3km circuit based in the Normandy town of Marigny. from a British time triallist's point of view, it's a spectacular event - not only because of the numbers of spectators, but because of the large numbers of competitors (in many categories from unlicenced to professional) and the virtually closed roads. All the teams can have a following car in case of mechanical problems, though Team Grumpy have never availed themselves of this in the 5 occasions we've ridden it.
220 Hits
A still, clear, and quite chilly morning, with a few wisps of mist greeted the riders who turned out for the North Bucks Hill Climb Championship for 2008. As usual, held on F5z/H (for the uninitiated, the climb from Bow Brickhill to the golf course on top of the hill). There were loads of mountain bikers hanging around and starting their ride in the woods, but none could be persuaded to take part.
I have to say at this point that I hate hill climbs. I like cycling up big long hills, but sprinting up short steep hills seems foolhardy to day the least. Anyway, my effort in the 2008 championship came to a quick end, as I got stopped on the steepest part of the climb by some twerp in a 4X4 who decided to stop to hold a conversation with someone. That kind of buggered up my ride, and I lost enthusiasm after that. Oh well.
140 Hits
This evening's event was the final event in the club's series of evening time trials. A reduced turnout probably reflected the dodgy weather - it was quite breezy and rained quite heavily before we started.
Despite turning up well before the start, I was the last to sign on, riding at number 15. I didn't think it was a particularly quick evening, and as my computer was mostly on the blink I was riding without knowing my speed. I took most of the corners pretty carefully, as they were a bit damp (particularly early on) due to drizzly rain, and got a bit stalled by a slow Landrover driver in Beachampton. I felt like I was grovelling up the hill, but that's not unusual! I had Kevin Stokes in my sights from the turn, and finally caught him at about Nash on the return leg.
118 Hits
This event was held on a new course (I understand that it had been used before as the basis for a 25 mile event), and uses the new A428 dual carriageway section from Hardwick to turn at the Caxton Gibbet roundabout where it crosses the A1198. The event HQ was in the excellent Comberton village hall, about 5 miles from the start. For this event, the weather was perhaps the warmest i've had all season for a time trial: cloudy skies in the morning had cleared away to brilliant sunshine, and we were experiencing temperatures of around 28 degrees! There is of course a serious downside for every positive - the wind had beens trengthening all day, and by the time we started it was pretty strong. Being a new dual carriageway, the course is very exposed, since the trees planted alongside hadn't grown yet. I whizzed out to the turn doing 32mph a lot of the time, but on turning, had a real struggle to the finish. The return leg is also the longer leg.
Th course has a lot of potential - the road is new, so the surface is pristine, there wasn't actually too much traffic and the turn seemed straightforward when I reached it. On a day with rather more moderate wind (or ideally no wind!), this should be really fast.
144 Hits
Here are photos from various time trials.
For copyright attribution, see notes below the thumbnails.
{gallery}timetrials{/gallery}
106 Hits
It seems like it was only yesterday that I started a new season, and here we are with the last time trial of the North Bucks club event season (we have a couple of hill climbs, and the Norlond '25' on 7th September is the nominated event for the club '25' championship still to come). In actual fact I have one remaining season goal - the Duo Normand on the 21st September (see my preview blog article). This event was the eighth counting event in the 2008 NBRC League - the final table is available at the North Bucks Road Club website (pdf file).
I got a bit wet in some relatively light rain (in comparison to the overnight rain that we'd had), and another bout of rain caused some to wonder whether the event would go ahead. But go ahead it did. I had a distinct lack of energy, probably due to a mild tummy upset over the previous 36 hours. I was also a bit cross about the JCB parked across the road just before the climb to North Crawle, and the slow moving traffic through North Crawley.
146 Hits