Jeff Jones's bilgespot.com

Xmas update

2011-12-19T22:08:00.005Z

Happy Christmas. In other news, it's been a more normal winter than the last few years so no snowmageddon down south. Up north (that's south speak for anywhere north of Gloucestershire, including Gloucestershire) it snowed quite a lot and got cold. Still, care has to be taken when it's slippy. I had a minor but annoying crash on the bike path recently when I touched the brakes to avoid someone

Et al

2011-10-25T20:32:00.003+01:00

Like the economy (moron that later) this blog is gone downhill in the last few years. I'm aware I've made that observation before so it's probably just me that's gone downhill. I recommend some of the 2007 entries if you can be bothered clicking that far back. And if you go right back to 2004, you can actually see the big bang. SceneryI have done little cycling in the last week but lots and lots

BBAR!

2011-09-26T21:44:00.011+01:00

The 2011 British Best All-Rounder aka the BBAR is now over including the shouting (I hope). And yep, I kept my position in the top slot, finishing with an average of 28.02mph. Second was Julian Jenkinson with 27.78, then Derek Parkinson (27.72), Andy Bason (27.71 - so close to third), Nik Bowdler (27.49) and Scott Povey (27.21). Not much in it! This is the best thing I've won in cycling - and

The end is in sight or nigh

2011-09-18T20:46:00.004+01:00

Of the season that is. I have one race left, round 7 of the Rudy Project on the 1st of October. It's a great field (Bottrill, as well as Sybrandy and Hampton wot have been doing well in the Tour of Britain) so I'll be doing well to scrape 4th. That said it doesn't matter too much, as I basically just need to finish to secure 2nd overall in the series again. Yay!I did my fourth ride of the series

Comp record!

2011-08-21T18:22:00.026+01:00

Me and Lowenna having tea and cake in the HQ after clocking 305.513 and 218.04 miles respectively in the CC Breckland 12 hour © Liz Hufton 305.513 miles in 12 hours in the CC Breckland event two weekends ago to break Andy Wilkinson's UK competition record (and very likely the world record for this sort of event) by 3.1 miles. Andy Bason also rode 302.75 miles to break it in the national

Le Tour and a good 50

2011-08-07T19:55:00.006+01:00

Right, time for an udpate. El Tour de France was just superb this year, and I normally don't like the Tour that much. The racing was excellent from day 1 and we got all sorts of Drama and Action. Like Cadel winning overall, which was well deserved and no doubt good for Orstrayan cycling. I hope they declare a public holiday and knight the bugger. That's what sportspersons get innit? I also

And the last shall be first

2011-07-18T19:34:00.009+01:00

Righto, time for a wee update. This will not be news to Facebook friends although it might be to Google+ friends/acquaintances/family/other. TrainingFollowing the national 50 I've done three weeks of very solid endurance work. It wasn't easy, especially the second week, but I came through alright. In fact, the planets aligned just after my 40th birthday and I managed a couple of power PBs in the

Nat 50 + visitation

2011-06-22T20:46:00.010+01:00

The visitation was first, in the form of little sister Lucy, who was on a work trip to the UK and popped down to Bath for a hello and a sightsee. The sightseeing involved approximately 12km of walking up and down hills. Very pleasant as we saw some nice bits of Bath that require a bit of local knowledge to spot. No pics owing to still busted camera. I must get a new one.My legs were somewhat

The national 25

2011-06-06T20:32:00.005+01:00

Time to update el blog as I've just passed the main focus of the season, the national 25 mile championships. And done good too, finishing 8th, a mere 2'18 behind Dr Michael Hutchinson. Yes he had a mechanical but still, it's the closest I've ever been to him in a 25, let alone a national, so I'll take it. To recap and I never get tired of reminding myself of this fact, in 2009 I finished 43rd @

49.7 km/h

2011-05-14T17:57:00.004+01:00

Or 30.8 in mph, but that doesn't sound as fast.That was my average speed in today's Chippenham 10 on the U47, a popular 'dragstrip' 10 mile course. In time terms, it gave me 19'26, which was good enough to win by 10 seconds from Chris Ball, with Rob Pears another second behind. More impressive was my occasional training partner Stu Dodd did an unofficial 18'59 after having had his entry lost in

Loss, update

2011-05-10T21:21:00.005+01:00

Been a while, as usual.The first news isn't good: Wouter Weylandt's death in a crash during Monday's Giro d'Italia stage was a shock. Yes, cycling's dangerous and pros do crash a lot, but rarely is it fatal. Poor kid.My memories of Wouter are mostly on this blog, back when I used to regularly do the Schelde ride. He was often on it and made a point of winning the sprint to the cafe at the end.

