Frozen bilge

It's the best kind because it's easier to avoid. Although it can be slippery.

Right, the cold hard facts: it's been the coldest most widest spreadest snowiest start to the UK winter in approx 17-33 years, depending on your penchant for stats. What this means is that it started snowing all over the shop last week and hasn't really let up, although it might soon. So the north is once again buggered and so is the southeast and Wales. That leaves Cornwall, which has mostly been spared. Bath copped a fair bit too.

On the days that it hasn't snowed it's been really chilly. A couple of mornings where it's been -5 in Bath, colder once you leave the confines of the city. And up in Scotland it's already been as low as -21, and could easily get colder. The record is -27 so I'm keeping an eye on that.

I managed to get out for a few rides after the snow started but this week I've been indoors on the rollers, and am better for it. It's quite nice not to have to wash 4 tonnes of cycling kit after every ride. Shorts and jersey is fine for a 1hr session in the work basement. It is cold down there but after 10mins with no wind blowing over me, I quickly warm up. The main reason is that I'm putting out about 1kW of heat (250W of which goes into the pedals). The body's fuel conversion inefficiency can come in handy sometimes.

Back home, I am rather glad that we got the heating fixed in time. The pipes are quite narrow so it doesn't exactly chuck it out, but we've got a back up fan heater in the living room which is useful. The fact that it looks like a coal oven and even glows, well we'll ignore that.

So even though it's been raining lots in Oz, I'm still looking forward to it in a few weeks.

Onto more important things, we saw two movies recently. Harry Potter 7, Part I, Deathly Hallows. Pretty good all round, some small diversions from the book including a slightly racy Harry/Hermione scene, and a few bits were cut or severely shortened (a good thing).

Liz and I reckon that of the three main stars, Rupert Grint (Ron) has got the brightest future ahead of him. He can do expressions. Daniel Radcliffe hasn't mastered it yet (acting, that is), and Emma Watsername is a little better, although at least she can do a nice sideline flogging Chanel No. 3.

Robert Pattinson (Cedric Diggory out of Harry Potter IV) has done well though. He's now a useful vampire method actor.

Beowulf was the other movie wot we saw, on telly not on the big screen. It's a bit of an oddity, as they used a motion capture technique to make it semi-animated (real actors turned into 3D animations). Why? To save money I guess.

The outcome is rather disappointing, as by going 3D you lose all the expression that a human being could bring to the role, unless that human being is called Keanu Reeves. So while it gives you more scope to do krazee stunts, it's essentially a waste. OK Angelina Jolie's in it but still...

The storyline is changed somewhat from the original. Yes Beowulf still defeats Grendel with his bare hands, but then it veers wildly off tack by having him being seduced by a beautiful Grendel's mum, instead of slaying her. That's just a gratuitous use of Ms Jolie's talents if you ask me. Not that there's anything wrong with that. Then she ends up siring a dragon, wot kills and is killed by Beowulf at the end.

So yeah it's a nice way of tying it all together but I think it's taking poetic licence a bit far. In actual 8th century fact, Grendel's mum was not easy on the eye (I know, I drew her for a historical piece in 5th class) and the dragon was no relation.

On the other hand, the poem is a bit disjointed. A bit like this blog.

After reading it, I can see how Tolkein was influenced by it*, especially in the Silmarillion.

Finally, I see that arsenic based lifeforms have been discovered outside of parliament (that was a bit of political satire there). There is hope then, although not necessarily for us.

*Beowulf that is, not this blog.

In no particular order

We have hot water and heating again after many months. A good thing, as we're now hurtling towards winter with reckless abandon. I won't bore you with the details, suffice to say it wasn't just a new boiler that was required and good plumbers are in high demand. It's all that central heating bizzo.

The shortest day of the year is just a month away. Thankfully by then I should be headed to Oz on a non-Qantas non-Air China flight. Air China jacked their prices up by nearly £500(!) this year, which is capitalism gone mad I tell you. Although they were still cheaper, I couldn't face Beijing Airport for a measly £200 saving.

Qantas makes me nervous for some reason, so I'm taking an alternative option.

I'm quite looking forward to Oz, although it means I'll miss the Cycling Time Trials Champions Night in January. Bummer, because I think I won a medal for finishing second in the national TT series. But you pays your money...

That said, it had better have stopped raining in Oz by the time I get there. November in the UK is always a bit crap. Apart from the odd sunny day it's grey, stormy, occasionally frosty and there's wet leaves everywhere. I've been out when it was -2 on the bike path but it wasn't so bad as the sun was out. Worse was when I took John, Sam and Kirsty out one day and there were two crashes equalling one broken thumb and a separate case of a ruined pair of knees. All in one 45km ride. Oops.

I've actually been doing a fair bit more than I usually do in November, which I've traditionally treated as a rest month. However because I finished racing at the start of October, everything has been moved forward. It's not been so much hard work as solid amounts of riding. As such I'm still as fit as I was (on average) during the season, although a damn sight slower. Winter cripples your average speed because of the cold and all the gear you have to wear. But as I'm finding out, not your power.

Hopefully I can build on this going into next year. We shall see.

Finally, I'm not sure whether it's appropriate to end on a sad note. I don't think it is, so this is enough.

Journo world's 2010

This...


Photo © Robert Kühnen

...is why I still race. The feeling you get when you cross the line having given it everything and you know it's a winning time.

This...


Photo © Robert Kühnen

...is also nice.

That was the story of the 2010 journo worlds in a nutshell. There's a full report here too.

The full story

The slightly longer version starts with a poorly timed visit of the Ridley factory in Belgium on Thursday, the day before the journo world's kicked off. The visit was necessary for work but it didn't help with my last minute preparation. I had no chance to ride during the day and from past experience this always knocks the edge off me the next day (it did this time too). I don't handle rest particularly well.

Somewhat ironically, we were shown Ridley's latest aero developments, including a non-existent wind tunnel (it's coming) and a super dooper aero fork. And two days later, it turned out my closest rival in the TT was riding a Ridley Dean time trial bike. I suspect it was more coincidence than a Belgian plot to unseat me in the TT. It didn't work anyway.

Friday morning, train to Lierde, sign on and meet the rest of 'Team GB' (matching skinsuits, identical to the ones worn by the real British team. Yes I am both British and Orstrayan, wotcher g'day). Robin Coomber and Ian Osborne, who'd driven over in the Mountain Biking UK van the previous night. We thought we'd squeeze in a couple of laps of the course before the team time trial started later, and a wise decision it was.

20 corners in 10.7km. Bumpy concrete roads, potholed asphalt, speed humps and a few small climbs. That was the course and it was a bit of a shock to the system. The first time around it, my left elbow pad slipped on every bump, so I needed to make some modifications to my bar set up. It wasn't as aero as I would have liked but at least I had no surprises.

The second time around it we sort of worked out a formation but it was a tough course to ride as a team. Very few long straights where you could swap over and lots of corners where you could lose a ton of time. So the plan was: I do most of the work, Robin does a third and the more technical sections, Ian hangs on for dear life.

It almost worked.

Fast forward to just before the start. We got lost on our warm up and had just found the way back when Ian punctured. Argh! I had a spare wheel to lend him but it meant we were a little compromised. Worse still, we didn't have a chance to do the final part of our warm up, which involves going at race pace for a short while. This is to remind your legs what they're about to do. Too late for that. We were off.

