[caption id="" align="alignright" width="181" caption="Laurent Fignon"][/caption]Cyclingnews.com reports (Former Tour de France winner loses fight against cancer) that Laurent Fignon, double Tour de France winner has died after suffering from cancer.  Sad news.

ScienceDirect, Scopus, Journals Consult and the Admin Tool will be unavailable due to scheduled maintenance for approximately 9 hours on Saturday, August 28, from 6:30am to 3:30pm Central Standard Time.  During this time, upgrades will be implemented to these systems as part of the launch of the new SciVerse platform. For more information about SciVerse, please visit www.acceleratescience.com.

There's been some discussion in the columns of Nature recently concerning the possibility of eradication of mosquitoes. In an article entitled A World Without Mosquitoes, Janet Fang (1) presents a variety of opinions whether large-scale mosquito eradication is practical and if so whether such a course of action is desirable. In the latest issue of Nature, a collection of four letters revisit the controversy.So, there are two issues here: Can we?, and should we?[caption id="attachment_1044" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Anopheles gambiae feeding"][/caption]Some years ago, I had a brief foray in to the world of the Anopheles gambiae species complex, an experience which was quite novel for me as my experiences had been with a very different and more docile fly, Drosophila melanogaster.  And for several years I maintained a colony of A. gambiae in my laboratory, which while not in itself particularly difficult was certainly quite arduous and one strain required considerably more commitment and care than keeping several hundred Drosophila strains. At that time, there was quite a deal of excitement about the prospects of driving transgenes through wild populations, using as a model the spread of P-elements through wild populations of D. melanogaster during the 20th century.  There have always been concerns about the extent to which the entities known as 'species' really are homogeneous populations with consistent gene flow through them across their range: certainly within the A. gambiae species complex, there appear to be 'incipient species' which represent fairly hefty gene flow barriers within the individual sibling species of the complex.One caveat would be that even if one could eliminate an entire species, or a species complex, what would fill the vacant niche?  A. gambiae may be the most significant malaria vector in sub-Saharan Africa, but there are others, that I guess could move in an colonise a vacant niche.  An argument for species control by transgenic means might be for eliminating a species that's newly colonised areas in which they haven't formerly been present: a good case might be if A. gambiae were to be introduced into South America.  More subtle interventions might be to introduce transgenes that impact on malaria parasite propagation within the mosquito: the downside would probably be that given the huge scale of the parasite population out there, somewhere there is likely to be parasites that can evade the introduced transgene.Sterile male release can be effective in controlling insect pests, but is really most effective where the female generally mates only once.  Drawbacks can include fitness of the males, either from irradiation used to sterilise them or because the laboratory-bred strains are uncompetitive in the wild.  Sophisticated technologies exist by which terile males can be made, so this may not be so major a hurdle in the future.Other, more traditional, methods of insect control are really very blunt instruments such as insecticide usage.  Obvious drawbacks would be collateral damage to other insect species, with the potential for massive ecological damage.  There are also health implications.  In the past, mosquito control by application of DDT was quite effective in Sri Lanka, then Ceylon, until over-enthusiatic and inappropriate use of DDT caused the appearance of DDT-resistant mosquitoes.  In the intervening years, malaria incidence had dropped, with the consequence that the resurgence of the disease as mosquito populations recovered was particularly severe (2).  I would be surprised if global eradication by insecticide would ever be approved.  And I cannot see a means by which wholesale eradication of many different mosquito species could be undertaken.  Fang's article provides a concise overview of the eradication/control techniques that have been tried in the past, and some that may be options in the future.In the context of should we eradicate mosquitoes, I'm really less well informed about the ecological implications of such a course.  Much of the online discussion seems to revolve around the ecological consequences of eliminating all mosquitoes, across all ecosystems, even in sub-Arctic tundra regions.  It would not be surprising to me if the ecological effects would be severe, but it also occurs to me that those consequences might well be unrecoverable. At the end of the article, Fang concludes that in her penultimate paragraph that:

Given the huge humanitarian and economic consequences of mosquito-spread disease, few scientists would suggest that the costs of an increased human population would outweigh the benefits of a healthier one. And the ‘collateral damage’ felt elsewhere in ecosystems doesn’t buy much sympathy either. The romantic notion of every creature having a vital place in nature may not be enough to plead the mosquito’s case. It is the limitations of mosquito-killing methods, not the limitations of intent, that make a world without mosquitoes unlikely.