A small update

2011-04-17T19:07:00.008+01:00

Just on the training, mind.The last three weeks since Rudy Project #1 have been interesting in terms of the ol' power development. I was quite happy with what I managed then, as I'd built on my power at the Chippenham hilly at the start of March. If I could hold that for the rest of this season, I'd not be doing badly.But there has been no slacking off since then as Ric is determined that we can

I move well, don't I?

2011-04-02T19:29:00.008+01:00

Thus spake Irma Prunesquallor to her brother Alfred in Titus Groan (or was it Gormenghast?). This was before she organised a grand party with the stated intention of securing herself a man. Which she did do in the form of Professor Bellgrove.I kept getting reminded of this quote at last night's dinner party organised by one of the girls at work. She has already got a man (French), who was tasked

It begins

2011-03-06T19:00:00.004Z

Today was me first race in five months, the Chippenham hilly 24. Always a good way to kick off the season. Alas my winning streak of three came to and end courtesy of a top quality ride by Douglas Dewey, who broke my course record with a superb 53'49 in unfavourable conditions. I managed second in 54'56, just ahead of Rob Pears (55'09) and Chippenham won the team prize with me, Simon Snowden and

Update and bike bits

2011-02-20T20:29:00.002Z

1) Our phone doesn't work. I blame TalkTalk or the damp.2) I know we're not done with winter yet but thankfully the second half seems a lot better than the first half. There's been precious little sun in February, so much so that when you do see it you really appreciate it. However it hasn't really got below zero that often and we've been snow-free in the UK's southern quarters. That means no

It's February

2011-02-05T18:32:00.005Z

Thank goodness January is over. Despite spending half of it in Oz, I still find the lack of light when I get back to the UK hard going. February is somewhat better, as the mornings start to get lighter and you don't feel as though you're spending the whole day indoors or in the dark.Also I managed to get sick with a virus the day after I got back from Oz and that knocked me out for a week. It's

Snow

2011-01-15T11:39:00.004Z

Jeez this is late.The snow came extra early to the UK this year, prompting the usual calls of "why weren't we told?" and "what is the government doing about it?". Clearly what we need is a better global warming policy. Something along the lines of "If we made everything hot all the time it wouldn't snow."I think I'll stand for PM on that platform. I reckon I'll get a few votes as long as the

Frozen bilge

2010-12-02T19:48:00.007Z

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

In no particular order

2010-11-20T20:54:00.003Z

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

Journo world's 2010

2010-09-29T20:17:00.016+01:00

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 storyThe slightly longer version starts with a poorly timed visit of the Ridley factory in Belgium

The Tour de France is at steak

2010-09-28T19:02:00.000+01:00

(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.comAlberto Contador blames positive on contaminated

The news in brief

2010-09-07T21:33:00.004+01:00

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

Going for broke

2010-08-16T19:07:00.008+01:00

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

Killing time

2010-08-08T18:21:00.004+01:00

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

Allen keys and star bolts

2010-07-27T23:00:00.003+01:00

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

The 12 hour

2010-07-06T19:53:00.004+01:00

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

2010-06-20T19:50:00.003+01:00

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 briefThe National 25, BDCA 100 and National 50 are done. I had some solid results (16th, 4th, 14th),

It's hotting up

2010-05-24T20:12:00.007+01:00

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

Monday

2010-05-03T17:15:00.008+01:00

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

Round 3

2010-04-26T20:24:00.006+01:00

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

Another

2010-04-16T21:00:00.007+01:00

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.

2010-04-05T18:48:00.003+01:00

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

A fast blog's a quick blog

2010-03-16T07:58:00.002Z

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.

2010-02-13T21:41:00.008Z

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.

