Back in January of this year I posted an article (Unreleased products top cyclingnews.com 2010 tech innovation poll!) pointing out that two 'products' that had been awarded a best product award for 2010 had yet to emerge onto the market.  Well, bikeradar.com now reports that the Garmin (formerly Metrigear) Vector pedal-based power-metering system faces release in March 2012 (Garmin Vector pedal power meter available in 2012).  Not bad for a product that won an award for technical innovation in 2010.Somewhat annoyingly for me, the device now uses Look Keo pedals, rather than the originally slated SpeedPlay system (none of my bikes have Keos, but two do have SpeedPlay).  No word currently on whether Polar's parallel system, which is also based as far as I know on the Keo pedals, will see retail shelves in 2012.The Garmin system does look pretty neat compared with crank-based systems.

This event was the last evening event in the North Bucks time trial series (the remaining events will be run at weekends).  The turnout was quite small (about 9 riders, I think) probably because of the weather.  The drizzly weather had set in during the afternoon, and by the time I left work to ride over to the race, it had turned into rather more persistent (though light) rain.Still, this was a counting league event, so some of us were up to it, including Lindz, Tony and Geoff - all of whom are on good form at the moment.  For my part, I wasn't looking forward to dragging my body up the hill on the outward leg, particularly as my attempts at weight loss have been a bit derailed of late.  This 'anticipation' pretty much reflected reality.While I satisfactorily reeled in some of the riders ahead of me, as usual I found tackling the first half to be the usual hard ride.  Indeed, I reckon it took me 15 minutes or so to reach the turn.  In my own defence, I have to say I was taking some of the turns a bit conservatively, as I wasn't keen to take a tumble so near to the Duo Normand.  Anyway, the return leg was as usual much quicker, peaking at 69kph.I finished in 27:10, not too bad for the conditions.  I'm pretty sure that Tony (26:08) and Lindz (a long 26) both finished with course PBs.  I've no idea what my best on this course is, and have no easy way of finding out, I think.

An odd morning, weatherwise - quite bright as we drove out to Tempsford but rather heavily overcast for most of the event.  In fact I was quite surprised it didn't rain, and the general darkness of the cloud certainly suggested we might be in for a bit of a downpour.  An additional worry for me was that I'd only just returned from a week off the bike at residential school in Nottingham.  Not only does that keep me off the bike, but the diet is rather dodgy, with too much greasy and stodgy food topped off with more alcohol than I'm used to.So it was with trepidation that I set off for this event.  I wasn't feeling too great, having slept badly and got up early, and to add insult to injury my inward parts were still suffering from the last week.  I made a vague effort at warming up, during which my heart rate resolutely refused to rise above 150bpm.  Anyway, I returned to the start line, had a chat with other riders and the start crew, then off I went.The event was on the F1B/25, reputedly the slower of the two courses based on the A1 near Tempsford.  You can see the course on the Garmin map below.  After joining the A1, the course heads south across the Sandy, Biggleswade North and Biggleswade South roundabouts, to turn at a roundabout under the point where the A1 becomes the A1(M), near Baldock.  In general terms, the turn is higher than the start, with considerable uphill and downhill sections in the southern section.  I had no real problems, other than lassitude in the legs, and no traffic related issues other than nearly seeing a car crash happen at Biggleswade North (which had my heart in my mouth), and getting delayed by a lorry (but that won't have delayed me much) at the Sandy roundabout.I got to the turn in a bit less than 30 minutes, which is usually OK, as the return leg is often a bit quicker.  There was a stiff sidewind which meant that the return leg wasn't as consistently fast as I'd hoped.  Still, I finished with 58:15.  That's the fastest '25' I've ridden this year, I believe, but only because it's only the second solo '25' of the season.  Let's face it, my 2011 season has not been good so far!  Tony finished with 55:43 I think, a sterling ride on a not-so-quick day on a not-so-quick course.

The recent spell of hot and muggy weather continued through to this event, although the lunchtime thunderstorm caused a bit of concern - were this to happen at the event, I could have seen the third cancellation in four events!  By 7pm it was rather better than that, but with a breeze that made conditions rather harder on the outward leg.Annoyingly, I got stalled by traffic at the first and second roundabouts, which always interrupts my concentration a bit.  On the dual carriageway, I initially found my concentration wavering, but then set to the task of catching my minute man (which took until some distance beyond the turn).  Rounding the turn, I was counting the time off until I saw Tony - when I did see him, it seemed to me that he was on a good ride.Back of the dual carriageway, and I was horsing down the hill to the last two roundabouts.  Unfortunately I was again held up by traffic at both - once by a huge white lorry with a train of following cars that (in discussions after the event) had encountered riders at elsewhere on the course.I finished in 4th place with 22:19.  Tony was in first place with an excellent 21:30, so a nice return to form for him!Results:

