A few years ago, I encountered a review of a networked music player that seemed rather useful - the Squeezebox. This was a small unit that connected wirelessly to a computer on the home network (or to a manufacturer-maintained server on the internet) to stream digital music from numerous sources. The Squeezebox itself connects to the HiFi via analogue of digital outputs.  The Squeezebox line of devices had been acquired by Logitech from its original manufacturers, SlimDevices. Over the following years, my Squeezebox system expanded to include a Squeezebox Touch, two Squeezebox Radios, and a number of software players for laptops and iPads, with my my music hosted on a QNAP NAS, running 24:7. You can see the general setup in this diagram (the Touch and Classic connect to the HiFi, while the Radios are standalone players):

The whole system is immensely versatile: I really only scratch the surface. The Logitech Media Server (LMS) offers the facility to add plugins, and over the years many official and third party plugins have been developed. I usually use LMS in preference to the Logitech maintained server MySqueezebox.com, and use it for playing local music files (a mixture of flac and mp3 format) and streaming radio. I scrobble my listening to Last.FM, but I don't subscribe to music streaming services. You can synchronise music between two or more devices, alternatively you can play different music to each device. Like I say very versatile.

There were of course issues with the system. Frankly, had I not some tendency towards geeky-ness, I might have been confused by the system. On the other hand, consumer understanding can't have been helped by continually renaming things - for example the server software changed from SlimServer, to SqueezeServer to Logitech Media Server (and I may have missed some out), and explaining to the customer how the local and internet servers worked must have been a complete pain for support.Fast forward to late August 2012. Having just bought a Squeezebox Touch (as an upgrade to my Squeezebox Classic), I was browsing round the Logitech website, when I noticed a new product, the Logitech UE Smart Radio, which looked remarkably like the Squeezebox Radios I owned. As I continued looking round the Logitech site, I could see all the pages relating to the Squeezebox range disappear, and within a very short time, pretty much all mention of Squeezeboxes had been expunged. I posted to the Squeezebox Radio forum, and you can see there the dismay this news caused.Logitech has indeed pulled out of supplying the best home networked music system that I can see on the market. They've rebranded the Squeezebox Radio, and reduced its functionality (though I have to say this generates an easier consumer experience). Oddly the newly branded UE Smart Radio can't play local music files without an internet connection. And there's nothing in the range that can output to a HiFi. So, all very sad.In the meantime, Logitech are supporting MySqueezebox.com for the foreseeable future, and even when that goes, those of us with functional local servers will continue using their Squeezebox systems.It's just a shame that the Squeezebox lineup has gone.

This morning I received a tweet in my twitter stream from some internet Bingo outfit, from an account that I don't follow. It's not unusual to pick up spammers on Twitter, but this one was a bit unusual - it was labelled as a "promoted tweet". I did a spot of Googling to see what this was all about and found this help page. Here I find that...

• Promoted Tweets are ordinary Tweets purchased by advertisers who want to reach a wider group of users or to spark engagement from their existing followers.
• Promoted Tweets are clearly labeled as Promoted when an advertiser is paying for their placement on Twitter. In every other respect, Promoted Tweets act just like regular Tweets and can be retweeted, replied to, favorited and more.

Ah! It's a spot of revenue generation by Twitter via Twitter-sanctioned spamming of user accounts. Let's read on...How does Twitter determine which Promoted Tweets to display in a user’s timeline?

• A Promoted Tweet will appear in a user’s timeline only if the Tweet is likely to be interesting and relevant to that user.
• Our platform uses a variety of signals to determine which Promoted Tweets are relevant to users, including what a user chooses to follow, how they interact with a Tweet, what they retweet, and more.

Ah, so Twitter have monitored my twitter stream (I'm not actually that prolific a tweeter, and only follow about 150 accounts) about sceptics, science, cycling, politics and the like, and has determined that I am actually interested in online bingo? How does that work? Maybe it's a scam to get money from the online bingo by promising to tweet to soft marks, but randomly targeting accounts...Reading on...Can users dismiss a Promoted Tweet if they see one in their timeline?

• Users who dislike a Promoted Tweet can simply dismiss it from their timeline with a single click, using the “Dismiss” button that appears as part of the Tweet.