Mo' coffee

2010-01-22T19:15:00.003Z

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 DifferentChandos DeliColonna and Smalls (tiny but good)Fine Cheese CompanyReal Italian Ice Cream CompanyKindling CafeMetropolitan (like the espresso)Tea

The big wet

2010-01-10T15:42:00.000Z

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

Lost in translation or something

2009-12-22T03:04:00.001Z

I have nothing against China, the Chinese, Air China, Beijing or even Chairman Mao. But boy do I hate Beijing airport. And I'm writing this in the airport itself, while enjoying quite a reasonable cup of coffee. Although my judgement may be skewed because it's about 6am UK time and I've had a total of 2hrs sleep in the last 24hrs.Getting here was easy enough, despite the -7 degree temperatures

Things

2009-12-12T20:21:00.003Z

I) It's stopped raining and gotten colder. We've had a few hard frosts and some very chilly mornings, but it's not quite at the severe level yet. That's usually in Jan/Feb.II) I will be able to stop complaining about the cold soon, as I have a much looked forward to trip Down Under (avec L for a bit) to visit the Family et al.III) Training has been satisfactory. Even a week-long cold didn't dent

Stimulus-response

2009-12-01T20:20:00.005Z

Disclaimer and Government Health Warning: this is going to be boring. Do not attempt to read without mind altering drugs or your brain will atrophy.I'd like to think I'm reasonably methodical about my training, especially when I've got something to aim for. Over the years I've gotten a reasonably good idea of what works and what doesn't, but not really how much to do. When I actually look back on

It's breezy

2009-11-22T15:58:00.005Z

TalkTalk really is crap. I am sort of connected but the wireless keeps dropping out and the plug in modem takes three computer restarts before it figures out who I am.I just thought I'd get that in. Oh there it goes again.The next thing is of course the weather. Very windy and wet but not cold is the best way to describe it. It still hasn't dropped much into single figures but I'm sure it will

Southgate and Rugby (league)

2009-11-07T21:35:00.011Z

Oh 'tis fun to be back online permanently again. It's a terrible time-wasting addiction, worse than television. I curse TalkTalk thrice over.As I haven't been riding much of late, I left the house on foot today. The quest was to see the new Southgate shopping centre in downtown Bath. Despite nearly exploding a year ago, Phase I was opened the other day and I wanted to see what the hype was about.

Bookends

2009-10-24T15:19:00.002+01:00

And the last shall be first. I hope I've got that the right way around.Season 2009 is done. And it ended on a positive note as I won round 8 of the Rudy Project series in Devizes. No mean feat, despite the small field (eight starters) in the seniors.The course had to be shortened from two laps to one because of road works, so all categories ended up doing 30km. I was prepared to do the full

Waiting for TalkTalk

2009-10-13T19:55:00.002+01:00

I'm living on TalkTalk time at the moment. So when they say 'go live', it means my broadband will be activated any time from the date they gave me (Oct 5) up until the heat death of the universe. Possibly after that if BT has anything to do with it.Time passes.I have now been told that October 5 actually means November 4 because there isn't enough equipment in the local exchange. That reminds me

An update of sorts

2009-09-28T22:19:00.000+01:00

I will make this one photo-less as I'm still a week away from having my internet reconnected. Hooray for TalkTalk.The resultsJourno world's: 1st in the time trial, 6th in the road race. I had four days (out of five) off the bike between the British champs and the journos with tonsillitis, and I paid for it. I ended up winning the time trial quite comfortably (15 km in 19'28, 2nd in my cat was

BTTC: win-win

2009-09-08T17:19:00.005+01:00

Dunnit!The British time trial championships has been run and won (it's important to have a punchy opening line like that). Brad Wiggins showed exactly why he is one of the best riders in the world, getting round the 50.4km course in 1:02:15. Hutch didn't get as close as I thought he would, and clocked 1:04:34 for second. But even that was a lot faster than Chris Newton's third in 1:06:14. Pretty

Cut off

2009-09-03T19:40:00.001+01:00

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

Sub 50

2009-08-24T20:42:00.007+01:00

Going fast in Wales© Adele WouldRight, there's been more racing done at this end. No wins but a couple of good results worth reporting. Firstly, the WTTA 100. I clocked 3:41:22 to finish second behind James Wall (3:40:15), who also beat me in the Bristol South 50 a few months ago. A slight disappointment, but it was still a very good time for my first outing over that distance. It was tough, I'm