I started at the front and got us up to speed on the first downhill bit. From 0-60km/h in 30 seconds. Then Robin took over for the first and tightest corner. I followed, checked that we'd still got Ian, left Robin in front for the next two corners and that was the first kilometre.

Then it was my turn again. Bend, corner, corner, 60km/h, sharp corner at 30, back up to 58, bend, another one, too fast come off tri-bars and slow down too much. Less than 3km and Robin takes over, yelling at Ian to drop back but he doesn't and I take last wheel. Bad idea because Robin pushes it hard on the uphill and Ian slowly loses the wheel until I can come round and pull him back, past Robin, who slots into second. 3.5km. We've already lost the race but we don't know it yet.

Time for me to do a longer turn, not hammering but opening up a bit. It's mostly straight with just one bend in 1.6km, so I can crank the speed up gradually without dropping anyone. Slow from 52 to 38 for one bend, then down to 30 for the next one as we reach Deftinge. I did a race here once. Quite some time ago actually. That means this blog is over six years old.

I digress. We're halfway now and Robin gets back on the front, taking us through the next corner out of Deftinge (that didn't take long). We go through the back of town via a few more corners and onto a tiny road next to a cornfield. Memories of racing over roads like this. I shouldn't have been reminiscing though, I should have taken over from Robin on this bit even though we'd previously agreed he'd do the next section because it was downhill and technical.

Bad idea - I'm much fatter than Robin therefore faster on the downhills. I end up freewheeling and sitting up too much as we rattle along at 48-52km/h. That's it. 3km to go and I come through for the duration. Up a sharp hill at 430W, take the next corner fairly well, then assume the position on the longish drag into the headwind. I'm flat out here and hoping that the others are hanging on.

Corner, bend, hammer, another corner and we're into the finishing straight which goes down then up and up some more. It's block headwind here and I can only hit 52 on the descent. The climb to the finish is long enough to really hurt and I am at this point. Robin comes past near the end, I get out of the saddle to try to hold his wheel but I can't quite, and Ian is barely on mine.

We cross the line in 15'05 and I'm blown. The second half was a lot better than the first but not starting hard enough cost too much time and already I can hear that we're one second behind Team Grinta! who have the quickest time so far. That's disappointing as although they knew the course and had decent riders (Frederik Backelandt, won the U30 TT last year, Roel Van Schalen, who beat me in the TT three years ago and Lorenzo Derycke, who is very strong and had been drafted in especially for this team), we thought we could still beat them.

It didn't matter in the end as Team Belgium 1 came home in 15'00 to win. Dieter Roman (TT winner in 2006), Brett Wauters and Rik Lintermans combined extremely well to get around the course quicker than the rest of us. They had the home advantage and made the most of it, but they deserved it.

It also caused me a few worries for the next day as I now knew how good the Belgians were on their home turf. This was going to take a good ride, unlike last year where I did a relatively crap ride and still won by a minute.

Podium ceremony done, we retired to the Berendries B&B run by the wonderfully friendly and generous Christina and Marc. Highly recommended and I've stayed in a lot of B&Bs. Back to Lierde for the post-race pasta party (which was a good idea on paper) and thence to bed for a proper night's sleep.

The individual

The next day was better. I'd rehearsed the course in my head over and over and had a much better idea of which lines I'd take in the corners. Again it was an afternoon start so we had time to get properly ready.

Ian was off first, in the over 40s category. He did a creditable 15'58 for 5th place, but was a little disappointed as he'd initially been told 15'08 which would have been the winning time. The winner was Dutchman Roel Kerkhof in 15'11, who together with his friend was also staying at our B&B. Journo world's regular and top bloke Julian Bray was 2nd in this category, just 6 seconds behind Kerkhof. Sooo close and I bet there was plenty of post-ride analysis of the corners.

Warm up
Photo © Robert Kühnen

Fred Backelandt rode first in the U40 category and did a really fast time: 14'48! Did the team slow him down yesterday? Luckily neither Robin nor I knew this before we rode, or we would have been worried. In any case I had already decided that I'd need to break 15min to have a good chance.

Robin went 4th last and had a disaster. The bumps made his saddle tilt down about 1km into it and he had to do the rest of it in a very unnatural position. Brilliant ride to finish in 14'58 but it wasn't enough unfortunately. It was worse for Robert Kuehnen, who took some of these photos. He did 16'19 but had to take 30sec out because his rear brake fell off!

I was off last. I saw Guido and Lucien at the start and Grote Jo was somewhere along the parcours too. Excellent to see them and I hope they enjoyed watching.

5, 4, 3, 2, 1, go! And I'm off again.


Photo © Robert Kühnen

This time the tailwind isn't quite as strong so I have to work to hit 60 on the first downhill. Then it's the sharp, tight right hander and I get around it without running into the wall. The next two corners I'm much quicker than the previous day, 3-4km/h. I'm not holding back and not looking behind.

Whenever I see my computer I'm encouraged by the numbers. This is definitely better than yesterday (final average was 23W up) despite working just as 'hard'.

Up to halfway and I can feel that I've gone faster, the corners flowing much more freely. Of course as soon as I think this I muck one up and it's the one into Deftinge. That's a few km/h off and at least a second. I'm a bit more cautious around the next few although I'm still pushing it on the straights in between. I reach the narrow road next to the cornfield and can see I'm catching my minute man. Hmm, when to pass?

I try to get him out of the next corner but I'm not close enough yet, which means he gets the perfect run on the potholed downhill section. I'm up to 54km/h here and close the gap, having to wait a few pedal strokes before I can get round him. Motorbike in my way too (there's one per rider).

I hit the gas again on the sharp uphill, mess up the next corner (argh!) and tackle the second last drag. Again, it's flat out, albeit not as much of a headwind so I can nearly manage 45. Last few corners, could be better but there's no time for that now. I really wind it up on the last descent: 56km/h and that gives me a great run up to the finish. Out of the saddle again, getting every last drop of power out and hit the line at maximum effort.


Photo © Robert Kühnen

A quick look down: 14'31. Plus 5sec for the start. 14'36. That's good.

It's confirmed by the announcer: "Jeff Jones, nieuwe beste tijd! vierteen minuten, zesendeertig seconden!"

Woo hoo, dunnit!

The satisfaction is huge and I high-five Ian just after the line. It's an unbeatable feeling - as you can see from the very first photo. Congrats from Guido and Lucien and it's in the bag. Podium time.

I felt sorry for Frederik though. He was beaten into third by a few hundredths of a second by his compatriot Jonas Heyerick, who was absolutely over the moon with that. Jonas had trained for the last 9 months specifically for this race, losing nearly 20kg, getting properly set up on his bike and kit with professional training help, and had chronicled it all in a column for P Magazine called 'From donkey to racehorse'. He had a busload of supporters too, who were awesome and loud, despite being a bit annoyed that I'd won.

Robin was annoyed with 4th and who knows how close it would have been had his saddle not slipped? But that's part of it unfortunately.

A rather posher reception followed and Ian got abominably drunk.

Kermiskoersen

The road race the next day was a reminder of the kermises I used to ride in Belgium, but without the relentless attacking. Much easier all round, except for the hill which was ridden pretty hard. Five laps, 12km a lap, fewer corners than the TT and a finish that involved a short steepish climb, a quick descent, three fast corners then the finishing straight.