Team Grumpy have been riding the Duo Normand since 2003, only missing one year since then. We've had quite good placings in that time, either in the Veteran or Corporate categories. We came second in the corporate category last year, but that doesn't quite indicate the magnitude of the whipping we got from the winners! The Duo Normand website has started listing riders registered to ride. At the moment there are only two teams in the Corporatif category, one being Team Grumpy. Plenty of time for more entries to flood in, though. So is there anything to be said in a preview for this event?Well, we're staying near Cerisy La Salle - in the same location as last year - though our travel plans will preclude any significant 2-up technique practice before the event. And Team Grumpy's 2-up outings this season have been less than stellar (the Port Talbot Wheelers 2-up ‘25′ and the Icknield 32k). I guess we're just hoping that we've done it so long that we'll just fall naturally back into the swing of things.As usual, we'll take the opportunity to do a little exploration of the Normandy countryside on our tandem, see for example 2008 and 2009, enjoying the local food and drink, particularly the moules et frites, a particular favourite of mine.  And of course, drinking freely of the Team Grumpy official energy drink.Finally, for those who've never ridden the Duo Normand and want to see what the course is like from the rider's perspective, can I recommend the world's most unlikely video, which we dubbed Silent Movie.  This was recorded on a small video camera mounted on Gerry's handlebars.Here are our previous performances:2009 - CorporatifsWe may have been second, but just look at that margin!  The BikeRadar team of Jones and Coomber came flying past us...and can be seen in the video of the event.1 COOMBER Robin - JONES Jeff 01:15:222 ORAM Gerard - SAUNDERS Robert 01:25:022008 - CorporatifsBy 2008, Gerry had persuaded me to switch to the Corporatifs category.  Not entirely sure why, but the effect is to ride at a better time of day than the Unlicenced and Veteran categories.  Also the Veterans category has no handicapping.  The guys who won rode a storming race, particularly since they didn't look much like time triallists and were riding road bikes with clip on extensions.

Astonishingly, we evaded the worst prognostications of the BBC weather forecast, as none of the forecast rain showers hit us during this time trial.  On the other hand the outward leg was rendered rather uncomfortable by a stiff headwind.  In recent weeks, our colleagues at TeamMK had faced hostility from residents in a nearby village - tonight we were visited at the start by a slightly grumpy resident of Stony Stratford, who objected to us starting a time trial there.  In discussions about the first incident, I'm afraid I was a bit didactic - but I feel pretty strongly about our rights as cyclists!Being polite time trial types, we delayed the start for a bit while a horse (and rider!) cleared the start area - I was off last on a pretty small start list of 11 riders, and was irritated by a display snarl-up on my bike computer an while this only distracted me for a short while, it did leave me uncertain as to my progress.  This course is far from being a favourite of mine, principally because of the combination of rough surfaces and the climb to the turn.  On this occasion, I really suffered, dropping to around 12mph at times (unless my blurred vision was deceiving me).Of course it was correspondingly good returning down hill, but as ever, it never fully compensates for the tough outward leg. I finished with 28:09, which was about right for the rubbish legs I had this evening.  In the bigger scheme of things, I began my build up for the Duo Normand a week or so ago - the Duo is on the 19th September.  This has involved significant turbo training, and with hindsight, perhaps 40 or so miles on the turbo the day before this event might not have been the wisest course of action.  However, in my own defence, I was treating tonight's time trial as part of that build-up.Anyway, results below.  Particular congratulations to Lindz Barral who pulled out the stops to finish less than half a minute behind Tony.

At the beginning of July, Rupert Murdoch's press empire moved to charge for access to The Times and The Sunday Times web sites. Up to now, this has been at a charge of £1 for a day's access, or £2 for a week's access.  Perhaps I'm just a cheapskate, but when I'm referred to these sites I decline to pay to read it, moving on to other sites.  I was interested to see that Media Week has some interesting statistics on the effect of the new paywall strategy (Times loses 1.2 million readers - Media news - Media Week). The numbers are quite startling:

News International launched its separate Thetimes.co.uk and Thesundaytimes.co.uk websites on 25 May. It made registration compulsory and began redirecting users from the old site on 15 June and started charging for access to both sites on 2 July.According to ComScore, the combined number of unique visitors to the two new sites has fallen to 1.61 milion in July, from 2.22 million in June, and 2.79 million in May.The average number of minutes each user spent on the site was 7.6 in May, 5.8 in June and 4 in July.Page views have dropped from 29 million in May to 20 million in June and 9 million in July.