Moving forward and going the extra mile

2009-08-10T19:33:00.006+01:00

Here's another dollop of bilge because it's Monday, I'm at the end of my holidays and I'm about to go out for pint(s).Weather remains fine, 20+ degs and sunny with some rain. But this August is already better than last so I'm not complaining.Thus it as a perfect morning for the Severn RC 25 on the U17 yesterday: a light northerly wind as opposed to a stiff southwester. This course is the latest

Tardiness

2009-08-05T21:23:00.005+01:00

This latest bilgespot update is tardy, I know. It's that time of year again (July/August), and that is as good an excuse as any. To resume somewhere near where I left off:XI) El Tour is done and the best man won by a mile. Actually it was closer to two miles. Enjoyed: Astana battling it out amongst themselves (is there a test for EGO yet?); Brad Wiggins in general; Mark Cavendish and Fabian

1190

2009-07-13T06:33:00.001+01:00

Time flies, you cannot, their flight is imperceptible.VI) I managed 10 miles in 1190 seconds in the Las Vegas Institute of Sport 10 (great name). That is 19'50 at 48.8km/h in the new money, which means that I broke the 20 minute barrier :-) And I came second in a field of ~170 riders, which I did not expect at all. Didn't get close to the winner (Rich Bradley, 19'34) but that's OK.It was a

The news in brief

2009-06-29T20:15:00.003+01:00

I) It's heating up around here. 29 degs by the end of the week, which almost qualifies as warm.II) I managed the Dave Lloyd (240km + 30km to Wrexham station!) in a tad over 9 hours this year, including 5km going off course 'cos someone had turned a sign around... It only rained lightly for four hours this year. A biggish feature will make it into Cycling Plus.III) The Dave Lloyd was on Sunday and

Go faster stripes

2009-06-14T21:23:00.006+01:00

I like time trialling because it feeds my numerical obsession. But sometimes it can be confusing. Pinning down why you're fast on a particular day when you're not on another should be a matter of power and aerodynamics, but sometimes there are things that you can't explain easily.I've done two 25 milers in the last week. Both were largely on dragstrip-type dual carriageway courses, both had a

National 25: not there yet

2009-06-07T20:18:00.003+01:00

Average. That's probably the best description of my ride in the national 25 today. Not great, not bad, in fact pretty much bang on form. But still slow.I clocked 54'49 for 43rd on a windy day, but when you consider the winner's time was a scorching 48'23, it wasn't much to blog home about. I'm still lacking about 20W compared to peak fitness, which is annoying because I feel as though I've been

First 10 of the year

2009-05-24T00:40:00.007+01:00

I didn't think it'd be nearly June before I rode my first 10 mile TT this year, but there you go. On Saturday I did the Bristol South 10 on what local Mike Hallgarth calls the 'superfast' U7B course. He doth jest a little, although is faster now after the resurfacing of some of the worst bomb crater sections.I did it because I didn't enter the national 10 in time 'cos I thought I'd still be

Back to it

2009-05-12T21:14:00.002+01:00

What a boring title.The best laid schemes o' mice an' men gang aft agley. I had planned to take it easy for a few weeks after discovering how to stretch my calf, but I improved so quickly that I succumbed and raced in the Somer Valley 29 on Sunday. Done alright too, as I won in 1:06:17, beating Ben by just 1 second (sorry mate). And together with Rob Gough, we won the team prize. Simon Snowden

Sliding doors

2009-05-04T15:03:00.003+01:00

I was going to start with a quote from Wikipedia about causality and how it's funny who (and what) you bump into, and whether it matters. But it would necessitate too much explanation so I won't bother.I'm just going to point to Schrödinger's cat instead. Conceived in 1935, I reckon there's a pretty bloody good chance that it's dead now. So we can ignore all that bollocks about quantum

Progress report

2009-04-22T21:19:00.007+01:00

I'm pleased to report that I'm on the mend after my door-related critical fail a couple of weeks ago. Head felt fine after a week and getting back on the bike helped. 12 days post-headbutt of roller doorBut the more serious calf tear coupled with a swollen Achilles remains, although it's slowly mending. The week I spent on the couch basically did nothing for it, despite me doing all the icing/

Fail

2009-04-12T14:11:00.002+01:00

As rest weeks go, I have to say I've had better ones. I'm currently nursing a nasty cut around my right eye, a result of riding into a closing roller door at work that I just didn't see. Could have been worse, could have been a lot better.Recall the scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark where Dr Jones just makes it under the vertical sliding door in the temple. He even manages to get his hat.