My vague plan was to try and get away, either alone or with a small group. I knew I had little chance of this as the bunch was over 50 strong, had some useful riders in it and some team tactics. Also the last time I got away alone I won by three minutes so I didn't think I would be allowed much room.

That proved correct, although I did have a few stabs at it. The last one was promising as I took a few riders with me who were prepared to work, but the Belgians were vigilant and chased it down.

Mark Koghee rode a great race as he did manage to get away early. He spent most of the race alone in front until the eventual winner Christophe Moec bridged across to him on the last lap, then rode away. Even though Moec was caught by a small group over the top of the climb, he still beat them in the sprint. Chapeau!

I was OK on the climb, as the following video clip by Jo Vandenheulen shows, but was clearly too far back to be in with a shout. Thus I rolled in at the back of the second group in 14th.

Robin, on the other hand, had been looking after himself the whole race and stayed with the leaders on the climb. He can sprint a bit and managed a fine third. Another well done that man!


Eikenmolen - last lap. Moec leads, Robin in 5th, me in 12th. Video by Jo Vandenheulen

And that wraps it up for another year. A good 'un, by all accounts.

PS: Blenheim Palace went poorly. I punctured halfway. Grr.

PPS: I may even post some pics from our Skye/Edinburgh holiday.

The Tour de France is at steak

(ie the big news other than me winning the journo worlds TT - I've got a post on that coming)

Alberto Contador positive for clenbuterol

Three-time Tour de France winner Alberto Contador of Spain was suspended Thursday after failing a dope test, in the latest drug scandal to hit cycling's most prestigious event.

Read the full story on BikeRadar.com

Alberto Contador blames positive on contaminated meat

Three-time Tour de France winner Alberto Contador of Spain, who was suspended Thursday after failing a dope test, blamed the positive result on contaminated meat, in an emotional protest of his innocence

Read the full story on BikeRadar.com

Reactions

David Millar: Alberto Contador not treated fairly

Britain's David Millar has leapt to the defence of Tour de France champion Alberto Contador after the Spaniard was suspended for a positive test for banned substance clenbuterol.

Read the full story on BikeRadar.com

Riis believes in Contador's innocence

Dane awaits further investigation in the case

Team Saxo Bank manager Bjarne Riis has spoken with Alberto Contador about the Spanish rider's positive test for Clenbuterol, and indicated that he believed in Contador's innocence.

Read the full story on Cyclingnews.com

Lemond shocked by Contador positive

American surprised Contador would risk all

Three-time Tour de France winner and strong anti-doping advocate Greg LeMond has reacted with surprise to the news that Alberto Contador (Astana) has tested positive for clenbuterol.

Read the full story on Cyclingnews.com

German TV may drop Tour

Contador's positive only one of a series of doping problems

German broadcasters are once again threatening to drop coverage of the Tour de France, with the news of Alberto Contador's positive test for Clenbuterol only the latest in a series of year-long doping scandals.

Read the full story on Cyclingnews.com

Analysis

Contador: Food contamination or political victim?

Closer look at the lab behind test

When announcing his positive test for clenbuterol Alberto Contador’s press officer stated that he’s been a victim of food contamination, but Cyclingnews understands the Spaniard might also be a victim of political issues surrounding the fight against doping. The International Cycling Union (UCI) confirmed after Contador’s announcement that the traces of clenbuterol found were some 400 times less than the volume World Anti-Doping Agency labs are required to test for.

Read the full story on Cyclingnews.com

The news in brief

Still busy, but it'll calm down in about a month when I go on hols.

I was going to write a blog or two on trying to do the perfect 10 but didn't get round to it.

It's been an aim of mine to get under 21 minutes in the club 10 and although I got close this year, there was no cigar. It's mainly because I needed the perfect combination of power, wind direction and position (I've been mucking about with that a lot) to nail it.

The closest I came was a 21'18 a few weeks ago. Although my power wasn't great, the wind was perfect and I was also using my most aero position. Unfortunately with 2.5 miles to go I got passed by a car (one of about four to pass me all up) just as I was catching the rider in front. The driver couldn't get past that rider in time and I ended up on the brakes. Repeat for the next rider.

In lost time alone it was 10seconds. Maybe a bit more than that for accelerating/decelerating. So close...

In the last club 10 the wind was blowing lightly but the wrong way. I experimented with another position and although I managed a season's best power and had a perfectly smooth run (pacing was horrible though), the position cost me about 10sec and I ended up with ... 21'19.

I'll try to put it all together next season, as I quite enjoy the club 10 course. No traffic assistance, back roads, a few bends and it finishes higher than it starts. Good fun!

Other than that, I'm just winding up for the last bit of the season, which includes a 50, a 25, the journo worlds (TTT, TT, circuit race) and a 20km TT at Blenheim Palace.

I also took part in the British TT championships again, this time in the elite class. Ho ho. It was not with the aim of finishing highly, more to see how I'd go against the likes of proper riders. Brad Wiggins, Geraint Thomas and Chris Froome from Team Sky were all there and were all hungry for the jersey. As was Hutch, but he didn't get a look in. It was pretty special to race against three Tour de France riders,even if I did finish 7'25 down on Wiggo (as did Cadel Evans in the final Tour time trial this year, over a similar distance. Lol.) Results here.

It was a cracking course around Llandeilo in south west Wales - a fast start, gradually downhill with a tailwind, then a short twisty, lumpy section past a castle, then back towards down on a dead uphill drag into the wind. There was a 9% zig zag climb through town which was packed with people. A fantastic atmosphere and one that you just don't get very often, especially in British time trialling. We did two full laps plus another two thirds of a lap for 52.7km.

Unlike last year I had not specifically targeted this race so I was a bit more relaxed about it and managed to enjoy myself. The first lap was solid, the second I went off the boil after hitting a heavy shower on the first half of the course (which had completely dried up by the third lap).

James Wall, who was off a minute behind me, then caught me on the hill through Llandeilo with about 15km to go. I figured he'd ride away from me on the downhill but he didn't and I stayed about 100m behind him for the rest of it. I actually didn't wind it up at the end like normal because I didn't want to overtake him and risk a possible DQ. So I finished quite comfortably, which is rare in a TT. It did cost me a few places but it wasn't too important. Pic here.

Power was decent - average for what I've been doing in training, but a fair bit better than I did for the 5th round of the Rudy Project. And hopefully there's a bit more to come in the next few weeks. We'll see.

Much other stuff happening, all important but far too mundane to write down here.

Going for broke

I hate starting with a definition (oh good, I just avoided it). But going for broke means "To commit or expend all of one's available resources toward achievement of a goal"

To wit, going for a fast time in the WTTA 100 yesterday. I did manage to expend all of my available resources (well, most of them) but despite winning the event, failed to achieve this goal by a long way.

In fact, I would have happily traded the win for a time < 3:42:50, but it was not to be. Why? Because that would have improved my Best All Rounder (BAR) average, which is the average of your best 50, 100 and 12 hour average speeds. An average average, if you like.

The BAR is a strange competition because the main contenders don't necessarily meet each other in the same races. You can take your pick of a number of 50, 100 and 12 hour races, roll the weather dice and hope that you'll do your fastest times. Or you can enter all of them, look at the weather, and take your pick. This is what most serious BAR riders do.

