Cut off

Internet is limited thanks to the muppets at TalkTalk cutting me off without my say so. Grr. They blamed BT for taking over the line illegally, but when I put in an official complaint to Ofcom (telco watchdog) there was no line seizure. Buggered if I know what happened, although I didn't hold back when TalkTalk sent me a survey to fill in...

Three weeks to get my line back, six weeks for broadband. And yep, I'm going with TalkTalk again because they're cheap :-) Unfortunately they can't just reconnect me. The good news is that they won't charge me the £60 connection fee. That's very generous of them.

Racing-wise, I went up to Hull with Stu Dodd for the Team Swift Charity 10. It was a quality field, the best outside the national 10 with 20 riders having done sub-20min rides previously. We done good: I was fourth in 19'45 and Stu 5th in 19'49. Hutch won it in 18'02 - again four seconds outside comp record (Wiggins, 17'58).

Stu and I were very happy, especially as the locals said it wasn't a really fast day because of the strong crosswind. Most of them went 0'30-1'00 slower than their best times on that course. But my power numbers confirmed it was a good ride.

The trip was also worthwhile to meet some new folks and to eat fish 'n chips in Newport.

That leads onto the next fixture, which is the British TT champs in Botolph Claydon, near Bicester. I'm not going up against the elites, although it is tempting to see how I'd go against the likes of Brad Wiggins and Hutch. Instead I'll have another tilt at the Masters B (35-40) category. Got second last year and would love to go one better this year. We'll see.

The course is on quiet but good roads with a couple of small climbs. It's nearly two laps of a 17.2km loop for a total of 33.4km (elite men do three laps for 50.6km). I reckon a time of 45'00 would be enough to win any of the masters categories, but we shall see. I think Wiggo will win the elites with something close to 1:02, with Hutch not too far behind.

More anon.