And here's the example - note the Dismiss option...Except... there was no Dismiss option on the Twitter-sanctioned spam I received. I reported it as spam and blocked the account (which was @jackpotjoy, by the way). Unfortunately I didn't keep a screenshot. But here's their website, which certainly gives the impression that it's a bog standard online gambling site seeking to relieve the more foolish among us of  money, under the promise that they might win big [I think that's a fair description of any monetary game of chance!].I realise that at some point Twitter will have to appease their investors and earn some dosh, but really, is springing this on people really going to help?Shame on you, Twitter!

This event is usually the high point in two-up time trialling for many riders, including Team Grumpy, the informal name for the regular 2-up partnership between Gerry and I. We've ridden the event for 9 of the last 10 editions of this event, based in Marigny, Normandy. The course itself is a terrific one, with fast sections, short but tough climbs and equally short but spine-tingling descents all within 54.3km.

The second '10' of the day was the Icknield RC '10', on the Brogborough-based F15/10. By the time Tony and I rode over the to HQ at the Marston Vale Forest Centre, we had lovely warm and sunny conditions, with what promised to be a light head wind back (much lighter than I had had the previous Saturday).I rode from the HQ to the start with Tony and then kept riding to and fro for a bit before getting to the start. After the usual banter with the time keeper, I rode off down the hill, quickly getting into a nice big gear for the opening descent. I had a pretty quick ride out to the turn (maybe averaging over 29 mph), marred slightly by traffic at the roundabout half way to the turn. But then again, that roundabout has an annoying kink that I always slow a little for.After the turn, I settled into trying find a rhythm that I was comfortable with (not comfortable in!). I was tooling along at around 25-26mph when I saw a couple of children ahead of me, wobbling along the road on what appeared to be bmx bike and one of those stupid scooters. They wobbled particularly as the rider ahead of me passed, so I thought nothing of it when the looked back at me and wobbled some more. To my horror, this turned out not to be a wobble at all - the kids veered straight across the road, colliding with me and projecting me across the road as a 26 mph tangled mass of carbon and shredded lycra and flesh, right into the path of an oncoming car.Fortunately the car stopped in time. The adults in the car got out to see if I was OK (the kids responsible for my crash seemed relatively unhurt, but somewhat shocked). I didn't have the heart to bawl them out - asking them just what they thought they were doing seemed to have a bit of an effect on them. I was clearly bleeding, with a shredded skinsuit and fractured helmet. The bike seemed reasonably OK, though the handlebars were out of alignment.I rode back to the HQ somewhat gingerly, where, after, retelling the incident to the organiser and others, I was prevailed upon not to ride home and to accept a lift home. The butchers bill is really just an astonishing array of grazes, scrapes, cuts and bruises. No broken bones, fortunately. It's all rather painful - I don't understand how professional riders can go on day after day after crashes. Maybe being younger and being paid to do it helps!

This was to be the first of two ten mile time trials today, and was actually the last in the NBRC series of club events. It was a delightful morning, still and cool with the prospect of fine sunny conditions later.Not a huge turnout, maybe due to the 8 am start, and even despite the early hour traffic was building up. I made as much of an effort as I thought wise, given the afternoon's open event and I was frankly disappointed by my ride (it's a long time since I came last in a club event). I did get stopped at the first roundabout, but that doesn't explain away more than a few seconds.Maybe it's the "end of season" feeling, but I do have to keep enough enthusiasm to take me to the Duo Normand at the end of September.

A very warm afternoon made me feel quite sleepy. Not only that, while I was riding around before the start, I really felt I ought to be sat in a beer garden sipping Leffe. This wasn't helped by the fact the race HQ was in a social club bar. It may have been soporifically warm, but it was quite clear that this wasn't going to be an easy race: there was going to be a stiff tailwind for the outbound leg, which would make the return leg rather tough. Fortunately, the return leg is shorter!The F15/10 is quite a new course which has been used extensively this season (I've entered another event on it next weekend). It starts at the top of Brogborough hill, which riders zoom down safe in the knowledge they won't have to race back up it again! This got me off to a fast start, and even having reached the bottom of the hill, I was cranking out speeds in excess of 30mph for most of the way to the turn. The roundabout at Marston is a bit of a brute on the outward leg because, despite the fact that riders are going straight on, it presents an unexpected chicane. Once at the turn, it was really obvious (I mean REALLY obvious) how tough the return leg was going be. This was definitely a race of two halves. For the first half, I was whizzing along at a decent heart rate with the wind assistance, for the second half I put a huge effort in, with my heart rate skyrocketing, and only making a modest speed, despite the effort. Oddly, my speed fluctuated quite a bit, presumably due the varying shelter from the wind coupled with minor undulations in the road.It was with a huge sense of relief that I made it to the finish line. 22:55, which I thought not bad given the conditions. It was also around the other riders on a '5'.