Now, I've already done a 50, 100 and 12, but thought that I could perhaps improve on my 100 and 50 averages. So far no luck. I've just got one more card to play and that'll be it. Depending on how that goes and what the others do, I could end up anywhere between 3rd and 10th in the competition.

But I digress.

I did the WTTA 100 last year and finished second with 3:41:22. This year my best has been 3:42:50 in the BDCA 100. I figured that I could improve on that, being fitter and all, but with the benefit of hindsight I realise that last year the conditions were pretty damn good. There was a west wind which you were mostly sheltered from going up the long drag to the top of the course, but which did help you back down the other way. And it was warm and sunny.

On Sunday, by contrast, we had a nagging noreasterly which absolutely killed your speed on the uphill leg, the sun didn't even dare come out so it didn't get above 15 degrees.

It was slightly annoying because I averaged 12W more than last year (and 10W more than the BDCA 100) and was 7'20 slower! I also paced it extremely badly, but I had a deliberate plan to go for a fast time, which meant I had to stay on target early on. When I looked down at my average power after two laps, I realised that although I was already 2min down on last year's pace, it had cost me 26W more. I was almost riding at 50mile pace, which is not what you want to do when the race is twice that length.

Needless to say things went a little pear shaped after that. I dropped 25W to ride lap 3 at the same power as lap 3 last year (but 2min slower), and lap 4 was 5W lower than the same lap last year, where I also blew up, but 3'40 slower! That's a shocking price to pay for a relatively small power loss. At that speed it should be no more than 20-30sec.

All up that meant the last lap was 65W(!) down on the first two laps but unlike last year I lost even more time because of the long slow uphill section and because it just didn't warm up. Last year the conditions really helped get me home.

I was lucky to get away with the win on Sunday. James Wall, who beat me last year, punctured after about half way and had to stop. I was maybe a minute down on him then (it was hard to tell) but given what happened later he would have comfortably beaten me.

But I wasn't the only one who suffered. Most riders either didn't start, didn't finish, or went 10-15min slower than last year. Neil Davies, who gave me a lift up, was one of these: 4:55 compared to 4:41. But his son Luke managed a 4:43 in his first ever 100 to take the juvenile prize. Bloody good going on a rough day. Chippenham also took the team prize with me, Steve Ayres (4:22:06) and Gordon Scott (4:23:47). Yay team!

I'll chalk it up to experience but I was quite pleased at what I was knocking out for the first two hours, at a seemingly comfortable pace. That average power last year got me a 1:44:05 for 50 miles on the same roads. Yesterday it was more like 1:52, which goes to show how much a difference conditions can make. Also, had I ridden a well-paced race, I could have gotten my time down to 3:45 or so, but that wouldn't have been good enough.

Next up: The British champs in September. I'll not be troubling Wiggo and co but it'll be interesting to see how close I can get to the top pros in 52km.

Killing time

I've just finished a week of holidays (well, time off in lieu) and by god I needed it. I've not had a proper break since January and was running very low on mental energy.

I couldn't believe how much sleep I had during the first few days: I'd have two one hour naps during the day, then sleep for 10hrs! But I seem to have caught up at last.

Racing has resumed too. I did a 50 in Wales last weekend and won it in 1:47:09 by 20seconds or so. This was helped largely by Ceri Pritchard pulling out with, erm, skinsuit issues with 7 miles to go. He was 1'30 up on me at halfway and I doubt he would have lost that over the final 25 miles. But my power was decent, my pacing excellent, and my legs were absolutely wrecked the next day. I blame the Bristol Harbour Festival on the previous day for that :-)

I had a go at the club 10 again, although I probably shouldn't have. I was slower than last week (21'41 vs 21'32), but also 12 watts down b/c I wasn't fresh. I'd gone back to my old position too, and taking into account conditions, I figured the old one was marginally quicker than my experimental one. Dang, so much for 10%.

I did some more testing on Thursday (not ideal as I had a race on Saturday) and thought I'd found another 10%. But no, although I think what I found was marginally quicker than my old position, it's nothing like 10% faster.

The race was round 5 of the Rudy Project, probably the last one I do in the series unless I decide to do the final one in mid October. It was two laps of a lumpy course near Worcester, which looked faster than it actually was.

Actually I tell a lie, Matt Bottrill made it look quick with his time of 1:12:40 for the 33.7 miles (54.2km). Ben had a great race to finish second, especially as we were equal after the first lap.

I was hoping to go a bit faster than I did but a series of mini-disasters put paid to that. First was getting held up by a bus on the first lap for a total of 2'10. The bus was waiting to overtake the rider in front but couldn't because the road was a bit twisty and there were double white lines. That's good driving and should be applauded but it didn't help me. I think this event should be held on a Sunday morning rather than a Saturday afternoon, as it's very easy to get a traffic jam on a single carriageway. I did use the time to chat to another guy who'd punctured and was limping to the finish.

At the end of the lap, the heavens opened and I found myself unable to see through my visor. Oops. So I backed off on the first part of lap 2, which was mostly downhill, then got going again after Martley. That only cost me 10 seconds, but I really didn't want to crash at 60km/h on a wet descent like I did 12 years ago.

The next section was good and I made up my lost time plus an additional 20 seconds, I suspect because the wind had picked up. I lost it on the way home.

Unfortunately again on the busier section to the finish, there were several large agricultural vehicles in front of me, so I had to ease up for another 45 seconds. Luckily they turned off but it was more time lost.

I got to the finish, pretty annoyed with how things had gone and my power output reflected that: it was lower than the 50 last week and the race was half an hour shorter! A combination of doing too much during the week and things not working out on the day.

3rd place was still quite a good result, but I'd rate it as my worst ride of the year. Funnily enough, the 4th place I had in round 4 was probably my best ride.

In terms of the Rudy Project series as a whole, I will now have 289 points while Bottrill will have 297 and is the deserving winner of the series. Depending on what happens in the next few rounds, I should therefore end up 2nd or 3rd overall. The prizemoney is the same (zero) so I'm not too bothered about securing second.

The good thing this year is that there will be quite a few riders who do the full complement of five races. Last year there were just two, and the winner Dean Robson hasn't managed higher than 5th in a round this year. He also rode on Sunday, but after being caught for two minutes by Ben and then nearly four minutes by Matt on the first lap, he pulled out. Interestingly, Matt was two minutes quicker this year than last, despite the conditions being rather bad.

What next? The WTTA 100 this weekend. Oh joy. Then a bit of a gap until the British TT championships, where I have entered the elite category and will be up against the likes of Brad Wiggins, Geraint Thomas, Chris Froome, not to mention Hutch and Bottrill. I need to find a bit of form!

Allen keys and star bolts

The title is actually relevant this time, as I've been doing a lot of fiddling with Allen keys and star bolts this month. Or hex keys and Torx bolts if you prefer.

Why? Because I am endeavouring to make my bicycle faster. And that, I've found, is possible as long as you're prepared to do the necessary fiddling. And testing. The latter is important.

It's been helped by a nice new birthday set of USE handlebars, courtesy of Liz, which have done wonders for the front end (hur hur). I've also moved the back end around a bit. Preliminary tests have shown that the whole unit, including me, is between 7-10 percent faster.