After Wednesday's puncture, I inspected the rear tyre on Saturday evening, and decided to ditch it in favour of a new Velofex Record in view of the number of cuts I could see.  I popped in an equally unused Vittoria inner tube.  On Sunday morning I topped up the tyres with a bit more air, and noticed that I'd snapped off the threaded nut off the valve core.  Oh, well I thought - at least the air that's in will stay there.  Well, so I thought, but this was merely the prelude to a comedic series of minor disasters that afflicted my ride in today's '25'.The weather was OK, though a little autumnal with a light and lifting mist.  More annoying was the rising north wind that promised assistance on the southbound outward leg of the course, but would be correspondingly troublesome on the return leg.  Tony and I had travelled over, very conveniently our start times were only five minutes apart - I was #21, Tony #26.  Not too bad a start, reasonably warm as I lined up.  At the appointed moment I departed, quite briskly, off to the roundabout and slip road to join the A1 southbound from Tempsford.  I even negotiated the potholes at the little flyover roundabout.  The wind wasn't giving me as much help as I'd expected, as I proceeded south through Girtford and across the Sandy roundabout, where I unfortunately got slowed by traffic.On again, and safely and cleanly across the next roundabout.  I was feeling pretty good, and reeling in riders ahead of me when I became aware of the bumping so characteristic of a rear wheel puncture.  Groaning to myself, I pulled into the slip road of the BP garage just short of the Baldock roundabout turn (so about 12 miles from the race HQ).  Well, I thought, at least I brought a tube and gas inflater along with me (which had amused Tony no end back at Tempsford).  I removed the wheel, which is a pretty dirty business with the Cervelo due to the rear facing dropouts, and started effecting a repair.  I saw Tony come by, and he shouted that he'd come and pick me up in the car.Nevertheless, I decided to carry on with the repair, not least because is was something to do!  I got the tyre off and removed the tube.  Popped in the replacement tube and refitted the tyre.  Next I tried inflating the tyre with the single CO2 cylinder I had for the inflator.  This proved an unmitigated disaster - it was hard to use the inflater chuck on the trispoke (but this reflects cack-handedness rather than an inherent problem), and the inflater chuck had come apart in my seatpack.  Once all that was sorted, I proceeded to contribute to global warming by releasing the entire cylinder contents into the atmosphere.  At least Tony was coming to rescue me.Which he did, having ridden to a 56:28 result.  Back to the HQ to have a cup of tea and see what other riders had managed.  Matt Bottrill looked to be the clear winner with 50:52, an astonishing performance and indicative of good chances for a placing at the forthcoming British Time Trial Championship in three weeks' time.Postscript.  Back home I went to pump up the repaired rear tyre, only to find the tube was defective and wouldn't hold even a smidgen of air.  So the CO2 would have all dissipated even had I got the inflater attached correctly.

So there I was, on my own with plans to get out on the bike somewhat thwarted by heavy rain showers, and very much at a loose end.  So I took it upon myself to tidy up this website.I've checked over the menu links, which now all seem to be properly functional.  I deleted some that were merely hangovers from a prior incarnation.  A few new menu items were added.In the Main Menu:

• Recently Played Music - now links to a page with information from my Last.FM page, in turn derived from audioscrobbling from my Squeezebox (so it doesn't include CDs and LPs that I play, not anything I listen to on the iPod
• Books from my Library - links to a widget from LibraryThing that scans through my library 25 books at a time, randomly selected.  This replaces a sidebar module that used to show books currently being read, but which was usually out of date.
• About flies&bikes - explains abit about the websites I maintain.

• Recent Publications - properly integrates a feed from an institutional publication repository.
• Why Study fruit flies? - link now works!

• Links tidied up to point to a new browser window/tab.
• Added link to the Team Grumpy website.