The weather was forecast to be pretty dreadful for this morning's event, but it turned out to be not too bad. The roads were wet from heavy overnight rain, but except for a few drops on the ride home, the weather remained dry. A light breeze hampered high speed on the outward leg to Chicheley, though it was then easy enough up to the climb to North Crawley. As usual, I found it hard to get back up to speed riding through North Crawley and beyond, but once past the university turn I was rolling well again.I finished in 23:42, my quickest ride at Astwood this year, and good enough for 4th place out of 9 riders. Results over at the NBRC site.

A bit late reporting on this event, but suffice to say that it was all a bit grim. Right from the start, I found the wind very strong and blustery, to the point where I was having trouble controlling the front H3, which was being surprisingly twitchy.  I also got stalled to a standstill by traffic on two outbound roundabouts, which kind of sapped my interest in the event.As it turned out I got caught by Tony just short of the turn, but limited further losses until we left the DC.  Not a great performance, 23:53 for 5th place.

Early morning patchy mist had cleared, revealing a rather warm morning (well, warm for 7am!), for the Beds RCC charity '25'. The event was run, as usual, on the F1B/25. This course, which runs south from Tempsford on the A1, is reputed to be a slower than the northbound version, due to the severe undulations on the course just prior to the turn. But I've always found it a good course, and one that feels a bit safer due to the absence of slip roads: all joining roads do so at regular juntions and roundabouts.Before I started, my team mate Tony found he'd forgotten his overshoes. He borrowed my plasticky black ones though he seemed dissatisfied with their general grubbyness, and cleaned them up with some wet wipes he had kicking around. Dave Jones, a regular photographer at these events (I've posted some of his photographs before), had arrived without his specs, so I lent him my reading glasses so that he could work his camera.The essential support roles now complete, I rolled off for a brief warmup before starting. It was quite quickly obvious that this was a rather nice morning - there was virtually no wind as I lined  up at the start. I rolled off and tried to keep a semblance of speed as I rode up to the junction which leads down to the A1. Once on the dual carriageway, things seemed to flow quite well. I had absolutely no holdups at any of the roundabout crossings. Perhaps all this means I didn't try hard enough? Well, I reached the turn in under 30 minutes, and finished in 58:17, which (somewhat to my embarrassment) is my fastest '25' time this season. Perhaps I could have gone that little bit harder to finish with a 57, but given that Tony did a cracking ride to finish in 55:06, I was unlikely to get too much closer.With only 6 weeks or so until Team Grumpy's ride at the Duo Normand, perhaps this uplift in my form is an indicator that we'll snatch some form out of nowhere for the Duo. Here's hoping...

Early drizzle soon cleared, and conditions were warm and sunny with only a light breeze to discomfit the 13 riders who turned out for tonight's event. On the downside, this was one of those 'flying ant' days, when all the ant colonies seem to simultaneously produce new queens. I was expecting to spend a lot of the time extracting ants from my eyes during this event, but fortunately, most of them had dispersed by the evening.We had a turnout of 13 riders (plus Steve T., who had a problemmo with his front tub valve and didn't ride). My biggest problem was that I'd just come back from a week at residential school with the attendant consequence of 7 days with no exercise and a diet of chips and beer. This led me to DNS Sunday's Finsbury Park '25', but really I needed to get the bit between my teeth again. So I rode over to Stony Stratford for this event.I found the outward leg really quite hard - particularly the climb from Beachampton through Nash. But that's not too unusual, this isn't my favourite course for that reason. The return was quite quick as, for a change, the roads were dry and I felt confident enough to belt down the hills, and corner on the tri-bars. I ended up with 27:43 which, because several riders were on road bikes and some fast guys hadn't showed up, was good enough to win the event.I did find my pulse rate rather high, seeing 190bpm at one point! Anyway, full results over at the NBRC website. At the moment, my attention is focussed on the Duo Normand, which is around 6 or 7 weeks away...