Hard decision time

2009-04-05T18:55:00.002+01:00

Rest. That means no riding at all, not much walking, lots of ice/elevation/anti-inflams and probably some beer.Thus spake the physio, after looking at my MRI and consulting with a mate of his. Oh well, it has to be done or I'll go through the whole first part of the season with a torn muscle. I'm not enjoying it, despite being in reasonably decent form. Enjoyment is more important than winning

Slowly

2009-03-24T21:12:00.003Z

In some particular order, but perhaps not the most logical one:The tendon/calf thingy is on the mend, although it's a few weeks off being 100%. MRI scan today said 'it's inflamed', which I could have determined without traipsing up to Cheltenham and paying a couple of hundred quid for the privilege. But I will get the full report in a few days, which should tell me more. It is definitely not as

Hello

2009-03-14T20:30:00.003Z

An interesting week, one of mixed fortunes for myself and others (go Sam!). I suppose it is the Ides of March so I should expect it.The injury for starters. The physio noticed a small improvement in my torn calf, although the tendon is still inflamed which means it gets painful on the bike. I've been riding easy for an hour and a half most days and I tend to find it's OK for about 30 minutes

Birth, omloop and injury

2009-03-07T20:55:00.007Z

Stop press: My sister has finally produced an offspring, a boy named Sam. Born on the same day as Pete, which should save on presents. Very exciting for us Joneses and Boyds! That makes me an uncle. Luckily she didn't have a girl or I would have been an aunt, a maiden one at that. Het OmloopHet Volk© Jeff JonesThis year's Het Volk (now renamed to Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, grr) visit was for a whole

Plus one

2009-02-21T22:53:00.003Z

During the week, I had the good fortune to be led to a Bath establishment that I had not yet been to. The Chandos Deli, in George St. Best sandwiches I've had here (meaning the UK. It can be done), including actual tasty bread and fresh ingredients. And the coffee was decent too. I'm going to add this place to our work posse's lunchtime coffee haunts list. Trust me, that's almost as hard as

Footsteps in the snow

2009-02-06T19:30:00.007Z

This week it's turned a bit wintry with snow an' that. Typically, the UK ran out of grit/salt on the first day so the entire country shut down. Not me though! I even managed to do a training session in the Quay House basement.Note: there is nothing new here that isn't on Facebook already. Please move along.It may look calm from the safety of Cleveland Bridge, but plunging into the icy waters of

Arbeit macht frei

2009-02-01T20:35:00.007Z

Starting on a cheery note...I watched a two hour doco on the story of Anne Frank t'other night. It was interesting, with interviews with many of the surviving protagonists, and predictably harrowing. After Anne's family was arrested while hiding in Amsterdam in 1944, they were sent to various concentration camps. Poor old Anne and her sister Margot died of typhus, their mother starved to death,

Absurd

2009-01-22T19:35:00.005Z

This is actually an improvement on what we had at the start of the year. I don't mind if it's wet, as long as it's sufficiently above freezing that your tyres stick to the road. Earlier this week I was riding up a hill near Timsbury that was so bad that even in the saddle, if I tried to put any power down, my back wheel would start spinning. It became an exercise in smooth pedalling at snail's

Roads

2009-01-15T21:11:00.002Z

The good news (from the me-centric view of the world, naturally) is that the weather has improved out of sight since last week. Temperatures up to 10 degrees, a bit of rain but so much better than ice.The bad news is that I have been sick with a cold since the start of the week, thus haven't been able to take advantage of this fortuitous state of affairs. So much for the healthy diet, although I

Strewth

2009-01-09T20:16:00.004Z

Starting with the weather, as usual...It's been the coldest week I can remember in the UK. That's not saying much because I've only been here two and a bit years and I can't remember how cold it was in my childhood. Actually it's colder than I can remember it ever being in Belgium, although I was usually never there in January.On a couple of nights, it got down to -4 in Bath and a lot colder than

At least it's sunny

2009-01-04T10:36:00.001Z

Back home after a lovely 35 hour journey between Sydney and Bath. I'm glad it's sunny, because it helps mitigate the fact that it was between -4 and 2 today. It's forecast to get chillier next week too. Dry is good though, because there's not much chance of ice.The Air China flight home was easier than the outgoing journey. Two 10.5 hour legs plus a six hour stopover in Beijing airport. Two hours