Or it would be if I'd done any proper training. I've restarted after taking a bit of time off after the 12hr, and am slowly getting back into the groove. It's patchy but upwardly patchy.

My knees were sore for two weeks after the 12, which is another reason why I moved the saddle back a bit. I think I was a bit too far forward and probably was pedalling slightly too big a gear. For 12 hours. Again, the latter is important.

So I've done a bit of field testing (can't afford a wind tunnel) and now have to see if the numbers stack up in a club race. Tomorrow's Chippenham Club 10 will be perfect to try it out. If my calcs are right, then I've saved between 30-40secs over 10 miles. Which is going to come in handy.

Speaking of that sort of time gap, the Tour de France was another close one this year. Nice to see.

It did appear to come down to who was the best bike handler. Let's see, who fell off? Contador, Andy Schleck, Frank Schleck, Cadel, Vandevelde, Lance, Menchov(?), Sanchez, Wiggo, oh bugrit they all did. Rule number one: stay on the bike. It's a good one.

Stage 15 was fun. For whatever reason, either pilot error, mechanic error, or gear error, Andy Schleck dropped his chain and basically gave the Tour to Contador on a SRAM Red 53 tooth chainring. Note: the two, despite being on different teams, ride very similar bikes so I don't think the gear is fundamentally at fault.

Contador was already counter attacking when Schleck had his mishap, and although it was considered bad sportsmanship for him not to wait, I'd argue that it was the wrong end of the bike race to be worrying about sportsmanship. Otherwise we'd end up with the fiasco that cost Jan Ullrich the 2003 Tour (this point is subject to debate of course). And we can't be having that in the new dope free nothing to see here cycling.

Think back to when you last dropped your chain in a race and the pack waited for you. You might have gotten a push if you were lucky but if you were on Eddie Salas's wheel going up Bumble Hill in the Wyong Three Day back in the day, and managed to both crash and lose your chain at the same time, you would have had a long lonely ride ahead of you. And another crash coming back down the hill. I speak from personal experience in this matter.

So Contador won.

The 12 hour

Is done and dusted (and won). And it wasn't that bad.

Full blog here on BikeRadar. Warning: lots of words and only four pics.

Here are some more nice pics, wot David Jones sent me:







Photos: © David Jones

It's June

An accurate, yet pointless title.

It's very very busy. I'm actually looking forward to the Tour de France, because it'll quieten down a bit. After BikeRadar Live that is.

Speaking of which, here's Martyn Ashton doing some crazy stuff on a road bike in the vicinity of Bristol:



Other news in brief

The National 25, BDCA 100 and National 50 are done. I had some solid results (16th, 4th, 14th), definitely an improvement on last year, but I've got a bit more work to do.

The 25 in Yorkshire was baking hot by UK standards. So my power was a bit down but I made up for it with good pacing. Hutch only put 4min into me this year, last year it was 6'23. I know I've said that before but he's improved too, so I was happy.

The 100 didn't quite go according to plan. I'd swapped frames mid-week to what I thought was the same frame but it was 1cm longer/higher than the old one. So I hadn't got my position right, lost a pin from my number early on, had the bars twisted a bit and ate too much. 6 minutes behind the winner was a bit crap.

On a positive note, my power was slightly up on last year's WTTA 100, despite being 1'30 slower. And I paced it a bit better. Didn't blow up but did feel ill from trying to eat two gels/hour. One is sufficient.

Today's 50 was OK. I changed my position during the week to go a bit narrower put my saddle up. I thought it was faster, based on some preliminary testing, but I don't think it was that much. I'll do some proper testing on Tuesday.

The course was ostensibly fast but the wind was against us on the uphill leg, so it was slow. I averaged nearly 50W more than I did for last week's 100 (good!) and almost the same as the National 25. And I got better as the race went on.

John Tuckett (9th) caught me for 1min after 10 miles, then put another 30sec into me, then basically hung there for the rest of the race. Hutch caught me for 4min just after halfway and gave me an encouraging shout, then put another 3'30 into me. I'll take it - I'd expect the gaps to be roughly double what they were in the 25.

But I need to get back into a more comfortable position and not slide around all over the saddle. The main reason being I've got a 12hour in two weeks, interspersed by a visit to the US. Going to be fun!

It's hotting up

We've had a rather sudden rise in temperatures in the last week. It went from a max of 8 with a biting NE wind to 27 in the space of about 10 days. Quelle shock to the system.

I've decided that I like it between 16 and 20 degs. It's not hot but I can still get away with wearing shorts and a short sleeve jersey. It looks like returning to that level this week, as it was for most of last week.

I've started training more in the evenings 'cos it's light until 9 and it's nice to get out after work and hammer. Thus, last Monday I managed to take another 45sec off (now 58'58) and add 5W to my PB for my 39km training circuit. It was done with an unhelpful NW wind too, which really surprised me. That's a full 2min quicker than I ever did last year.

Then on Wednesday I went out and did some shorter intervals. I flew up Kingsdown in 6'28 @ 390W - best ever time - then managed two 4'40 efforts up the other side, also at 390W. And I threw in another one for good measure at 333W, which felt quite comfortable.

Fast forward to Saturday's Bristol South 10 on the U7B (aka The Graveyard), and I thought I'd have a decent chance at the course record of 20'44. Last year, not particularly fit, I managed 20'50 on a warmish day, SW wind, with lots of traffic 'cos the M5 was shut.

This time around it was warmer, the wind was from the east, which meant we had a headwind on the longer outward leg and a tailwind for the slightly uphill return leg. And although I rode my fast front wheel + the visor + I should have been fitter, I was only 2sec quicker than last year. 20'48, argh!

It was a decent time, more than enough to win. Rob Pears, no slouch at 10s, was 40sec back, then Robin Coomber and David Kiddell tied for third at 1'17.

Going out I could feel it was going to be too slow. 11'19 to the turnaround (8.4km) was not good enough. Last year I did it in 10'25, but the wind was in the opposite direction.

I had also gone a bit hard on the way out so tried to nurse myself over the hills on the way back. There are four rollers in succession and I knew I couldn't afford to lose much speed on these because there wasn't enough downhill to make up the time. So on each one I went hard then recovered slightly on the descent, then went hard again, repeat until out of breath.

I surprised myself by completing the last 7.7km in 9'29 (last year it was 10'25, headwind but plenty of traffic). An average of 48.6km/h, which is not bad for a slightly uphill return. But it wasn't quite enough to break the course record.

Disappointingly, I really felt the heat and my power suffered as a result. 322W average, whereas I know I'm capable of at least 345W at the moment. But my heart rate was through the roof, so I know I gave it everything.

Everyone else was in the same boat of course. Rob really suffered in his black skinsuit! Also at the National 10 the next day, plenty of people reported being 10% down on watts because of the temperature. The only good thing about the heat is that it lowers the air density. But in this case, not quite enough to offset the drop in power.

Sarah Storey had a good idea: wear an ice vest. It's your core temperature that's important to keep low so ideally you should sit somewhere cool until you're ready to warm up.

In my case, riding 45km to the start with a backpack on probably wasn't ideal.

Oh well, maybe I'll have another go at it later in the year. For now it's back to training until the National 25 in a couple of weeks, then a 100, then the National 50.

