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!

The escalating row over the News of the World phone hacking brings further revelations overnight (News of the World hacking row escalates).  Hopefully, News International's attempt to deflect all responsibility from Rebekah brooks to Andy Coulson will fail, and blame will fall appropriately.The breathtaking extent of the scandal is rather worrying: why did Surrey Police take no action over the Dowler family phone hacks?  Why did the Metropolitan Police appear to do their best efforts to sweep this whole sick story under the carpet at a time when it appeared to involve only 'Celebs'?A campaign for a public inquiry will be launched today - Hacked Off.  There's a petition calling for a public inquiry.Will this scandal prevent the UK Government from approving the takeover of BSkyB by the Murdoch empire, further extending the ownership of UK media?

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.

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.

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.

This was quite a windy evening, and heavily overcast.  It also gave the distinct impression that the clouds were going to deliver some rain.  However, precipitation was limited to fine drizzly rain at the far end of the course, so that wasn't too bad.After Sunday's '50', I was interested to see how I'd fare this evening - I generally lose form, at least where racing speed is concerned, while off on cycle touring.  Sunday's '50' had been a bit of a worry and I'd ten spent two days working away from home.  There was a pretty small field, maybe due to the weather.I was last rider off, and found the outward leg fairly heavy going, but gradually felt a bit better, as I approached the dual carriageway section.  Once up there, I started seeing riders coming the other way - Jason was clearly going fast, near the turn, it looked as though Tony was gaining on Lindz (though in the end Lindz held him off!).  For my part, I was quite pleased with by time of 23:12, and reckon that my legs are getting back into the swing of things.Next open event is the Century RC '10' on Saturday.Results

Pos	No	Name	Club	Time	Cat	Vets Std	.+ / -	Vets Std
1	5	Jason Gurney	Baines Racing	21.23	V41	25.42	4.19	5
2	8	Tony Parks	NBRC	22.02	V46	26.42	4.40	2
3	7	Lindz Barral	iTeam cc	23.00	S
4	9	Rob Saunders	NBRC	23.12	V51	27.46	4.34	3
5	1	Glen McMenamin	NBRC	23.53	S
6	4	Yvonne Gurney	Baines Racing	25.57	L
7	2	Clive Faine	TeamMK	26.13	V64	30.45	4.32	4
8	6	Gilbert Wheelwright	NBRC	26.39	V68	31.45	5.06	1
9	3	Tony Brunton	NBRC	28.44	V46	26.42	.- 2.02	6

There was a lovely start to the day - I set out under cloudless skies, but clouds gradually appeared, and by the end of the event we were riding in blustery wind and rain.  So the weather icon on the left is a bit of a compromise.  It wasn't particularly warm, given that this is mid-June, and when the rain arrived, it got still colder.This being my first time trial since going on what purported to be a cycle touring holiday (you can read more about it here), I didn't have huge hopes for a stellar performance.  Usually it takes me a week or two to get back into the swing of racing.  I'd received a link to the startsheet by email.  At first I couldn't find where I was - this turned out to be because I was the penultimate rider to start, one minute before the great Ian Cammish.  Well, two thoughts crossed my mind.  Firstly, just when would Cammish come roaring past me (reckoned by the time I passed Tempsford heading north for the first time), and secondly what a contrast to my last open event, where I was the first rider off!  Carol had ridden roughshod over my dopey plan to ride over to Tempsford for this event (and given how the weather turned out, how glad I was) so it was quite a leisurely trip over from home.  I wasn't feeling in peak of condition, for reasons that I won't bother with here, and hadn't slept well.  On the other hand, the morning was glorious, with quite a gentle wind from the south.As I lined up for my start, I noticed Geoff P. scooting up asking for a late start - given that he was number 46, this would have been about 45 minutes late start penalty!  Geoff and I are usually at a similar pace, and having him two minutes behind me could spur me on, but only if I had any oomph in my legs...Off I went, and up the lane to the roundabout that takes riders down the sliproad and onto the A1 southbound.  Hallelujah!  The Council has deigned to repair the dreadful potholes that have blighted this RAB so far this season.  Joy was not long-lived, as I felt just dreadful on that short southbound leg.  Indeed, I toyed with the idea of chucking it in.  However, I'm made of sterner stuff than that - my view is that packing in doesn't get you anywhere and that riding as best I could would at least represent a good training ride.  After rounding the turn, things got a little better, though not good enough to hold Cammish off until Tempsford...Rounding the Buckden turn for the first time, I found the headwind light enough, though by the time I reached the Black Cat, I was definitely feeling it.  Before then, I'd passed Steve T. on the roadside with a puncture.  The pattern was repeated for the second half of the time trial, though is was apparent when I can round the Buckden RAB the second time that the headwind had got significantly stronger.  It continued to do so until I found myself grovelling along for the final mile to the finish, trying to stay above a measly 20mph.So, not a good day.  I finished with 2:03:06, about a minute back on my last '50' on the same course a few weeks back.  I felt pretty crap then.  David Jones was on the course taking photographs.Results to follow.  If I can bear to reveal them.