Here in the UK, there are few haematophagous arthropods which trouble me. While mosquitoes provide a minor irritation, the Scottish midge Culicoides impunctatus is massively annoying, principally because of the sheer number that typically assail one. For me the bite is more irritating as it occurs rather than an itching after-effect. Generally I come into contact with the Scottish midge while on cycling holiday, and swarms of the blighters can make even the most lovely campsite intolerable.  However the beast that irritates me more than any other is Neotrombicula autumnalis, commonly known as the harvest mite or berry bug. The common names reflect both the season in which N. autumnalis larvae become active and the activities which bring people into contact with them. This blog article was inspired by a pair of bites I picked up this week.[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="220" caption="Life cycle of trombiculid mites"][/caption]Most people who suffer from N. autumnalis first become aware of quite severed itching and raised reddened lumps that are typically found around clothing constrictions, typically underwear elastic. But by this time the little devils are usually long gone, leaving several days of irritation behind them. So what are harvest mites?The biology of trombiculid mitesHarvest mites are small arthropods, with a life cycle as shown in the figure (from Wikipedia). It's a typical mite life cycle: the offending stage is the 6 legged larval stage, of which more later: one phase of the nymph stage and the adults are active predators on other small arthropods.This life cycle diagram is a slight simplification.  The nymph stage is actually composed of three stages, the protonymph (an inactive stage entered after the larva has finished feeding and left its host), the deutonymph (the active nymph stage during which the animal feeds on other, presumably smaller, arthropods) and the tritonymph (a second inactive stage after which the adult emerges).[caption id="attachment_998" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="Larval trombiculid mite"][/caption]For this purpose, it's the larval stage that is of interest: this is the only stage in which the animal feeds on a vertebrate host (see image to left). These beasts lurk on the tips of grass and other leaves awaiting a passing animal.  When the animal brushes the leaf, the larval mite climbs aboard and crawls about, seeking a suitable attachment point.  For some animals this will be areas devoid of hair or thin skin, such as around the eyes or in the ears.  In the case of humans, this is frequently at points of clothing constriction - usually the last place you want to develop an itch!Larval trombiculid mites don't actually bite, or drink blood (so my depiction of them as haematophagous is rather stretching the point): rather they pierce the skin, injecting digestive juices and sucking up the resulting fluids.  This goes on for a few days after which the mite drops off the host and falls to the substrate.  This process causes a tube of hardened skin called the stylostome to form, and it's through this that the mite continues to feed.Apparently it's only after the mite has departed that the bite becomes noticeable, by which time the culprit is long gone.  Fortunately in temperate areas such as the UK, trombiculid mites only have one annual generation, with larvae being active in summer and early autumn (hence the association with berry picking, crop harvests and, in my case, mushroom collecting).  In tropical areas, trombiculids breed rather more frequently, with the life cycle being completed in around 40 days.Trombiculid mites and diseaseHere in the UK, harvest mites don't transmit disease, but this isn't the case elsewhere.  In south east Asia, trombiculid mites are knwon to transmit scrub typhus (also known as Tsutsugamushi), caused by the bacterium Rickettsia tsutsugamushi (aka R. orientalis) - rather than being a typhus, it's actually a Rickettsiosis.Treatment of harvest mite bitesSevere attacks may lead to dermatitis as the rashes and pustules merge.  I'm not personally aware of any particularly effective treatment for the "berry bug itch".  The Pied Piper pest control website has a section on harvest mites that recommends the following - both seem to be very sensible advice. If you've visited a site known for harvest mite infestation, wash your clothes in hot soapy water, and have a good hot shower.  The larval mites will be wandering around your body and clothes, the hot wash should kill them.  Unfortunately the realisation that one may have been in infested terrain may only surface once the mites have gone and you have the itch... Scratching can cause secondary infections: temporary relief may be provided by ointments of benzocaine, hydrocortisone, calamine lotion, or other things that may be recommended.  For what it's worth, I've tried calamine lotion, it works for a very short time!The pet health website PetWellBeing.com recommends (for dogs) the topical application of steroids to alleviate the severe itching.  Ultimately, my opinion is that the best treatment is probably to ensure you don't scratch the lesion!Further readingWikipedia entry TrombiculidaeLane & Crosskey "Medical Insects and Arachnids" Pub 1993 Chapman & Hall.Wikipedia entry TsutsugamushiNote: this article should not be considered medical advice