If I can keep Hutch to around about 3min in the National 25, I'll be happy. Easier said than done. He put 43sec into Olympic gold medallist Ed Clancy in the National 10 yesterday. Based on recent form I wonder how I might have gone, but I did want to keep a month free of 'big' races in order not to knacker myself mentally.

We shall see.

Monday

It's been a chilly May bank holiday weekend in the UK. The north wind is back and there's even been some snow in North Scotlandshire. I have availed myself of the opportunity to catch up on some (it turned out to be a lot) sleep. And doing my best to avoid getting Liz's cold.

I've also been accosted in the street by a local electioneering candidate, or so he claimed. He was dressed head to toe in a weird kind of magician's suit. Could well have been the invisible man. He gave me his policy statement, both on paper and verbally, and I couldn't understand either. Utterly bonkers.

A few weeks ago the local conservative candidate rang my doorbell. This is usually a waste of time because I never answer it unless I know who it will be. I don't like surprises, see. I didn't recognise the candidate until I saw a pic last week. I thought it was just an underling spreading the good word.

He assumed correctly that I was an apathetic voter and wanted to go into my reasons for being apathetic. Unfortunately I was too apathetic to want to engage in any kind of discussion. The most he got out of me was that I wasn't sure I'd registered to vote. Later on it transpired that I had, so I will prove myself to be unapathetic and vote on Thursday (it is on Thursday innit?). Maybe for the magician, maybe for the silly party, maybe for someone with a decent cycling policy. That doesn't leave many options.

It won't make a difference in my electorate, as it's a pretty safe Lib Dem seat. If only I lived in my cousin's electorate in Battersea - he won by around 160 votes last time, so I could make a difference there.

I wonder if we'll get a hung parliament? I think we deserve it.

Fietsen

My bicycle training seems to be more or less on track. For what, I'm not quite sure, but all I know is that it's better to be on track than off it. The latter is very easy to do.

Last week was an interesting one. I had to cram everything in between Wednesday and Sunday, which meant I started quite fresh but finished quite tired.

On Wednesday I did my usual laps up around Kingsdown. Door to door, it's 57.7km and the middle bit is 38.9km of different laps around Kingsdown and Atworth.

I had a day off work so I afforded myself the luxury of leaving at 11am when it was nice and warm (18 degs!). I'm always surprised at how much difference the temperature makes to your speed and Wednesday proved it once again. My previous best times for that course were 1hr40 (1:01:54 for the middle bit) in summer 2008, 1hr39 (1:00:50) in summer 2009 and 1hr38 (1:01:27) nearly two weeks ago (this year). The 2008 and 2009 bests were done on warm days, also leaving later in the morning.

Last Wednesday blew those out of the water. I did the overall 57.7km in 1hr34 and the middle 38.9km in 59:43. Somewhat annoyingly, this wasn't down to a large increase in power. Only +3W on the previous PB, in fact. But the temperature difference was +13 degrees, which also meant I could wear less bulky gear, and what little wind there was was in the best direction (S) rather than NW. All of that adds up. Dang, tomorrow is 4 degrees with a NW wind.

Looking at just this year's data, I started with these rides in late February with 1:38:30 (1:02:00), also on a decent day when I left late. I didn't have power data for that ride though. Then I got sick and resumed in late March with 1:43:30 (1:04:39) on an awfully cold and foggy day, gradually improving my times/power over the last five and a bit weeks.

The near 10min improvement in overall time is impressive. It's taken +30W, +16 degrees and lighter clothing to do that. The 5+min improvement in the middle part has taken a more modest +18W. If I could do that every 5 weeks I'd be national champion come September. Lol.

How much faster is that fitness making me though? At that speed over that distance, every watt is worth about 4-5sec. So had conditions and equipment been the same for every ride, I'd expect to see a 1'10-1'30 improvement over the last five weeks. That's sort of been reflected in the Rudy Project results, although other riders could have improved over that time too. And because speeds are higher, the time improvements will be lower for a given wattage.

Prior to getting a power meter, all of this would have been guesswork. And given how much difference conditions make, any gains in fitness could easily have been swamped by changes in the weather, tyre pressure and clothing.

That would have been terrible!

Round 3

Rudy Project 3 is done and dusted, complete with ash from Eyjafjallajokull. Fortunately, that didn't hinder me from getting to and from Cumbria in a trusty hire car for the trifling sum of about £210. Petrol was quite a large chunk of that. Don't ask me how many times I stalled the car - haven't driven a manual for ages.

So 610miles (that's nearly 1000km in the new money) to race 31 miles/50km and finish third again. Pix here. Was it worth it? Financially, not even close although I did win £35. But for other reasons, it was.

Firstly, Cumbria itself. The landscape changes quite suddenly once you get into the Lakes District. The flatlands give way to massive hills with very little in the way of trees. There's still snow on some of the peaks too. And in the valleys, there are lakes. Hence the name.

>10 years ago I went to Lake Windermere with my aunt, although I don't remember a lot of the details. I suspect it was wet. This time it was dry, as it has been for an incredible three weeks. Until the day of the race of course, then it rained.

I stayed in Cockermouth, which is closeish to the sea and sits at the confluence of the Derwent and Cocker rivers, according to the Rough Guide to the Lake District. It was quiet, but it wasn't until I wandered into town in search of a bite to eat that I realised why. It had been hit quite badly by floods late last year, and the whole town was basically buggered. I'm surprised this sort of thing doesn't happen more often, as it's flat, situated at the edge of the hills and there are two rivers flowing through it.

Anyway, the main street was still shut. Every single building was closed and was undergoing major refurbishment. It's meant to reopen soon, but it doesn't look like it to me. Fortunately I found a friendly and non-flooded pub up the hill, and had a decent meal there.

The race

It was two laps of Lake Bassenthwaite. The first was slightly shorter than the second (24.6km to 25.5km) because the start and finish were in different places on the circuit. We rode two laps, everyone else did one.

Half of the circuit is flat and pretty fast, as it goes along the A66. The other half is on a B road and it's lumpy and bumpy as hell. But fun. We had a tailwind for that bit and a headwind for the flat bit. The headwind was still the fastest section though!

I was a bit worried about the rain before the start but it wasn't too bad. There was just one section on the first lap where I got hit by a squall and couldn't see much through my visor. A tip: don't try to wipe off water off your visor using greasy fingers.

Apart from that, it was fun. And I did a decent time of 1:08:10, which was 'only' 3'07 behind Hutch and 1'20 behind Bottrill. Remember Hutch put 6'20 into me in the national 25 last year and Bottrill 4'43, so relative to then I have improved, especially as yesterday's event was 31 miles.

I also increased the gap to Colin Robertson, who beat me by 13sec in the first round, then I beat in round two by 17sec. Yesterday it was 57 sec. That means I'm a clear second in the series: Bottrill has 178 points, me 174, Robertson 172. Essentially zero chance of catching Bottrill though.

A surprisingly small part of that improvement has been in my fitness, although I have made some gains in that area. The rest has been in equipment and position. I've now got quite a good idea of how much all the little bits are worth, and how much more I need to challenge Bottrill. I've got some secret weapons up my sleeve, to be tested in the next couple of weeks...

