This turned out to be be one of my poorest 10 mile performances I can recall. In my defence, I can say that I was still under the weather from the cold that knocked last week's racing on the head.Today was really rather cold. Not as who should say sub-zero or frosty, but that awful nagging clammy sort of cold that seems to be unusually penetrating.  I rode over the the HQ for this course (a social club in Marston Moretaine), as the F15/10 is about as local a course as there could be for me.  The start is about 3 miles from the HQ, and well sign posted by the organisers.  Still, by the time riders reached the start at the top of Brogborough Hill, most were complaining of the cold. Indeed, the pusher-off was complaining of cold hands - apparently due to a metal frame (these do seem to be becoming as rare as hens' teeth!).Anyway, at the allotted time, off I went, rapidly accelerating down Brogborough Hill.  One of the attractions of this course (which I was riding for the first time) is that riders don't ascend the hill on the return leg. Anyway, by the time I reached the bottom, I was really very cold, and upon reaching the level part of the course I was required to pedal.  It was at this point that the after effects of last week's illness became manifest. I had nothing there. My legs felt just hollow.  The head wind in the outward leg was cold and rather problematic, but I think the main problem was a near complete lack of strength.  In fact, I nearly packed within the first two miles.  But I pressed on, noting the slow speed.  I was caught by #16 before the turn, and by #17 on the return leg.  The return leg was a bit swifter as the wind was assisting, but at no stage was I likely to do a halfway decent performance.  I crossed the line in about 24:45, possibly the worst performance in an open '10' I can recall.Still, at least I've made a return to racing. And there is a season ahead of me.  The coming week sees a midweek club '10' and the Beds Road CC '25' on the F1B/25 on Sunday 15th April.

As I write this, I'm looking out at the weather, which seems to me to be a glorious morning for a time trial - brilliant sunshine with a gentle breeze, albeit a little chilly judging by the frost on the grass.  And about now (8am), I should be getting the last of my kit together before cycling over to the race HQ.  So, what's the problem?  Another blasted cold, that's what - I learnt my lesson about training and racing with a cold a few years ago.  This gave rise to Team Grumpy's fifth rule:

Never train or race with a bad cough - it will destroy your entire season.

As you might gather, I have indeed caught another cold. It's intensely frustrating, particularly as the Icknield 30k is my usual season-opener open event.  I do hope this doesn't foreshadow another wretched season beset by illness.

I woke to find rather thick fog, but by the time came to ride up to this week's North Bucks Road Club club event on the Astwood course the fog had pretty much lifted. The same could not be said, however, for Astwood and the time trial course, were the fog was thicker than ever.After a bit of consultation, it was decided to cancel the event due to poor visibility.Oh, and the title refers to my puncture en route to Astwood. This would have been my third event of the 2012 season, and my second puncture while riding to or warming up for an event. 2012 may be shaping up to be classic puncture year.

 I woke to a grey drizzly morning, and then the weather deteriorated into quite heavy showers.  So it was with a distinct lack of enthusiasm that I pedalled up to Astwood for this morning's club time trial.  In fact, by the time I reached the course meeting point, the rain had eased quite a bit (but I was pretty wet and dirty by then).  But the wet and blustery conditions seemed to have deterred most riders, as only four turned out: a pair from Team Corley, Ian  from Chronos RT, and me.  And I was the only rider on a time trial bike.Heading out from the start, I got stopped after only a few yards, due to a line of traffic on the course. I got rolling again, to find that I was fighting a blustery wind all the way down to the first turn at Chicheley.  Never mind, I thought, it'll be easier after the turn.  It wasn't.  In fact the blustery wind didn't seem to give much assistance anywhere, and I felt I made quite slow progress what with taking the corners rather gingerly due to the wet roads, and dodging considerable numbers of muddy patches left by tractors.I finished in 24:42, which I'm quite pleased with... After a short chat with Tony after the event, the rain was back, so I hurriedly cycled back home to get cleaned up. 