This event on the F1/25 unusually used an HQ in Sandy. I'd also decided to ride over to the event, and given my Puncture Bob alter ego, I figured it was wise to set aside enough time to deal with mechanical problems en route. As it turned out, it took hardly any time to get to the HQ, and I got there with far too much time to spare. The main field of the event was your usual open event: to celebrate an anniversary there was also an invitation event with some luminaries of British time trialling, including Alex Dowsett (Team Sky), who had won the Icknield RC event a few weeks before with a 47.It turned out that I was number 101 - the same as Bradley Wiggins in this year's Tour de France. The question in my mind was whether this would inspire me. After signing on and attaching my number, there wasn't really much else to do other than ride around the lanes near the start.  By the time I'd reached the start line, I'd racked up 36 miles and come to the conclusion that conditions were remarkably similar to the Icknield event in which I'd failed to crack the hour. I was a little concerned that maybe 36 miles wasn't a great starting point for a '25'...The opening mile or so before joining the A1 seemed very tough. Tougher than I expected, even given the extra large warmup. But out on the A1, things weren't too bad even with the headwind. Turning at the roundabout near Sandy, there was David Jones - snapping riders as they came out of the turn. I closed my mouth, sucked my belly in and tried to look like a fit and fast cyclist. The long leg up to Buckden was quick and uneventful. I got caught for a minute at about 8 miles and caught a rider or two myself. Rounding the turn at Buckden, I wondered what the long southbound leg would be like. As it turned out, not too bad, though the stiff headwind did make things a bit hard at times. The only alarming incident was when a drive scorched into a service station north of the Black Cat, cutting in front of me to do so. I was caught by one of the invitation riders just before the turn. That wasn't unexpected, particularly given my form this season.I finished in 58:56 (30th place in the open event), which I was quite pleased with. Its actually the fourth '25' I've ridden in 2012 and only the first sub-hour ride. Given that conditions were similar to those at the Icknield event, I was pleased with a 1:19 improvement.I didn't stick around too long, as I wanted to get home to watch the Tour de France. I eventually got home at about 11:15am with 84 miles completed.

This is probably the only time this season I'll race on the Stagsden course (see Garmin trace below), as I was away cycle touring on the previous occasion this year. The evening was marred by an exceptionally heavy shower - but let's face it, that's pretty much par for the course for this season. I rode up via Astwood, and it was at Astwood that the deep black clouds caught me and I rode along the A422 towards the meeting point in one of the heaviest showers I can remember ever having been riding a bike in. By the time I arrived to sign on, I was completely and utterly drenched, from head to toe. My colleagues were all warmly ensconced in motor vehicles and took some delight in seeing me squelch into view. Fortunately that was all the rain I experienced that evening, but the roads were pretty wet throughout.From the start, this course always feels tough, as the road rises gently towards Astwood and beyond. This evening was no exception, particularly as there was a stiff head wind. Indeed, I felt as though I was riding through mush as my speed dropped. But once past Astwood, things felt a bit better, even though my speed wasn't that great. Up the hill to Chicheley and on to the turn roundabout. From the turn, things got much better. With the tail wind my speed picked up - I noticed 34 mph at one point.I squelched on past the finish, recording 23:19, which I was quite pleased with. I was closer to Tony that I've been on recent outings, though we were all somewhat eclipsed by Jason Gurney's excellent ride.Results (at northbucksroadclub.org.uk)