Condensed new year bilge

2008-12-31T11:15:00.005Z

All things must come to an end and so it is with my 2008 Australian odyssey. Mostly it has been good, although I could have done without being deliberately knocked off my bike. More on that later.Christmas was excellent. A family affair with much feasting and festivity. Immediate family members L, P, M+P healthy and expecting (not all of them though). AJ has found a new role as ex-premier Bob

Saturnalia odyssey

2008-12-21T23:36:00.005Z

Yeah© Jeff JonesSun, sun and more sun. But not too much hot sun, which is good. That's the way it is in Australia, the country that has elevated taking the piss to an art form with the critically acclaimed Shane Warne: The Musical.Thankfully, there was no repeat of last year's Royal Brunei Airlines induced disaster. The main problem was that it rained the night before I left, meaning that both

Ice ice baby

2008-12-04T09:04:00.003Z

I was going to start with the statement "It is happening again" but I already used that in May. There just aren't enough words to go around any more, especially ones related to Twin Peaks. What I do know is Julee Cruise sings as flat as you can get without actually changing key. Falling is an appropriate title for this song.That's better. What possessed me

Jetsetting

2008-11-23T12:23:00.008Z

It's so nice not to have to get up at the crack of 8am on a Sunday to go out ridin' in the [insert poor weather here]. Especially after attending a wedding the previous night, which came on the back of a relaxing week in Belgium, not to mention a lightning visit to the USA a couple of weeks ago. This end of the year has been a whirlwind/tornado/twister/dust devil/willy willy of travel, and it

Hvar II: The Revenge

2008-11-06T20:21:00.014Z

Hvar. Sigh© Jeff JonesI last visited the Croatian island of Hvar a couple of years ago in the all too brief period between leaving Cyclingnews and starting on BikeRadar. I remembered it as a bit of an island paradise where the pace was much slower than on the mainland. I also remembered a lot of drinking and eating seafood with Slovenians, a bit of riding, a tunnel, and getting very wet and cold

Two

2008-10-17T21:17:00.013+01:00

In the wake of the recent financial crisis, I've decided to invest all my money into the Finnish derivatives market for nonalcoholic beverages. What's the probability that two Scandinavian countries will go bankrupt? Almost none, I would have thought, so I reckon I'm onto a winner.Unfortunately, my cafetiere stocks devalued rapidly today: the cheap glass beaker broke when I poured some hot water

Victory (again)

2008-10-06T21:59:00.004+01:00

I did it. At the behest of my sister, I invested in a cheap cafetiere and some better-than-industrial-grade coffee. Thus, I could skip the canteen queue for a cup of Costa blandness this morning and try it out.I may have slightly overestimated the amount of coffee required for the cafetiere's one litre capacity. Because despite then filling it up to the top with hot water, I ended up with just

Coffee wars

2008-10-02T21:04:00.005+01:00

This week, it came to pass that the coffee in our deli (which is better described as a canteen but I'll let that one pass) changed from Starbucks®TM to CostaTM®. Much more than that has come to pass this week, but most of it was coffee. Or what passed for coffee (and beer, of course).Note: the duplication of words and symbols in the above paragraph is purely intentional and is because I'm on an

Journo World's 2008

2008-09-22T21:26:00.021+01:00

Another rainbow!© Spila Kalisnik(late, as usual)As most of you know, things went better than hoped for (by me at least) at this year's Journo World's in France. I was aiming at the time trial and won that fairly comfortably, but then surprised myself by backing up to win the road race the next day. And yes, the weather was generally rubbish. Even more annoyingly, it was dry in Bath for the entire

Medal

2008-09-08T22:33:00.008+01:00

The most surprising thing about the British time trial championships in Gloucester was that I didn't drown. In fact, the roads were mostly dry despite it raining for three solid days beforehand.The second most surprising thing was that I won a silver medal in the Masters B (35-39) category. I'm very happy with this result. I was 57 seconds behind the winner, Ben Instone, so there was no "what if"