	Name	Club	Time	Cat	Vets Std	+ / -	Vets Pos
1	Tony Parks	NBRC	21.24	V46	26.42	+5.18	4
2	Geoff Perry	TeamMK	22.04	V51	27.46	+5.42	1
3	Rob Saunders	NBRC	22.19	V51	27.46	+5.27	2
4	Richard Golding	TeamMK	22.21	V42	25.54	+3.33	6
5	Glen McMenamin	NBRC	22.32	S
6	Lindz Barral	iTeam cc	22.58	S
7	John Buchanan	TeamMK	23.22	V41	25.42	+2.20	8
8	Dave Carrington	TeamMK	23.43	V46	26.42	+2.59	7
9	James Vaughan	Twenty3c	23.49	S
10	Clive Faine	TeamMK	25.38	V65	31.00	+5.22	3
11	Alan Lawson	NBRC	26.48	V43	26.06	-0.42	9
12	Gilbert Wheelwright	NBRC	27.10	V68	31.45	+4.35	5
13	Tony Brunton	NBRC	29.12	V46	26.42	-2.30	10

There seems to be a growing tendency for software updates to be pushed out to users at a fixed and high frequency. I've kind of got used to this through Ubuntu GNU/Linux releases every 6 months (but there it's generally a large collection of packages, many of which will have had significant updates during the 6 months). Additionally, periodically a release is denoted for Long Term Support.More questionable is the Rapid Release cycle adopted by Mozilla for Firefox. In this release cycle, updates are pushed out four times a year. For most domestic users, this might not be a problem (it's not a major hassle updating a browser), but for the corporate sector, it's a headache for the IT managers (Rapid-release Firefox meets corporate backlash).What then do I make of the upcoming release schedule for the Joomla! CMS which I use for a number of sites? You can see the sort of situation in this infographic:This strategy seems to involve releases of different support durations, which is confusing in itself.  To add further complexity to the upgrade path is that often upgrade requires database changes as well as updating files.  For the 1.6.5 to 1.7.0 migration, the Joomla! devs have kindly supplied a 'one click' upgrade tool accessible from the back end of the site to be migrated.  Unfortunately on the two sites I've tried it on, it doesn't work.  The second method proposed in the documentation, in which a migration package is manually applied through the extension manager, also doesn't work.  Irritatingly (and I presume this is to to with my particular hosting company's setup), there's no feedback to indicate where the problem lies.  At least not that I can find.  And the migration documentation isn't too much help.Yet another level of complexity is presented succinctly in this snippet from the documentation:

Check that all installed extensions are compatible with Joomla 1.7 by checking the JED Listing or developer site.

Very wise advice (and I suspect it could include templates).  I use several extensions on my sites - none very exceptional - and few appear to be compatible with Joomla! 1.7 so far.OK, so I probably can't migrate my sites until the extensions and templates are compatible with 1.7.  Who knows how long that may take?  I have every sympathy with the extension developers, who have presumably found themselves at the mercy of a rapid release schedule!As it is, I'm looking at the manual installation, where I have to copy a whole bunch of files and folders over to the site, delete another bunch of files and folders, conduct a migration of the database using an sql script.  Now, I'm competent to do this, but it seems like quite a hassle, particularly when the version being installed is only going to be supported for 6 months (and half a month has already elapsed!).Looking at the release schedule, it looks very much as though version 1.5 will be supported beyond 1.6, and to the point when the replacement for 1.7 is released.  Perhaps I ought to have hung on to 1.5, missing out releases 1.6 and 1.7?  I see security updates for 1.6 continuing for the moment, but for how much longer?  Maybe migration out of Joomla! is the best course?

A lovely morning greeted us as we loaded my bike into the car.  As we drove over to Tempsford, the conditions became rather misty though this had cleared by the time we lined up at the start.  Also rather disappointing was the head wind to the turn, which rendered the outbound leg rather stodgy - I was certainly struggling to keep the speed over 25mph.The current incarnation of the F1/10 runs southbound from near Tempsford, across the Sandy roundabout to turn at the Biggleswade North (Warden Lane) roundabout, with a finish line really close to Tempsford Hall.  Joining the A1 after the start is rather nice - it's a sliproad coming down from a flyover.  Unfortunately, the 29+mph I'd got up to coming down the sliproad soon evaporated and I was plugging along trying to keep the speed above 25mph.  Once at the turn, things looked up a bit and I found myself doing 28-30 mph most of the way back from the turn.I finished with 22:33 (somewhat better than I'd expected in the first half of the race), around 18 seconds slower than Tony.  In fact there weren't many really quick times today - the event was won with a 21, I think.Back home, where Tony and I had cappuccinos, then nipped out for a 33 mile easy ride  out through Soulbury, Stewkley and Hoggeston, during which we saw some charity bike ride under way.  All in all a rather good Sunday morning.