I've written up an account of our 2011 cycle touring escapade, though really (as far as cycle touring goes) it was a bit unsatisfactory. The initial aim of touring the very north of Scotland came apart quickly when the tandem's freehub body shattered a few miles north of Scourie.

After yesterday's debacle, a new front tyre was needed, the spare we have being a bit aged itself. So it was back across the road to Escape Route Cycles, where we bought a 32mm folding tyre.When fitting the new tyre, it was pretty clear how lucky we were to make it back OK - the inner tube was badly worn by the choco-milk bottle tyre boot, and was on the point of puncturing. At least the choco-milk bottle tyre boot had stopped the tube pushing out between the tyre bead and the sidewalk!It wasn't until the afternoon that we set off in the car to Kinloch Rannoch, from where we rode round the loch. Weatherise, this was quite a change from the blazing conditions we'd had yesterday - we'd woken to rather cooler temperatures, and during the morning it had not only got cooler still, but the overcast skies had started to drizzle at times.Anyway, we left the car in what appeared to be a parking place for canoeists. We chose the unclassified south road to start. This was delightfully quiet, with only occasional cars, and we mostly saw fishermen in the Loch, with occasional tents by the Lochside. On this section, we saw another red squirrel, but once again could't take a photo.Once round the west tip of the loch, we returned to Kinlochrannoch, passing even more fishermen. We also stopped to photograph an exotic four horned ram in a field.When we returned to the car, we chatted briefly to a fisherman (I asked if there had been a fishing competition), then loaded the bike on the car and set off back to Pitlochry.We had dinner at the Auld Smiddy in Pitlochry, which turned out to be pretty good pub grub (onion and manchego tart, venison sausages on roast veg and mash, creme brûlée). I also had my first pint of Belhaven Best in a few years.One more night in Pitlochry before heading a bit further south.