Pos	No	Name	Club	Time	Cat	Vets Std	.+ / -	Vets Std
Two up TTT
1	2	Matt Jones	Team Corley Cycles	22.59	S
	1	Mike Smith	Team Corley Cycles		S
Solo TT
1	4	Rob Saunders	NBRC	24.42	V52	26.51	+ 2.09	1
2	3	Ian Markham	Chronos RT	28.08	S

I never upgraded from the first generation iPad to the second. I thought the second generation was more of a generation 1.5. But I was sorely tempted by the upcoming 3G iPad. Indeed, the improved cameras and retina display were what swung it for me, and yesterday I received my shiny new gadget. These are my first observations.First, that retina display. It's astounding. But not so much for photographs as for text. Where on my 1G iPad I had to do quite a bit of zooming to read fine print, the text is spectacularly sharp and clear. And when I return to my MacBook display, it seems pretty poor by comparison ( but not so my very old Sony Vaio Ubuntu laptop, which has tiny pixels).Second, the cameras. Friends tell me that the images captured are significantly better. Frankly, using the iPad as a camera is likely to be something of a minority activity (for me at least), but it makes it possible to use FaceTime.Third, the battery. The iFixit guys show that the interior of the device is mostly filled with battery, about twice the capacity of the second generation model. It does seem to take longer to charge, but the extra battery capacity seems to be needed by the screen, so battery life isn't improved.Fourth, the 3G model seems much snappier than the 1G model.So far, happy with the upgrade from 1G to 3G.

 As is now usual, Team Grumpy prepared intensively for the 48h prior to this event: a preparation which entails consumption of takeaway curry and Belgian beer.  We woke on the morning of the event feeling surprisingly chipper considering the quantity of preparation, and were somewhat disappointed to see thick fog blanketing southern Wales.  Fortunately the weather lifted, leaving clear sunny conditions with a light but rising wind.Team Grumpy performed pretty much as we expected: a good showing of 2-up technique with our overall speed hampered by inadequate training (illness and injury most recently).  That being said, we kept up a pretty good pace over the first half of the event, which is held on a section of dual carriageway, and really only found the second half, which is on an older road with a pretty damaged road surface and quite a bit of climbing a bit challenging - it was here that we found the defects in our preparation exposed.We crossed the line in 1:01:25, fairly respectable we thought - until we saw the winners did a long 53!  Our ride was enlivened by a puncture while warming up (Robert) and an unshipped chain at about 18 miles (Gerry), but was otherwise uneventful.

1	K DAVIES & R PAYNE	BYNEA CC PORTH & DISTRICT	00:53:42
2	J LEWIS & H PRICE	PORT TALBOT WHS	00:55:10
3	W BEVAN & J PILE	ROSS ON WYE CC VC SEVALE	00:56:39
4	J ASPEL & N CRAIG	FORZA CC	00:56:53
5	R HICKS & C WALLACE	PORT TALBOT WHS MERTHYR CC	00:58:09
6	B PHILLIPS & M PHILLIPS	BYNEA CC	00:58:55
7	C JONES & K JONES	M & D / KINETICA	00:59:05
8	R AICHELER & J PRITCHARD	CASTLE BIKES PORT TALBOT WHS	00:59:56
9	G GILES & I REES	PONTYPOOL RCC	01:00:09
10	S BENT & A MEAR	LUDLOW CC	01:00:18
11	C MATTHEWS & R WHITE	FORZA CC	01:00:27
12	J FRANKLIN & D GOUGH	SWANSEA WHS	01:00:49
13	M PORTLOCK & M WILLIAMS	VC L’ESCARGOT	01:01:11
14	G ORAM & R SAUNDERS	BYNEA CC NORTH BUCKS RC	01:01:25

Andrew Lansley continued his push for the NHS bill (which many view as the latest Tory effort to take down the NHS) with another secret hospital visit this week.  Here's a video of him being heckled through the corridors of the Royal Free Hospital.[youtube IBZMTWk1OgI]

Last year, when bemused physicists reported the apparent discovery of faster than light neutrinos, a shock wave ran through the news media, despite professional physicists the world over pointing out that it was almost certainly a technical cockup (ISTR the original experimenters suggested such). In the bizarre world of creationism, the potential upset to such a well-entrenched scientific theory as Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity was seen as evidence that the whole edifice of evolutionary biology was teetering on the brink. Here for example is a brief piece by David Klinghoffer at the oddly named Evolution News and Views (which is a mouthpiece for Intelligent Design creationism) - "Another One Bites the Dust?". Here, Klinghoffer makes a very brief point:

If you think Darwin's theory of evolution is as secure as Einstein's theory of special relativity, well...maybe you're right. [followed by a slightly longer quotation from The Guardian]

Since the judgement was sent down (finally) on Alberto Contador's clenbuterol case, quite a few stories have emerged detailing commentators' views on the matter.  The other day the Pez Cycling news website featured a comment article with which I pretty much agree (The Contador Case: What's Missing)

In the welter of knee jerk reactions to judge/condemn Contador and/or criticize the UCI, the real issues of this situation are being missed [...]