It was always on the cards that tonight's event stood the risk of being dominated by the weather, and so it transpired. But it was beyond just being wet! Riding up to Astwood in sunshine, I could see deep black clouds heading my way, despite the essentially sunny conditions I was cycling in. When I arrived to sign on, most of the riders (there were 17 mad fools there) were all looking a bit apprehensively at the glowering horizon, with much talk of hailstones falling nearby.By the time the first riders started, the wind had dropped, but while I was 'warming up', the temperature had fallen noticeably. However, the wind whipped up wildly a couple of minutes before I was due to start, and by the time I set off conditions were, shall we say, less than favourable. Emerging onto the road to Chicheley, I found myself battered by gales strong enough to not only slow me almost to a standstill, but to make my bike really rather difficult to steer. But then it got worse...First, a few rain drops, then the hail started. Under the dark clouds, I could not discern any of the numbers on my bike computer. I had no idea how fast (or rather, how slow) I was going. I had no idea what my heart rate was. In fact, by the time the rain was evading my glasses and the lenses had steamed up, I could barely see where I was going.I pressed on to the Chicheley turn, which I took very gingerly. The next stretch up to North Crawley seemed quite speedy.  But I really had no grip on how I was going! From North Crawley I felt it was heavy going, and each bend was taken cautiously. Finally, I reached the descent before the final climb. I roared down as best I could, buffeted by wind and rain (fortunately the hail had stopped in favour of heavy rain), and ground up the climb to the finish. Still unable to read my computer, I waited for the result.25:30Possibly my worst time on that course that I can recall. I blame the ghastly conditions. Still, we'll see how I get on at the weekend, when I'm supposed to ride the API Metrow '25' on the E2/25. Last weekend's VC10 '10' was cancelled due to roadworks: this weekend's weather is forecast to be rather wet, so we shall see whether the '25' goes ahead...P.S. I failed to report on last week's two-lap event at Astwood - I'll write that up out of sequence maybe.

Strangely, there wasn't even a whiff of rain for this event, which was in itself something that marked the event as a bit special, at least for 2012. The other unusual factor was that we had as scratch rider the current British time trial champion and Team Sky professional Alex Dowsett. Apparently he'd ridden a '10' the previous afternoon, recording a shortish 18.As I warmed up for the event, two things were quickly apparent: firstly, it was actually quit cold just before 7am and secondly, there was quite a stiff breeze whistling across the fields. This promised to make the southbound legs of the event rather tiresomely tough. Well, at least for us lesser mortals in the field!And so it proved. The initial short southbound leg to the Sandy roundabout undulates a bit, so I found the speed quite high at times, but predominantly I found the head wind a bit of a bother. Once round the Sandy roundabout, things perked up considerably, and I headed northwards a a decent speed. David Jones was there snapping riders as they passed.[caption id="attachment_1965" align="aligncenter" width="469" caption="Just after the Sandy turn (photo David Jones)"][/caption]One issue that concerned the organisers had been the closure of the M1 near J12 (to remove a now superfluous bridge) and the re-routing of some of the M1 traffic via the A1. Busy traffic near the Black Cat was expected. As it happened, traffic levels weren't too bad, I thought, at any point. I reached the Buckden turn in about 34 minutes - from here it's about 10 miles to the finish. But those 10 miles were pretty tough going. Oddly, there were spells where I was fairly whizzing along. But mostly I was grovelling. And at times finding the steering rather twitchy in the wind.Shortly after the Buckden turn, I was contemplating a finish time substantially over the hout, but as I crossed the Black Cat once again, I was entertaining hopes that I might squeak a sub-hour ride. But I crossed the line in a disappointing 1:00:15. Mind you, that's the fastest of the three '25's that I've ridden this year. As for my mate Tony, he did a long 56. Next weekend sees my first ride on the new cheatie '10' course on the Tring bypass.And what of Alex Dowsett? 47:53. He won. An excellent ride...