This was a really warm and sunny day, and was forecast to be like this all day. I'd planned quite a long ride, encompassing climbs over Schiehallion and Ben Lawers, scenic rides on the Foss road and up Glen Lyon. In total this came to about 75 miles, and in the event brought with it some excitement!We set off quite early, and negotiated our way to the Foss road. Annoyingly (since this is a road that would particularly appeal to cyclists), it seems one has to venture onto the A9 to get there. After the A9, the road rolls up and down before running alongside Loch Tummel. The loch was particularly still, and offered near-perfect reflections of the other bank. It was particularly idyllic, with the sounds of birds and livestock among dappled shade and lushly green meadows and trees.Shortly after reaching Foss, we joined the road that winds its way over the side of Schiehallion - a lovely climb. Reaching the top, we paused for a snack bar and a drink before descending. At the bottom, we took the turn to Fortingall, where we stopped to look at the famous Fortingall yew.From Fortingall we pressed on up Glen Lyon. Here we saw a couple of red squirrels. The road up Glen Lyon is quite severely undulating, and I was sustained by memories of the tea room at Bridge of Balgie - memories disputed by Carol. However the tea room did exist, and we tucked in to scones with jam and cream, washed down with tea. We also bought a bottle of chocolate milk, which will assume significance later.From Bridge of Balgie, a little single track road ascends Ben Lawers - a delightful climb, and passing motorists helpfully used passing places appropriately (except twerp in a delivery van that occupied more than the width of the road). The descent to Loch Tay was rather steeper, and I had to brake rather a lot. This had disastrous consequences just as we were reaching Loch Tay. The front tyre decided to explode, presumably from braking heat. Somehow I managed to stay upright and bring the tandem to a stop (not easy with the front rim running on Tarmac). I set about repairs. The rim was far too hot to touch, so we shared the chocolate milk before starting. The tyre was quite badly shredded, with bad damage to the bead. I booted the worst section with a small piece of tyre carried for the purpose, but had to leave the other. With the tyre only pumped up soft, we pressed on, nervously. At this point, we had about 30 miles to go.A few miles down the road, we stopped at Fearnan to see how the tyre was getting on. It was developing an alarming bulge. We scratched our heads for a while, considering how best to keep the show on the road. Eventually I remembered the now-empty choco-milk bottle. We cut a section, and used that as am enormous tyre boot.From Fearnan, we had a pretty uneventful ride via Kenmore to Aberfeldy, where we stopped for a quick drink. The tyre was bulging alarmingly. On to Logierait, where we rested briefly before joining Cycle Route 7 to Pitlochry for the last 4 or 5 miles back to Pitlochry.Beer this evening was very well-earned, as was the curry!Tomorrow we'll see about getting a new tyre...

From Helmsdale, we set off in the car- destination Pitlochry. This was Plan C, in which we stay three nights, for four rides in Perthshire. This was a rather dull drive down the A9, though broken by a supermarket visit in Aviemore.Good weather all day!Once in Pitlochry, we looked for a B&B for three nights, though we actually went for a self-catering house instead. After getting unpacked and buying a few supplies, we set out for a short ride over to Loch Tummel and the Queen's View. Along the way, we stopped to eat one of the meals we'd taken for the tour. For this we stopped next to a sandy bank where sand martins were nesting (much too their dismay!)

We sat in the B&B breakfast room looking out at the weather blasting in from the sea - howling wind and lashing rain. Having a broken tandem suddenly seemed not so bad...After our excellent breakfast (the best so far on this trip), we set off in the car for Thurso, via Durness. We stopped in Durness to go down and look at Smoo Cave, which turned out to be pretty impressive - the waterfall inside was a raging torrent after all the recent rain and was generating clouds of fine spray. Somewhat damp, we returned to the car and drove on to Thurso.At The Bike Shop, we described the problem (bust freehub), fetched the tandem and set about the repair. This wasn't trivial, as Shimano have changed freehub design. Turned out the bolt that holds the freehub body to the hub had shattered. In the end, one of the bike shop guys sacrificed his own hub. Amazing service.After getting something to eat, we decided to head south (in the car), eventually reaching Helmsdale.Quite how we'll proceed from here is still to be decided! But we probably won't be heading north. We may base ourselves in Pitlochry for a few days.

Today was a day with many climbs, starting from Lochinver, with the eventual destination being Durness. Unfortunately, it didn't work out according to plan.We began in lightly drizzling spells, though with light winds. As the day went on, it got sunnier and sunnier. The cycling was quite tough, with climb after climb as we passed many of the frankly astounding Assynt mountains. We stopped for lunch in Scourie, after which we tackled a 12% gradient, which proved too much for the rear wheel, who's freehub began to give up. We returned, cautiously, to Scourie where we were lucky enough to be in time for the only bus of the day to Ullapool.To cut a long story short, we returned in the car to Scourie where we found an excellent B&B. The current plan is to get to Thurso for repairs to be effected, and then to rescue what we can of our cycling holiday.