Tick

2008-09-01T21:34:00.003+01:00

So ja, I am being the Hardrider champion of the WTTA. Das ist season goal nummer eins ticked off the season goal list.There are two more events to ride in October - which I want to do - but I have six wins now so no-one can overhaul me. Plus we've wrapped up the team trophy with Ben (who looks like being 4th overall) and Simon (top 10) combining to give us a big total. This is a first for

The human cost of the Olympics

2008-08-23T18:50:00.003+01:00

What are the Olympics worth? I've been reading a few analysis and opinion pieces on this subject and have found that gold medals are bloody expensive.Britain spent £235m of lottery money on its gold medal bid over the last four years and came home with 19 golds. You do the sums. And because it's lottery money, it doesn't matter that Britain is heading into a recession. People here love their

Not particularly august bilge

2008-08-12T21:40:00.004+01:00

...and an improper use of 'august' at that.The rain is still extant and very much part of August, as it was part of July, June, May, April, March, February and January. There's a certain patter(n) here. See if you can spot it.I'm looking forward to sunnier climbs once I get to Australia at the end of the year. There remains one minor hurdle: booking the flight. I tried to overcome this last night

Nothing, really

2008-08-03T22:06:00.004+01:00

Which means I have to start with a weather report. Warm and sunny (yes, true) for a week, then showery and not quite as warm and sunny. That brings the "days it has rained" count up to 34 out of the last 48. Jolly good.And now to the increasingly irrelevant Tour de France.El Tour finished with Sastre, C. coming good in the last few days, meaning Evans, C. was forced to settle for second again. I

A culinary Tour de Force

2008-07-22T21:22:00.006+01:00

Seeing as Ma and Pa were over from the Antipodes last weekend, we decided to sample the finest cuisine that England had to offer. Or not.The Turkish in the Marmaris wasn't too bad, although Dad decried the paucity of hummus. He was brave enough to try the "selection of house wines", ie red or white. Throwing caution to the wind, he opted for "red", and on drinking it he made the face he usually

Bilge in July

2008-07-09T20:09:00.009+01:00

I have to say that this blog has deteriorated since its launch in 2004. The bilge was far more entertaining then, even if it was still mostly about bike races. Even I laughed. To be or not to be, that is the question.With that out of the way, I must needs update the world on the weather around these 'ere parts.In short, it's raining again. Just like most of last year,

The Dave Lloyd Mega Challenge

2008-07-01T19:40:00.009+01:00

What a monster of a ride. 220km with just over 5000m of climbing - yep, it was all of that. But I finished with a pretty reasonable time of 8hrs12min (8:01 riding time). Not bad considering it rained hard for two hours in the middle and I punctured at the end. It was the quickest too, not that it's a race ;-)Satnav blindnessI caught the train to Wrexham and rode 30-odd km to Ruthin on Saturday,

Cotswold hills

2008-06-23T20:48:00.006+01:00

I've actually managed to finish my first UK sportive. 165km of very hilly and windy riding in the Circuit of the Cotswolds. I found it harder than both Paris-Roubaix and Franja, mainly because of the severity of the climbs, the 35km/h wind and because I rode it solo. Nearly 6 hours at 80% of my max heart rate and 2500m of climbing. In comparison Roubaix was 9 hrs (plus nearly two hours of stops)

June bilge

2008-06-20T20:27:00.006+01:00

Matt Brett and I after Paris-RoubaixIt's been a busy few weeks pour moi. The Paris-Roubaix randonee was an amazing experience. We'd been talking about it all year and I'm glad we got our collective arses into gear and over to France for it. The pavé was the real challenge I thought it would be, but it wasn't an insurmountable one. The distance - 255km, which took us nine hours - was relatively

Like a broken record

2008-06-02T22:23:00.005+01:00

As I'd hoped, I managed to beat Andy Cook's nine year-old club 25 mile record in Sunday's Cheltenham fixture.The previous record was 52'20 and while it would have been nice to go under 52 minutes, I'll take this as I'm definitely off the boil at the moment. Rich Prebble showed us how it's done to win in 50'02, the third quickest 25 time in the UK this season. Gavin P is still going well and his

The big wet

2008-05-30T20:29:00.007+01:00

It's the monsoon season again, also known as 'summer' here in Bath. The rain has been less of the drizzly type and more of the downpour flash flood get paddling type.I got caught in it on Thursday night on the way back from the Dursley evening 10 (it being too wet to do a Wednesday evening 10). It was nearly 50km home and after about 10km it totally thundered down. I was riding back with Chris