A warm sunny and quite still evening this week: how unusual that felt! I rode over to Stony Stratford via the V10 redways, which is always a navigational challenge (but the traffic on V10 seemed quite heavy). At one point in an underpass, I got off the bike to avoid trailing through broken glass, and got talking to a group of four kids who seemed interested in the bike. After letting them look at it (and feel its weight - or rather lack of it), I carried on my way. Later, at the time trial, other riders ventured the opinion that this was unwise - but actually they were pretty good-natured kids, and quite young. Anyway, I reached the signing on just in time to get a start one minute before Tony. So, I knew I'd get caught, question was - when?I set off in as good a style as possible, with the instructions from the start crew that I wasn't to let Tony catch me. That may have been intended as encouraging, but frankly it would have taken a puncture to avoid the catch! Anyway, I successfully negotiated the crappy road surface into Beachampton, where the worst and deepest potholes appear to have been filled, rode through the ruts and holes as I exited Beachampton, then began the climb up to Nash. This time, I chose to moderate my gears. Did this help? Not a bit - I still suffered and grovelled up to Nash. Once through Nash I tried to settle into a better rhythm and avoid an early catch. But to no avail, Tony rolled past at pretty much the same point as the last time we rode this course. Never mind, I thought, he didn't keep pulling away so fast last time. But what was this? Tony roared off like a bat out of hell, and not even descending like a stone from Nash could keep him in sight! Clearly either Tony was on song, or I was going backward. Or both.In any event, I finished in third place out of 12 with 27:43. This is marginally quicker than the last time I rode at Stony Stratford, back in May, but frankly nothing to shout about. Ho hum!Results

Pos	No	Name	Club	Time	Cat	Vets Std	.+ / -	Vets Std
1	11	Tony Parks	NBRC	26.08	V47	31.53	.+ 5.45	1
2	12	Geoff Perry	TeamMK	27.17	V52	32.18	.+ 5.01	2
3	10	Rob Saunders	NBRC	27.43	V52	32.18	.+ 4.35	3
4	8	Lindz Barral	www.twenty3c.co.uk	27.51	S
5	5	Lee Goodman	TeamMK	27.55	S
6	3	Julian Lane	NBRC	28.03	V45	31.43	.+ 3.40	4
7	9	Kevin Stokes	TeamMK	28.39	V49	32.03	.+ 3.24	5
8	7	Mick Atkinson	TeamMK	29.17	V43	31.32	.+ 2.15	6
9	2	Jason Lee	TeamMK	29.30	V43	31.32	.+ 2.02	7
10	1	Alan Lawson	NBRC	33.41	V44	31.37	.- 2.04	9
11	6	Paul Woodham	Bossard Wheelers	34.00	V61	33.09	.- 0.51	8
	4	Chris Dunwoodie	TeamMK	DNF	S

 

This was a rare outing to the F20/10, a course based on the A20 dual carriageway near Ware. This course is where I set my best time in the last three seasons, back in 2010 - 21:05. Since that season, it's fair to say my performances have been rather lacklustre. Tony and I set off for the Hertfordshire Wheelers event on a rather cold and blustery evening - hoping that the wind was coming from a direction that would provide at least some assistance at some point. To add to our worries, rain was threatened...We reached the HQ in Great Amstell in good time for our start times (19:32 and 19:43), got the bikes and ourselves set up then rode out to warm up. The roads around the course were pretty busy and this, together with darkening skies (black clouds had been building) gave me considerable cause for concern. At least I had remembered my rear light - but what help thst would offer on arather busy road wad by no means clear, and I'd begjn to worry about safety on the way over to the race. Maybe I'm getting old!  As we warmed up, the rain began...Eventually I reached the start. I was a bit early, but I didn't fancy negotiating the Rush Green flyover too many times. I talked to my minute man. Turned out he'd had to return to fhe HQ to change his skinsuit after oiks in a passing car had flung tomato ketchup over him. This didn't really help my general lack of enthusiasm and worry. All too soon, I was being held by the pusheroff as the timekeeper counted down. Pretty quickly I was up to speed. I think - with my (very lightly) tinted glasses coupled with my general need for reading specs (especially in low light) and the gloomy conditions I found myself riding in, I found it difficult if not impossible to read my bike computer. Unfortunately, and while one certainly couldn't accuse the F20/10 of being a hilly course, soon after the start there's a gentle rise. I decided to just try and muscle my way over, but this was at the cost of a considerable drop in speed, and a bit of an oxygen debt, which took a while to clear. the rest of the outward leg wasn't too bad, despite the head wind, at least in terms of gradient. Unfortunately, there was quite a bit of traffic coming on and off the course on the slip roads, and this made me very nervous. I don't really see that peering over my shoulder would actually have had any benefit, but it certainly took the edge off my speed. Overall, it all combined to make it difficult to stay focussed on my ride.As I rode up the slip road to the turn, I heard an ominous carbon fibre rumble as #104 caught me for a minute. I rode round the turn trying to stay back - this was quite good (it forced me to review my pace) - it wasn't until well after we returned to the dual carriageway that he started to pull away again fast. The big blow was that the return leg was rather sheltered from any beneficial effects of the wind, so there wasn't really any help. I was left feeling rather grateful that I was only riding a '10', and not some longer distance. The rain built a bit as I approached finish - in 22:35. Not a good result by any stretch of the imagination. How much of that was down to poor form and how much to my lack of mental focus I'm not sure (probably both), but I really need to work on this.