Just a brief note. We left Ullapool along the A835 - some definite climbs - before turning off on an unclassified road to Achiltibuie. Lovely road, stopped to brew up a cuppa on our trusty Trangia. Pressed on to Achilibuie, but couldn't find any B&B accommodation.We backtracked to the Lochinver turnoff, then spent 12 miles of really beautiful but challenging cycling to reach Lochinver. We stopped to heat up some lunch, but got overrun by a shower, which curtailed this culinary extravaganza. We also had an impassive audience of nosey-parker sheep.Found a B&B in Lochinver, then had beers and dinner (local scallops on black pudding mash)43miles

Tonight's event was the North Bucks Road Club 10 mile championship, and was held on the Stoke Hammond bypass course.  This made awkward factors such as cattle on the course rather less likely, but does bring higher traffic levels.  I expected that starting the event at 7.15pm (rather than 7.00pm) would mean lower traffic levels, but in fact as I lined up at the start, I found there was quite a bit of traffic.  One or two riders (including me) got slightly stalled at the first roundabout as a consequence but really, once started, I didn't feel there was a problem.As has been the case with just about all the events I've ridden this year, we had windy conditions, making things tough most of the way round (with the exception of the return leg of the dual carriageway section - though actually that wasn't particularly brilliant).  I had expected the wind direction to make it easier for the return from the dual carriageway section, but that wasn't to be the case as it turned out, and it was the usual grovel alonf rough road surfaces.As I grovelled along the last half mile or so, I could see the timekeeper, but I started experiencing the strange time triallist's 'time collapse', where all of a sudden, the timer on the bike computer seemed to be running too fast!  I was giving it everything to try and get under 23 minutes......and as it turned out, I managed 22:59.  This was good enough for 2nd place equal.  Not a bad evening, all in all, and perhaps an indicator of returning form (which I felt was masked by the interruption by cattle during last week's event).My next event may be the Finsbury Park '50' on the F1/25 - I'm supposed to be off on a bike tour for a couple of weeks.  I say 'supposed' because the weather forecast for our chosen destination seems particularly diabolical.

Pos	Name	Club	Time	Age
1	TONY PARKS	NBRC	22.38	40
2=	GEOFF PERRY	TEAM MK	22.59	51
2=	ROB SAUNDERS	NBRC	22.59	51
4	DAVE GLOSSY	T. CORLEY	23.03	38
5	GEOFF BUNYAN	NBRC	23.12	50
6	LINDZ BARRAL	I TEAM CC	23.25	34
7	KEVIN STOKES	TEAM MK	24.06	48
8	JOHN BUCHANAN	TEAM MK	24.21	41
9	IAN STOKES	NBRC	25.14	51
10	BRIAN PRIMETT	TEAM MK	25.18	44
11	YVONNE GURNEY	BAINES/NBRC	25.40	38
12	ALAN LAWSON	NBRC	27.30	42
13	KATHERINE DILKS	TEAM MK	27.58	41
14	TONY BRUNTON	NBRC	28.13	46
15	SIMON KNATCHBULL	TEAM MK	29.09	43

And, as usual, here's the event telemetry! Click on 'More Details' for speed, elevation, heart rate etc.

The latest cartoon from xkcd refers to my favourite episode of Star Trek: TNG.  Actually, I suppose I generally found ST:TNG rather un-memorable, usually with facile plot resolutions.  But this episode I thought was quite imaginative.[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="414" caption="xkcd: Darmok and Jalad"][/caption]

Dave Jones kindly sent over a photo of me he'd taken during last weekend's Norlond Combine '50' on the F1/50 course - at the risk of appearing excessively vain, I thought I'd post it here.  I noticed him getting set up on the exit from the Sandy roundabout as I approached the turn, so I had time to compose myself so as not to look like I was on the point of throwing up (not, you understand, through effort - rather it was due to the weekend's over-indulgence, never a good training strategy).  I think I managed the composure thing rather well.[caption id="attachment_1497" align="alignleft" width="432" caption="Gritting my teeth at the Norlond '50', 15th May 2011"][/caption]

Way back in 2008 I wrote a brief blog article about the sequencing of the genome of a rather poorly unusual organism, Trichoplax adhaerens (What the heck is a Placozoan, anyway?).  The interest there was that the genome had a variety of genes associated with organisms with a more 'complex' structure (Trichoplax looks rather like a flattened blob of cells), while no-one really knew much about the biology of the animal.A paper describing sexual reproduction in Trichoplax has just been published in PLoS One (Eitel M, Guidi L, Hadrys H, Balsamo M, Schierwater B, 2011 New Insights into Placozoan Sexual Reproduction and Development. PLoS ONE 6(5): e19639. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0019639).  Here's an excerpt from the abstract:

[...] Placozoa are a unique model system for which the nuclear genome was published before the basic biology (i.e. life cycle and development) has been unraveled. [...] Here we report new observations on sexual reproduction and embryonic development in the Placozoa and support the hypothesis of current sexual reproduction. The regular observation of oocytes and expressed sperm markers provide support that placozoans reproduce sexually in the field. Using whole genome and EST sequences and additional cDNA cloning we identified five conserved sperm markers, characteristic for different stages in spermatogenesis. We also report details on the embryonic development up to a 128-cell stage and new ultrastructural features occurring during early development. These results suggest that sperm and oocyte generation and maturation occur in different placozoans and that clonal lineages reproduce bisexually in addition to the standard mode of vegetative reproduction. The sum of observations is best congruent with the hypothesis of a simple life cycle with an alternation of reproductive modes between bisexual and vegetative reproduction.

All rather interesting - the authors note that the genome sequence was in the hands of scientists before the Trichoplax life cycle was in any way understood.  I imagine that this sort of situation will occur more often, as projects that are randomly trawling the environment for novel DNA sequences have been carried out (Venter et al (2004) Environmental Genome Shotgun Sequencing of the Sargasso Sea.  Science 304; 66-74).

This evening time trial was on the Stony Stratford course, and was on another blustery evening.  At least the rain (which had been promised by the occasional spot during the afternoon) held off, and it was quite warm for those of us who'd ridden to the event.  On the downside, the problems I've been having with my back resurfaced on the ride over.  Accordingly I resolved to try and moderate my gear on the tougher sections of the course.  This isn't my favourite course, as one needs to haul oneself up a substantial climb between Beachampton and Nash.  I was off #11, with Chris D. off a minute behind, which I figured would give me a bit of encouragement.At the allotted moment, I belted off from the line and soon found myself round the first bend and into the headwind.  Still, I was making progress as I caught a couple of riders before Nash.  I rounded the double bend at Nash and redoubled my efforts, only to be held up by a small group of cows being moved between fields (and a couple of cars held up by said cows).  I was forced to halt, or at least slow to a crawl.  Eventually, Chris came up behind, and (being made of sterner stuff than I) pushed past the cars and through the cows.  I decided that if he could do it, so could I, and followed.  From there on, Chris and I were riding at pretty similar paces to the turn, and all the way back to the finish.  I did pass Chris on the descent from Nash (big gear!) and eventually finished a couple of lengths behind him.As I write this, I haven't had the results sent through, but my computer indicates a short 28.  Looking at the computer trace (see below), the "cow incident" seems to have reduced me to a crawl for about a minute, which would leave me with a time similar to that I recorded in this event last year, 27:19.Oh, and my nice clean time trial bike ended up spattered in cow poop.  Oh well.Read on for results and the Garmin trace!

Position	Name	Club	Time
1.	Dave Glossy	Corley Cycles	26.30
2.	Chris Dunwoodie	TMK	27.02
3.	Lindz Barral	iteam	27.20
4.	Rob Saunders	NBRC	28.03
5.	Jake Hales	Corley Cycles	28.16
6.	Chris Dredge	TMK	29.31
7.	John Buchanan	TMK	29.34
8.	Clive Faine	TMK	30.17
9.	Brian Primett	TMK	30.55
10.	Matt Wootton	PM	31.12
11.	Max Duke	A5 Rangers	31.21
12.	Graham Line	NBRC	31.56
13.	Christine White	TMK	33.14
14.	Katherine Dilks	TMK	33.21
15.	Tony Brunton	NBRC	33.54
16.	Alan Lawson	NBRC	34.03
17.	Gordon Batcock	NBRC	35.12

The previous posting describes my recent ride in the Norlond Combine 50 mile time trial on the F1/50. To summarise: I felt ill throughout, and had a really rotten race!  Here's a brief clip showing me shortly before the finish.  The comment about '400 Watts' is a running joke in Team Grumpy (see for example this blog article).Norlond '50' 15-May-11