A punch up at the wedding

2008-05-23T21:42:00.010+01:00

Polly has got it sorted and Simon is left holding the baby (Eva)© Simon's MumI like a good wedding. Everyone always looks the part, there's usually free grog and it's a happy occasion for the bride, groom and everyone else.Cousin Polly's last weekend was a great occasion, with the reception being held in the House of Commons. Yep, that one. Owing to her dad Martin (also my cousin) being an MP, we

Seven seconds

2008-05-12T22:01:00.001+01:00

The great wheel turns. Last week, I lost by seven seconds; this week I won by the same margin. And broke the course record in doing so, which was rather nice. To say that I am happy with this result would be an understatement, but I will say it anyway because I approve of understatement.The Somer Valley course is probably the least interesting of the eight hardriders courses I've done so far, as

Close...

2008-05-05T19:44:00.009+01:00

But cigarillos were scarce in the Cheltenham hilly today. At least I was beaten by a clubmate, with Ben Anstie doing a very good ride to pip me by seven seconds. He always beats me on the flat but normally I have the edge over him on a hilly course. But after giving him some advice on how to ride them, he has turned the tables :-) He should do a good ride in the national 10 in two weeks.We were

Vindication #2

2008-05-03T17:15:00.002+01:00

It is happening again. And I'm not talking about repeats of Twin Peaks. No, far more importantly, the Ergomo has come out lower than the Powertap in a race-type situation. 306W on the Ergomo compared to 335W on the Powertap in the Ba'ath 10. That's nearly 10 percent! I'd even made sure I set the offset just before starting, but to no avail. Weirdly, if I included the warmup and cooldown, the

Vindication (Ergomo vs. PowerTap)

2008-05-01T21:04:00.004+01:00

My long held (well, at least since March) suspicions have been confirmed. Under certain but fairly common conditions, the power readings from my Ergomo tend to drift downwards during a ride. It's to do with the bottom bracket shell cooling down over time, because the Ergomo measures deflections in the bottom bracket axle to calculate power. You have to zero it before each ride, but as I've found,

A Wolf at the Door

2008-04-27T21:09:00.003+01:00

Incredibly, despite a very dire forecast for the past several days, it didn't pour today. In fact, it was quite noice and sunny. It just goes to show that They can be wrong.Today's contre-le-monte fixture was the Swindon hilly, on the same course as the Chippenham hilly a couple of months ago. But because it wasn't particularly windy, the times were a lot quicker. QED. One must move with the

The Dursley

2008-04-21T22:32:00.006+01:00

Another win! Results here and pics here.I took it as a good sign that I didn't get food poisoning after a curry on Saturday night at the Eastern Eye. I'd warned the birthday party of this, as well as the fact that surliness was part of the service. We weren't disappointed on that front as the booking was for 14 and only seven of us turned up. I don't know how the others fared, but I didn't get

Two things

2008-04-19T14:15:00.001+01:00

First: I've been on a quest to buy some warming embrocation today, and am surprised at how hard it is to get here. In Belgium you can buy it at any bike shop in various grades of warmness, and it's very popular, forming part of the pre-kermis ritual. My supply of Sportsbalm Pre Sports Hot Balm (basically vaseline with wintergreen, cayenne, cajeput, capsicum and nutmeg oil - nice and hot) ran out

Lateralus

2008-04-12T22:40:00.003+01:00

First of all, to be consistent I must mention the weather: 10°Ré and sunny today, but with a 30km/h WSW wind blowing. Rejoice!The event: Bristol South 25 miler, wot I have been looking forward to for several months 'cos I wanted to see how fast a TT bike can go on this course.It's got a fantastic start: 1km of downhill on the A38, followed by another 11km of rolling gradual downhill, then a 9km

I may be some time

2008-04-06T19:04:00.006+01:00

It's April but spring hasn't decided to sprung on us yet. We're getting tantalisingly close with a 17 degree sunny day here last Thursday, but the weekend's snow was another thing altogether.I did my first race in zero degrees (it's the same in Réaumur, for those wondering) today and it wasn't fun. It was another shortened-due-to-road-works-TT, the WTTA hilly: 32km from Malmesbury to Wootton