Good grief, a sunny evening for a club '10'! This was perhaps the warmest time trial I've ridden all year. I was surprised it didn't bring out more riders, but I wonder whether we're suffering a bit of competition from the VC10's Wednesday club events on the fast Tring course (F11/10), which I think attracted some regular riders.Anyway, despite feeling a bit tired after trailing over to Uxbridge for most of the day, I was feeling fairly comfortable on the ride over to Astwood. It was a pretty good evening with only a light wind, which promised to make the return leg a little harder. But of course, it meant the first three or four miles to Chicheley, usually the quickest part of the course were likely to be even quicker than usual. And so it proved. Actually, this was only disturbed (for me, at least) by a motorcyclist who roared past me very close and very loud, and who nearly made me jump out of the saddle!It wasn't until the North Crawley turn that I found it hard to keep the speed up - after the T-junction it's always a bit of an effort to get one's speed back up, and tonight seemed worse than usual. But after that it was business as usual.I finished with 23:46, a reasonably time, though the top three riders came in over a minute quicker than that (and some had course PBs). I'm over to ride the F20 on an evening event on Saturday - it'll be interesting to see how that goes as it's quite a fast course. I may bring out the lighter wheels for that event!Results (over at the NBRC website) 

This is an event I enter each year, and is the only event which uses the somewhat peculiar F13/25. I say peculiar, because it features pedestrian crossing traffic lights on the course. To add insult to injury, said traffic lights are immediately outside a police station in Waddesden. Other than that, the course is quite straightforward, and while not exactly hilly is sufficiently lumpy to make it one of the slower courses I ride each year. The 2012 edition of the event featured a new HQ in Ambrosden (the regular HQ in Launton having been booked), and had been altered to avoid new traffic lights. So the main A41 section turned at the new Parkway roundabout, and the section on the B4011 to the finish correspondingly extended. The day before saw spectacularly windy conditions and, while the wind had certainly lessened, it was clearly going to be a problem.As I foresaw, the outward leg was in general slightly wind-assisted, and the return leg correspondingly difficult. What I hadn't remembered (at least in how bad it was) was the poor state of the road, ranging from cracked and lumpy tarmac to downright dangerous potholes. This actually wasn't too bad in safety terms (as long as one kept a sharp look out), though I never like riding over crappy tarmac.The first climb comes about 3.5 miles from the start, but it's far from the only one. Indeed  the bending nature of the road made some sections hard even on the outward leg. Once again, I wasn't stopped at the traffic lights in either direction. Traffic was pretty light, so I experienced no real hold ups. The last section on the B4011 was a bit tougher than I expected - I went roaring off after the turn down a gentle descent, but then road turned up slightly and I was left gasping and wondering where the finish was. I ended up with 1:00:35 for 13th place (6th on standard) out of 45, which I was reasonably happy with, given that normally only just break the hour on a good day. Mind you, the winner did 51:31!  

Along with the website update, I finally got around to sorting out the report of our 2012 Summer Tour (click the Cycling menu item above and select 2012).  I suppose this was almost a Spring tour, as we had to set off quite early due to work commitments. On the other hand, I think this was 9 days of rain-free cycling, and possibly our first tour in which we had no rain. Despite the dates we cycled, we did encounter some midgies - but they weren't really much of an issue. During the nine days, starting and finishing in Oban, we visited Barra, Eriskay, South Uist, Benbecula, North Uist, Harris, Lewis, Skye and Mull. We made nine ferry crossings! Almost every B&B had free WiFi, making this our most connected tour - we took along an iPad to plan routes using Google Maps, to check weather forecasts and on one occasion find out about a road closure. The road closure was suspended because of the Queen's Silver Jubilee.