After a working day that mostly consisted of a very long meeting, with little food and drink, I was concerned how fuelled up I was for our penultimate evening event of the 2010 season.  Actually, I didn't even get half a mile from my office en route to the race before I suffered my mishap - a rear wheel puncture!  Although I suspect my apparent desire to ride that tyre to death and bare canvas contributed, I was a bit put out, particularly as work colleagues kept stopping to comment on what a nice bike it was, as I got a bit oily and cross.  I also discovered the limitations of small pocket-sized pumps (in this case a small Topeak carbon).  Of course partly that was down to the time I had available to keep pumping, but in the end I got the tyre up to a rideable inflation (expecting to get the use of someone's track pump later).By the time I reached the start point of the race, they were just lining up the first rider to start.  I hurried over and got a number.  Good job I'm not superstitious, as I ended up as #13.  Unfortunately there wasn't an opportunity to further inflate my rear tyre, and I thought that having another go might just result in letting air out rather than getting it in, so just lined up to start.It was immediately clear that the outward leg to Chicheley was going to be tough, with a headwind. I thought I'd just take it a bit easy in a headwind, as I have done in recent races.  By Chicheley, my legs felt strangely ineffective, with twitches which were rather reminiscent of times I'd had cramp when racing - fortunately I didn't start cramping.Cornering at Chicheley, it was good to get a bit of tailwind, and by North Crawley, I could see #12 ahead of me.  Or at least a rider I "thought" was #12!  Onwards and past the spot where I took a high speed tumble the other week and down the hill to the bottom of the finishing climb, all the while gaining on #12.  One final effort and up the climb to finish in 23:58, with #11 and #12 crossing the line just a bit before me.A mixed result: I really didn't feel on top of the form I've had this season, but on the other hand 23:58 isn't too bad for me on this course, judging from recent rides.Looking forward to upcoming open events, I'm riding a '25' on the F1B/25 on Sunday, and I plan to ride a '50' on 5th September.  After that, I have what will probably be my final event of 2010, the Duo Normand, on 19th September.  Look out for the preview of the 2010 Duo Normand, and the report after the event.

It was with some trepidation that I set off for the Finsbury Park CC '25'.  For one thing, I'd not been on a bike for a week preceding the event, as I'd been working at a residential school (and to make matters worse, the week's diet was less than satisfactory).  For another thing, i was relatively late in the start field, and I'm never so keen on starting so late, partly because of traffic levels, and partly because any wind seems to get stronger as the morning warms up.  One other factor was the number of events I've ridden along this stretch of road recently - I've getting a bit bored of it!On the morning, the weather was kind.  Except for the northerly wind, as it turned out.  Lining up at the start it was clear I was in for a lonely ride, as half a dozen riders in front of me didn't start.  The exception was Sam Barker (110), and I was never going to see him during the race!  A bit of banter ensued with the time keepers and pusher off, wherein it transpired that my enthusiastic arrival with 6 minutes to spare wasn't going to be rewarded in any material form!Anyway, off I went southbound, dodging the potholes (which resemble archaeological excavations rather than road defects) at the Tempsford flyover before joining the A1.  This was rather nice, as the aforementioned wind was providing quite a bit of assistance.  Unfortunately this state of affairs only lasted as far as the frst 3 miles or so, where the course turns north at the Sandy roundabout.  As expected the northbound leg to Buckden was rather tough.  Rather than muscling it, I chose to down gear slightly, which seemed to do the trick.  Once round the Buckden roundabout, things got markedly easier as the tailwind assisted me.This has to have been the first time trial in ages where I didn't see anyone - either by catching them or by being caught.  I finished in 57:28, which I was quite pleased with given the circumstances of the past week.

The UK ISP TalkTalk was recently spotted shadowing its customers' tracks around the internet. The excellent NoDPI.org has a comprehensive summary of why this is illegal (TalkTalk becomes StalkStalk).  Interestingly the man in charge, despite claiming to have deleted all emails from one protester has had his legal crew write an apparently evasive letter.As with the BT-Phorm debacle, it's going to be interesting to watch this unfold...buy I can't see the UK regulatory bodies acting with any great rapidity if prior experience is anything to go by,

An article principally concerning government plans to squeeze those living in council accommodation (David Cameron announces plan to end lifetime council tenancies | Society | The Guardian), Prime Minister David Cameron is quoted as saying:[...] the coming public spending cuts will not be restored when the economy recovers.