The author does, I think make valid points about whether Contador's guilt has been established beyond reasonable doubt, and adds to this the oddly variable sanctions following clenbuterol positives that have  been applied to athletes in a variety of sports (see for example this case of youth footballers in Mexico).I would add my often-stated position that any system where a positive result can be returned for any level level of a proscribed substance, even where the level is below the sensitivity required of a testing lab must necessarily be unfair as whether a sample comes up positive becomes a lottery depending on which lab the sample was sent to for analysis.  This is an issue that will return again and again.

Cyclingnews.com today reports that yet again Alberto Contador has had a delay in the announcement by CAS of a verdict in his astonishingly long-running doping affair (Contador Verdict Expected Today | Cyclingnews.com). I cannot believe the ineptitude of all concerned in handling this case, and I'm surprised Contador can maintain his equanimity.My own view is that the regulatory structures around clenbuterol testing are such that for individuals with vanishingly small amounts of clenbuterol in their system, guilt or innocence becomes something of a lottery, depending on which testing lab the sample were sent to - any clenbuterol is enough for guilt, even where the amount found is lower than the sensitivity required of a testing lab.In the mean time, all those blood-doping athletes who were customers of Dr Fuentes (and for one reason or another escaped immediate action) carry on regardless.Update: The announcement is on the CAS web page. Apparently the decision will be handed down on 6th February.  Maybe.  Or maybe not.  The CAS announcement concludes:

A confirmation as to the date and time of the publication of the decision will be given by the CAS at the end of this week.

In reponse to the latest crawling from a Student Union over the recent Jesus and Mo fracas, and indeed the recent example of intimidation at an event featuring a dicussion of sharia law and women's rights:

Velonews reports that CAS is to delay the announcement on their verdict on Jan Ullrich's involvement in the Operacion Puerto blood doping ring. (CAS to delay Ullrich verdict)

The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) notified the 1997 Tour de France winner yesterday that it has extended the deadline for its final ruling until February 10, 2012.

Road.cc reports that Alberto Contador clenbuterol case decision delayed till the end of January.  This is insane.  How long will it take to resolve this situation?  And will a decision that has been delayed for so long really be justice?For some time now I've been concerned about how clenbuterol levels are set for testing labs, and how this could end up be a lottery depending on which testing lab samples are sent to.I have posted several times on the Contador case.

Way back in late November, Apple announced that some first generation iPod Nano models had defective batteries that represented a hazard, and that they had instituted a replacement programme. Visiting the website revealed that mine was one of those to be replaced. My Nano hadn't really been used much since I got an iPod Touch (now replaced with a Cowon X7), but I requested the return package, and in due course posted the iPod off to Apple.Much discussion ensued as to what the device would be replaced with.  Some web sources implied Apple were replacing the defective units with refurbished first generation devices, other that the replacement units would be more recent models.My replacement was delivered yesterday, and I can confirm that Apple have replaced my 1st gen 2Gb Nano (left) with a 6th gen 8Gb Nano (right).I've not really kept up with the evolution of iPods, and frankly I'm astonished by this little device.  And it is little.  At first sight it seems little bigger than the sync cable plug.  Despite its size, it still has a battery capable of [up to] 24h music playback (according to Apple) and an accelerometer so tracks can be changed by shaking it.  It has a number of apps installed including a clock, meaning it can be used as a watch if it's clipped to a strap.  It has a radio, which uses the headphone cable as an aerial.  There's no navigation dial, but the touch screen is pretty intuitive and easy to use (in fact after years of iPod Touch and iPad use, I don't find the iPod classic control dial particularly easy).All in all, I'm rather pleased.  Even though this is another device that uses iTunes.Update: I was curious as to how Apple managed to shoehorn all this stuff inside such a small case. iFixit has an interesting iPod Nano 6th Generation Teardown.

Cyclingnews.com reports Valv. (Piti) is back in the pro peloton after serving his ban for involvement in the Fuentes Affair (Valverde: I Didn’t Do Anything Wrong | Cyclingnews.com).  But professing innocence.  Interesting given the match between his DNA and the DNA in the Valv. (Piti) blood bags recovered during Operacion Puerto.

A blood sample taken on the rest day of the 2008 Tour de France in Italy would ultimately prove to be Valverde’s undoing, albeit after a lengthy legal process. In 2009, the Italian Olympic Committee banned Valverde from competition in Italy after matching his DNA to blood bags seized in Operacion Puerto. On May 31, 2010, CAS finally upheld appeals from the UCI and WADA to have his ban extended worldwide, four years after Fuentes was first arrested.