Pos	Rider	Club	Time
1	J Bates	Team Milton Keynes	00:21:15	V
2	T Davies	Icknield RC	00:21:42	V
3	D Kealey	Finchley RT	00:21:56	V
4	N Stephens	Finchley RT	00:22:03	V
5	A Strickland	Cambridge CC	00:22:12	V
6	T Parks	North Bucks RC	00:22:15	V
7	S Tarry	Chronos RT	00:22:16	S
8	N Pitt	Chronos RT	00:22:18	S
9	C Symonds	Bike and Run London	00:22:29	S
10	K Gill	PCA Ciclos Uno	00:22:30	V
11	I Bibby	Finsbury Park CC	00:22:31	V
12	R Saunders	North Bucks RC	00:22:33	V
13	G Perry	Team Milton Keynes	00:22:35	V
14	J Hargrave	Spalding CC	00:22:36	S
15	K Read	North Norfolk Wheelers	00:22:53	V
16	P Davis	St Ives CC	00:22:57	V
17	A Halliday	Westerley CC	00:23:00	S
18	N Ellison	Beyond/WDBMC/Specialized/RRP	00:23:02	S
19	M Horton	CC Ashwell	00:23:10	S
20	R Palmer	Team Salesengine.co.uk	00:23:25	V

It's not often I see telomeres referenced in a web comic. Here's today's Dilbert:

This event was looking promising.  A warm and overcast evening, there was a breeze that looked likely to help the riders up the hill to Nash.  The timekeepers, riders and associated personnel were congregated at the start, when a bloke in a big 4x4 pulled up an announced that there was a significant car crash between Beachampton and Nash. This was just before the first rider was about to start - we duly held off starting and dispatched Chris on his motorbike to investigate whether the road was indeed closed.  It turned out to be the case, and the location of the crash prevented us from switching to the Whaddon circuit.So that was that.  A 33 mile round trip and no race!  This is the second time in three events that we've bee forced to cancel an event just as we were to start.Not riding events is becoming a bit of a feature of my 2011 season!  Hopefully the Hitchin Nomad '10' using the F1/10 on Sunday will go ahead without disruption.

This is getting ridiculous. Alberto Contador tested positive for a vanishingly small amount of clenbuterol about a year ago. At the time I felt that the small concentration found (which was several orders of magnitude below the testing ability expected of a testing lab) meant that guilt for clenbuterol use might become a lottery of which lab was selected to test a sample (Is Alberto Contador really positive for Clenbuterol?).Now comes the news that the CAS inquiry, already delayed from before the Tour de France until August is to be further delayed till November (Contador CAS hearing postponed until November | Cyclingnews.com).The length of time this case has taken to reach a conclusion is nothing short of scandalous.  Remember that the UCI is seeking to nullify Contador's 2011 results.  Assuming that he's found guilty, of course.

The recent weather patterns were forecast to continue for this event - heavy showers were to be the main feature.  As it turned out, despite the glowering clouds, all we got was a little light drizzle for a few minutes.The Stagsden course (see map below) isn't a very frequently used course, so it made a bit of a change from the regular events.  Unfortunately, I rarely ride on the course, as in my annual cycle of work, I'm generally working away from home at this time of year.  I put this lack of 'course experience' down as the explanation of my lousy start in this event.  Shooting off from the start in decent style, my rheumy old eyes couldn't believe the 29.9mph my computer was showing.  Unfortunately, the road then went upwards - not as who should say a mountain, but a significant impediment to a rider in an inappropriate gear!  I found myself plugging up this gentle undulation at embarrassingly slow speed, before reaching Astwood and lifting the pace significantly.  I suspect this, and the ensuing oxygen debt cost me quite a few seconds, and indeed made me wonders what I was playing at.Fortunately, things improved from there, as I picked up speed between Astwood and the small climb to Chicheley, and made it to the turn roundabout in decent style.  Coming out of the turn, I could see Tony (who started a minute behind me) was gaining on me.  This spurred me on, and this together with a gentle tailwind no doubt lifted my pace for the return leg (you can see this in the Garmin trace below).  Despite getting stalled a bit by a motorist who was being excessively cautious in passing riders I was about to catch, I felt pretty good about the return leg, finishing in 22:48 (I think).  Results to follow.I was of course beaten by Tony (and also a visitor from Finchley RT), but that's kind of to be expected, I think, and at least he didn't catch me.  So, second NBRC rider in a League event.

Pos	Name	Club	Time	Cat	+ / -	Vets
1	Andy Hastings	Finchley RT	21.35	S
2	Tony Parks	NBRC	22.30	V46	+4.12	4
3	Rob Saunders	NBRC	22.49	V51	+4.57	2
4	Trevor Hook	TeamMK	23.43	V53	+4.29	3
5	Anthony Batt	NBRC	23.52	S
6	Ian Markham	Chronos RT	24.35	V42	+1.19	6
7	Alan Crane	Chronos RT	25.14	V42	+0.40	7
8	Clive Faine	TeamMK	26.02	V65	+4.58	1
9	Graham Line	NBRC	27.38	V46	-0.56	8
10	Gilbert Wheelwright	NBRC	27.49	V68	+3.56	5
11	Alan Lawson	NBRC	28.03	V43	-1.57	9
12	Tony Brunton	NBRC	29.18	V46	-2.36	10
13	Dave Crane	Chronos RT	32.55	V46	-6.13	11