I noted a slight anomaly in my power data though. Although I did the second lap slightly quicker than the first (44.2km/h instead of 44.1), my power was a good 15W lower. I thought it might have been traffic on the final flat section, as I got none on the first lap but a few cars on lap 2. But it wasn't - in fact, the biggest difference was on the lumpy bumpy section. Lap 1: 10.634km in 14'35 @ 324W/332NP. Lap 2: 14'33 @ 306/316NP. So faster, for a lot less power, and there was essentially no traffic.

Maybe the bumps messed things up or maybe I just rode the second lap more efficiently because I knew what was coming up. Or maybe my disk loses power when it warms up. Or maybe - and probably most likely - I had a big tailwind on that lumpy section which dropped when I hit the final bit. And it was a big headwind at the end of the first lap.

I was also guilty of relaxing a bit too much on the second lap, which sounds strange but it's true. I will try harder next time.

Other tidbits

I gave a talk on TTing last week at the club. Despite it lasting for 45mins, half the audience were still awake at the finish. That's too many. I must try harder to be more soporific next time.

Ma and pa take note. ITV have done another series of Foyle's War. Which I'm sure will be heading to Oz at some stage. Liz can't quite understand why I like it.

On the volcano snuffing out the airline industry, it's yet another example of bleedin' elfin safety bringin' the country to its knees. I thought it was pretty cool. Also, if the airlines didn't make any money last week, then presumably someone else did. Some Johnny Foreigner no doubt, but we live in a global European economy innit. So it must all cancel out and we get cheaper bananas or something.

I'll stop there before I go all BNP. And yes, there is an election on here in a few weeks. By an amazing stroke of luck, I remembered to register to vote. So I will probably express my democratic right and vote for no-one who can make a difference.

Another

I think I just failed to think of a meaningful, search engine friendly title for this blog. All that SEO training, wasted.

Rudy Project 2 is done and dusted, and it was better than Rudy Project 1. I finished in the same position (3rd) but I beat Colin Robertson, who beat me in the first round. I would have been fourth had not Hutch punctured after one lap.

Ben had pretty reasonable ride for 7th. He injured his knee in Mallorca and is just getting over that, so is not 100%. He will be back, I'm sure.

I thought Sybrandy would edge out Bottrill and I was right. But I doubt whether he'll ride all the rounds, so Bottrill is still the outright favourite to take the series. Ignoring regional points, which won't count if you ride 5 national rounds, I'm effectively equal second at the moment. That ain't bad.

I was mostly happy with my ride last Saturday (photog here). It was lovely and warm and there was a light but steady NE blowing. The course had almost no traffic on it at all, even on the dual carriageway section (because everyone was on the M3) - that's ideal for everyone. It didn't have any potholes either, but it was for some reason a very slow course. I think because the road surface for most of it was dead and we head a headwind for two of the three gradual uphill drags.

I made a couple of errors: 1) putting 130psi into my tyres because I thought the road surface would be better. 115-120 would have been better for rolling resistance, instead of being bounced around everywhere. 2) I didn't have my helmet on properly, so it kept moving around and tilting down. Not enough to impair visibility but enough to tip the tail up, which is bad for airflow. It felt it, anyway.

On the other hand, my pacing was absolutely perfect. I averaged the same power and speed for both laps, although the second lap felt a lot harder! Funnily enough Dean Robson, who won the RP series last year and started 2min behind me, was 30sec up on me after 16km. But by the end of the race (57km) I'd pulled that back and put another 1'18 into him. He said to me afterwards he'd tried to rein it in on the first lap but obviously not enough.

I was also happy that I averaged the same power that I did for the first round, but for 22min longer. I think getting rid of the cough has helped.

Round 3 is next week in Cumbria. 5 hours driving each way for a 1hr race! Oh well, it's good to have a fling occasionally. With Hutch (who is using it to try to gain Commonwealth Games selection) and Bottrill both down to start, the best I can hope for is third. And I'll still have to ride well.

Training-wise, the PowerTap is a useful teacher. It tells me how fit I am without me having to worry about whether a time A around a certain course or up a hill is better than time B for a given heart rate. Which is what I've relied on until now.

I still train on how I feel, but the power meter allows me to objectively assess how good the session was (or is). And that allows me to fine tune things, which is desirous when one is trying to be careful about one's training. 'One' being me in this case.

For example, over the last three weeks I've managed to add 12W to my 1hr training pace, extend that to 1hr20, as well as add 20W to my 4min intervals, plus get a decent idea of my 5min power. Admittedly I was ill for a bit so most of that is returning to fitness rather than building on what I had. But I'll keep plugging away over the next few weeks to see where I get to by the fourth Rudy Project round on May 9.

Then there's a break before tackling a few more races in May and June, including the National 25 and 50. I'm looking forward to the 25 after last year's OK but not stellar performance.

At some stage I'll need to think about a 12hr. I'm putting that thought to one side.

Off to Sevenoaks this weekend to watch Liz do her first race of the year!

Time passes, again. And lo, it is getting warmer and lighter. This is a Good Thing.

With some further ado:

I. I got sick after the Chippenham hilly, as did half the people in the office. Although it didn't feel too bad and I didn't end up off the bike for too many days, I ended up with a lingering cough that I've still got the remnants of. Update: I think it's gone.

II. The first Rudy Project didn't quite go according to plan, but it wasn't bad. I finished 3rd with 58'31 behind Matt Bottrill (57'03) and Colin Robertson (58'18).

Although I felt OK, my wattage was well down on the Chippenham hilly, otherwise a sub-58min ride may have been on the cards. I wasn't going to get near Bottrill though, but I knew that. Last year in the national 25 he put nearly 5min into me (he was 4th, I was 43rd), so I have closed the gap a bit.

III. I seem to have recovered most of my fitness since then, so I'm looking forward to next week's Rudy Project 2. The best I can hope for there is 4th, as Hutch and Wouter Sybrandy are doing it, along with Bottrill, Robertson and quite a few of the a3crg team, who are pretty handy. It's 58km so I'll be doing really well if I can keep Hutch at 5min, Sybrandy at 3min and Bottrill at 2min.

IV. Easter didn't involve a large number of miles this year. Even so, I still did my biggest week in terms of TSS (training stress) of the season, without going past 3hrs in a single ride.

V. The power meter tells you quite accurately how many calories you burn. Watts x time (sec)/1000 = ~kcal burned, because the conversion factor between watts and cals roughly cancels the efficiency our body has in converting food energy to power on the bike. Nifty innit.

VI. Last week I burned 10,700 cals on the bike, which when you add that to 2500/day for getting to work and back and generally existing, it means I need to eat 4000 cals/day. Family and close associates can attest to the fact that I do eat this, most of the time. It's about 5kg of potatoes a day, which is why I need chocolate in copious quantities.

VII. Fabian Cancellara supposedly averaged 285W (normalised, I dunno, but it would have been a lot higher) to win the Tour of Flanders. That doesn't sound like much, especially as he's 1.86m tall and 80kg. But that's because a lot of it was spent noodling around in the bunch. But you can be sure that in the last half hour, after dropping Tom Boonen on the Muur, he was at over 400 watts hurtling towards Ninove at 60km/h. Milan San Remo, Paris-Roubaix, Tour of Flanders, World and Olympic TT champ, Tour yellow jersey - he's a class bike rider.

A fast blog's a quick blog

Usual apology for lack of updates. Vewy vewy busy at work/other/etc.