 New Year's Day turned out to be surprisingly warm, which came as something of a relief to me, just emerging from a major cold that had laid me low from taking any exercise since the middle of December.  The cyclists who congregated outside the NBRC clubroom as notified via the club website seemed to me to be rather crocked on the whole - many had been suffering from colds, and Lindz had had a rather nasty prang involving a pedestrian and significant muscular damage to his leg.  Also of note was the complete lack of timekeepers and pushers-off.  Shortly after 9.30, we decided they must have gone straight to the start area of the event, so we all pushed off down there.Fortunately, we did have a start team (Tony and Bryan), and we all signed on.  We were warned about a diesel spill at the first roundabout; in actual fact something appeared to have travelled the entire course slopping diesel all over the place (the smell of diesel was strong, even in the strong wind) and most riders took the event quite gingerly.It had been so long since my last time trial (which I think may have been the Duo Normand back in September) that I quite forgot to check my gears before starting: I therefore ended up starting in the small ring, and then wasting significant time trying to persuade the chain up onto the big ring after I'd started.  We had a significant head wind on the outward section, even after turning onto the dual carriageway section, where there was enough crosswind to make my front H3 rather twitchy at times.  Fortunately, things got a bit easier once round the turn.  I had been nervously eyeing up my HR, and occasionally felt it prudent to ease back when it reached higher levels.Back off the dual carriageway, and I tried to take maximal advantage of the descent (somewhat thwarted by the road diesel) with the tail wind.  I crossed the line in 24:37, which I felt was quite good given the conditions and my recent bout of ill-health.  It was also enough to take the win.  Just in case, I had taken note of Team Grumpy rules #1 ("Remember to make your excuses before the race, not after. Otherwise it will just sound pathetic". - specifically noting the first ride with the Pro Disc wheel and my recent illness)  and #5 ("Never train or race with a bad cough - it will destroy your entire season." - if I'd still had that racking cough, I would certainly not have raced).Results are at the NBRC website. 

Frankly, I have little interest in the overblown spectacle that the modern Olympics has become.  I will of course try and watch the cycling events on the TV, but otherwise it leaves me rather cold.  Over at road.cc, I see the headline Ninety-two-year-old who helped bring women's cycling to Olympics to carry London 2012 torch.  An interesting headline, so I popped over to read the article.  It turns out that the 92-year old is none other than Eileen Gray.  Oddly, the article is written as though the author hadn't heard of Eileen Gray before!  Indeed, I noticed the omission of her name from the article title, which relegated her to the description "ninety-two-year-old".For what it's worth, I'm delighted at this news.  Gray was particularly important in the development of international women's cycling, and this is a deserved honour.  Here's an interview at the British Cycling website.  

New Statesman - Richard Dawkins to guest-edit the New Statesman Christmas issue

In a 100-page special issue, the evolutionary biologist and bestselling author Richard Dawkins brings together some of the world's leading scientists, thinkers and writers.

Xkcd's cartoon today on Christmas songs and baby-boomers in the USA.  But of course we in the UK favour Slade!

Ove the last few years, I've dabbled in Facebook, but frankly never really wanted to share all the trivia of my life with others, and nor did I want to know the trivia of other peoples' lives.  Periodically, Facebook seemed to make changes to the privacy settings of the system, and therefore my account, and I have been getting increasingly annoyed at having to delve into what's frankly quite an arcane settings system to rectify the situation.So after news reports of what seemed to me to be a rather intrusive set of changes to the way Facebook streams trivia and tittle-tattle between users, I decided to suspend my Facebook account.  In part this decision stemmed from the stories about Facebook's cookies tracking users' web activity in a way that was rather difficult to close down.  I chose to suspend rather than delete my account because I thought that perhaps I would want to return to the fold, and read updates on peoples' lives, their travails, and above all their bonkers Facebook games.  Well, perhaps not the latter.It's been over a month now, and I've not missed Facebook at all.  But.  I notice that some web companies such as Spotify now require a Facebook account to register.  This is no big deal to me, my music listening habits aren't really going to benefit from Spotify membership - while I think I've increasingly embraced the digital music era, the way I think of and listen to my music collection is somewhat rooted in a vinyl LP mindset.However, during my daily perambulations round the internet I follow a good many links, many of these to news sites where the comments are often of interest.  In general, I tend not to leave comments of my own (unless it's a subject I'm particularly interested in), but I often like to see what the regular readers of the site have to say.  Some sites I've visited recently have required readers to have a Facebook login - not only to post comments, but in some cases to read comments.This is a little sad, I think.  It's assuming all internet users are going to buy into the loss of privacy that the Facebook mindset leads to.(The links to Facebook on this site currently point to a page saying "This content is currently unavailable" - if and when I finally knock my Facebook account on the head, those links will go).