I've recently taken delivery of a Garmin 500 bike computer, rather a neat piece of kit that can use GPS positioning to show speed and distance: it also has a speed/cadence sensor and a chest strap to send HR to the unit. It is ANT+compatible so can receive data from any ANT+ power sensor (I've got an eye on the Metrigear pedal spindle device, should it ever enter the market).Garmin have a website to which data can be downloaded from the unit online: this requires a downloaded plug-in to facilitate upload from the Garmin 500. Or so they say (more on this in a bit), and it's only available for PC and Mac. The software is pretty limited in comparison to other apps I've used. While you can see graphs of power, altitude, speed and heart rate, you can't seem to plot them in combination. Nor are there any of the very useful ways of plotting power data that some other packages offer. You can however use Garmin Connect to convert from FIT format to TCX format, which can be useful.You can also download Garmin's Training Center to run on a PC or Mac. Once again there's no Linux version available, though I've used a Windows virtual machine to have a play with it. As with the web-based Garmin Connect, it seems to me to be rather limited in its analytic capabilities. So with those comments in mind, what training software have I tried and (perhaps more pertinently) use?I've been using VidaOne's Diet and Fitness (VODF) since the days it was known as MySportTraining, This was largely because it had a Pocket PC version that would synchronise with the Windows version - now it also has an iPhone app. Of course it's always been a pain to be using Windows apps when I am by and large a Linux user these days. I currently run this app in a virtual XP machine (using VirtualBox), and have training data going back 7 years. It would have been more, except for a laptop crash back in 2003 - which taught me a lesson! Using the Polar IR USB device, VODF can download directly from the Polar CS600X with power, but beyond offering a graph of power against time, seems limited in how to analyse power data. VODF doesn't currently download GPS data from the Polar CS600X.Most of the heart rate monitors I've used have been from Polar (successively the Polar Coach, S600, S720i and now CS600X), and so I've tried a few versions of Polar software - Polar Protrainer 5 currently, but find the interface a little clunky, though I guess this comes down to personal taste. And like VODF, it's analytic power tools seem to be rather limited. The principal reason I keep PPT is that I can collect GPS data from the Polar.Golden CheetahThis 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 supect 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 for use in road cycling. 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.  The main problems I've faced have related to battery life (G3 uses a single AA cell, supposedly good for 10h, but I reckon less, particularly if an NiMH rechargeable cell is used).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), 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 training out on the road. I have fitted a second Polar WIND power sensor to one of my road bikes, and over the last few weeks 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 while riding. In part this reflects the nature of the sessions - extended efforts on the road vs intervals 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.

A very warm day transformed into much cooler conditions for this event over at the Stony Stratford course.  At least the rain showers which I rode through en route to the event held off for the actual racing.  On the other hand, I really shouldn't have taken part in the event, as I was feeling decidedly unwell on the ride out.I also took a chance on riding rather lower gears than usual on the outward leg, particularly on the uphill section to Nash.  Unfortunately, this (coupled with the uncertain feeling in my stomach, and my caution cornering on wet roads) merely slowed me down to the point I recorded a poor 28:31 in tonight's event.  My generally unwell feeling intensified overnight, and I spent the night tossing and turning.That's the last time trial for a week and a half, as I cannot race due to work commitments.  I'll return to the fray in the Finsbury Park '25'.

A story that surfaced in TalkTalk forums a while back, and more recently in the Phoenix Broadband Advisory Community and the No DPI forums has now come to the attention of The Register (TalkTalk turns StalkStalk to build malware blocker).  This one's interesting - under the guise of harvesting URLs for future malware protection TalkTalk have been following their clients around the web.  El Reg:

It's less TalkTalk, more StalkStalk: the UK's second largest ISP has quietly begun following its customers around the web and scanning what they look at for a new anti-malware system it is developing.Without telling customers, the firm has switched on the compulsory first part of the system, which is harvesting lists of the URLs every one of them visits. It often then follows them to the sites to scan for threats.[...]The new system is provided by Chinese vendor Huawei, and customers can't opt out of the data collection exercise. As they browse the web, URLs are recorded and checked against a blacklist of sites known to carry malware. They are also compared to a whitelist of sites that have been scanned for threats and approved in the last 24 hours.If a URL appears on neither list, Huawei servers follow the user to the page and scan the code. According to measurements by webmasters, the TalkTalk stalker servers show up between about 30 seconds and two minutes after TalkTalk subscribers.