The news in brief then:

Weather fine, just cold. As of this week it's started to warm up properly and we're almost out of the 0 degree mornings.

Bicycle riding: good. I won the Chippenham hilly for the third time on a freezing morning. Even at 11am it was only 2 degrees. I took a bit of a risk and rode without gloves/leg warmers. Legs were fine with much deep heat etc. Hands got a bit cold, but not unbearably so.

We didn't use the normal course so were on the longer U87 (47.3km). Last year I did 1:06:57 on it on a warmer day in April, so this year's 1:06:43 was a modest time improvement.

El power was decent though: 324W/332NP, which would put my 1hr power at ~334W, more than at any point last year. It was nice to be able to do that on less, but better planned training. As of last week I've now got a PowerTap to train on too. So no more training load guesswork is necessary, although in hindsight what I did come up with wasn't bad.

Next racing fixture will be the Rudy Project round 1 on March 28, on the latest version of the Bath hilly course. Well over 100 riders for this one, which is rare for a national series round. But a good thing. There are plenty of decent riders too: Matt Bottrill, who should win it, Arthur Doyle, Ben Anstie and last year's overall Rudy Project winner, Dean Robson.

Finally, RIP my cousin John Linton, 99 years old! An amazing man. I did hope he'd make it to 100.

This year has started with a bang and as of today, it hasn't stopped. Lots on at work, including a preview of the BikeRadar Live venue at Brands Hatch last Wednesday. Must work on a) being less stilted and b) being faster.

I also did a blog on it for BR with a video of me going around on the TT bike. It was bloody cold, I tells ya. 0 degs, snowing in the morning and a bitingly cold nor'easter. Not a day to be riding in lycra.

That said it generally isn't as bad as it was over Christmas/New Year. It's merely bloody chilly and definitely colder than any of the previous three winters. It's meant to be -5 here tomorrow night. The NE wind is sould destroying when you're on a bike. It kills speed more than a SW wind does, probably because it's colder and drier.

I'm still waiting for me power meter. There's been no stock in the UK for ages so I'll need to wait until the end of Feb/early March. Dang, I could really do with one now. But I did get out one day this week with my powerdisk, and got a decent idea of where I'm at. I've also done a couple of long rides with Stu Dodd (wot has an SRM), so I can get an idea based on his numbers. He's an inch taller and a bit broader than me so if I lop off 25-30W I can estimate my power.

Basically, it's good although you'd never know it from average speed. Today's ride would have been almost the same power that I averaged during the 100 mile time trial I did last year. But because I was riding on a road bike with no aero gear on not particularly fast roads and it was freezing, I was 13km/h slower than then. That is a lot. Also, you can't directly equate power done on the road bike to power on the TT bike, because of the difference in position. You might put out less power in the TT position but you'll get an aero benefit, so it's worth it.

My solution is to get a powertap wheel that I can use on both the TT and the road bike. That's gunna be interesting.

Lots of other news (won many trophies at the Chippenham club dinner, helped Liz move across the road) but the biggest is that my grandparents are turning 90 and 89 respectively. That is 179 altogether and quite a lot of years. Happy birthday Jim n Joan!

I also managed to spill ginger tea on my keyboard which did not do the keys a lot of good. It's not that healthful and wellness-inducing for inanimate objets. Oh well, it was 5 years old and due to be replaced anyway. I got a Lenovo G550 for under £400, based on a review in one of our mags and it's superior in every way. 3GB of RAM, 250GB hard disk, built in webcam, wireless etc. My TalkTalk connection works brilliantly now :-)

Mo' coffee

It's high time to update the official Approved Bath Coffee Shop list. Things have generally improved around here over the last year, although we've lost a couple of key cafes.

In a vague order, we have:

Jika Jika (NZ themed, big area)
Same Same but Different
Chandos Deli
Colonna and Smalls (tiny but good)
Fine Cheese Company
Real Italian Ice Cream Company
Kindling Cafe
Metropolitan (like the espresso)
Tea House Emporium (pricey but nice)
The one in Chelsea Rd wot used to be the Kindling

There are a couple I still haven't tried yet but these are worth it.

The chains (Starbucks, Nero, Rouge, Costa) are all mediocre to appalling. There are a number of independent places that are OK but why bother when you've got good ones?

Training: a fair bit of roller work. That's not ab roller, that's actual rollers where you're not attached to anything. First time I rode them it took me 20min before I could let go of the wall! But by the end of the week I was able to ride one handed, which meant I could actually drink. You can get a surprisingly hard workout from rollers, but it still ain't the same as riding outdoors.

On the road, the weather's been improving from the snow and ice that I mostly missed :-) I'm sticking to my plan and it still seems to be working, although I haven't done any real benchmark rides yet. My best comparison was an interval session on the TT bike on the bike path the other day. Each one was about 1km/h slower than the equivalent session last July, which is quite good considering it's 15 degrees colder.

One I get a PowerTap wheel, hopefully in the next few weeks, I can get some proper data.

The big wet

Editor's note: written on Dec 30 before it fined up in Oz.

As holidays down under go, this is turning out to be rather a damp one. After a promising start, it tipped it down on Boxing Day and didn't really let up for a week. We even had drizzle, to make the English summer parallel complete.

Still, some swimming has been accomplished, along with a bit of walking along the beach and even some bicycle riding.

I'm enjoying my new training program, which - at the moment - involves significantly fewer miles than previous years. Given the crappy weather we've had, it's a relief to just have to go out for two to three hours instead of four or five.

It makes sense and it appears to be working. The other day I managed 74km in just over two hours, door to door, from our holiday accomodation in Fingal Bay. Yes it's mostly flat and it's 20 degrees (and raining) rather than 5 but I think it's an improvement on previous weeks and previous years.

It's difficult to tell without a power meter but just comparing speed at similar heart rates is useful. Two weeks ago, I did the out and back sections of the Bath - Bitton bit of the bike path in a total time of 26'07 (it's 15.2km). I compared this to two similar sections of road the other day: I did 15.2km, out and back, in 23'40, and I wasn't going as hard because it was part of a 90min tempo ride rather than 25min of intervals.

That's a massive difference in speed, and it would have been more if I'd really pegged it the other day. Part of it is the temperature difference (15 degs), part of it is that I'm not all rugged up (less air resistance) and part of it is that there is a bit of traffic on the roads here. I'm hoping most of it is improved fitness but I'll only be able to tell that once I get back to Bath.

I'm planning to take this sort of guesswork out of the equation once I get hold of a power meter to train with permanently. Then I should be able to fine tune things a bit more.

As a holiday project, I went back over four years of training and racing data and tried to estimate TSS (training stress score) for every single ride. I've got plenty of real TSS data so I had some benchmarks to base my estimates on.

TSS is based on how hard and how long the ride is, and from this you can estimate values for ATL (acute training load), CTL (chronic training load), TSB (training stress balance) and FTP (functional threshold power).

It might be a case of garbage in/garbage out but it gave me a reasonable idea of how my fitness changed depending on the training I was doing. A couple of things stood out: a week off the bike for whatever reason was fairly disastrous and a CTL of 90-100 corresponded to good form but it wasn't a magic number.

So the training load numbers, which are a little crude, didn't tell the whole story. The types of training and the rate of build were also important. Still, it was a worthwhile exercise and it should help me in the future.