Sunday 1st May La Ronan Pensec 155 kms
Sunday 15th May La Broceliande 165 kms
Sunday 29th May La Cyclo du Pays de Lorient 160 kms
Saturday 11th June La Jean Francois Rault 160 kms
Saturday 18th June La Georges Groussard 150 kms
Saturday 25th June La Pierre le Bigaut 155 kms

As a lot of you know, we've been trying it out as a venue for the last few weeks. In the end, there was no contest. The new place has an infinitely better ambience, it's warm, there's a bar that also serves tea and coffee, a room to put our bikes in and that we can use for committee meetings, roller racing, jumble sales etc., and off-street parking. There's also the fact that, as a Penzance club, it makes sense to have our clubhouse in Penzance. Oh, and there's a huge screen on which, I'm sure, we can watch cycling vids and, come July, the Tour.

In case anyone was wondering (like me) that we might be 'camping out' at a footy club that has nothing to do with cycling, well, it's their intention to not be seen exclusively as a soccer club - rather than as a club catering for a number of sports. In this regard, it suits us perfectly.

We will look into getting a sign put up outside that reads Penzance Wheelers Cycling Club.

The start point for Club Runs will remain unchanged - Long Rock.

So, why not come along on a Monday evening and sample it for yourself? The Guinness is fine and slow-pouring.

There were twenty four riders going coast to coast, and other riders joined us for one or more weeks, so that at any one time we could have as many as 55 riders. Aged ranged from 22 to 75, and about a quarter of the riders were women. There were eleven staff, who worked and rode on alternate days.

I had only twice before ridden more than 90 miles in a day, and my usual rides are 25-50 miles, and not on consecutive days, so this was a real challenge for me. The first week was particularly difficult, because I was not only coping with an eight-hour time difference, but the area was experiencing a heat wave. The temperature hit the high forties on several days, and two people had to be taken to hospital for IV drips.

The ride was well organised with all meals provided, and our belongings moved on each day. Most overnight stops were at schools, so there was usually the option to sleep on the gym floor or else to pitch our tents on the playing field. Each evening there was a meeting where the next day’s route would be discussed, and a sheet with detailed instructions would be given out. The route was also marked with yellow arrows spray-painted on the road, so it was fairly difficult to get lost. We could ride at whatever pace we liked providing we maintained a minimum of ten miles an hour (including stops). A support vehicle patrolled up and down the route as we rode, and could be stopped if necessary for help with mechanical problems, or even to get a ride. (I rode the whole way, but about a quarter of the coast-to-coast riders took at least part of one day off, and some much more.)

It is undoubtedly one of the best experiences of my life both on and off the bike. I’d recommend it to anyone as a great way to see America. It’s also a great way to develop your lungs and legs, while having a great time.

Lloyds mail (below) has raised many fine points concerning the sport in general and time trialling in particular, the latter does not have the high glamour aspect of le tour but neither does a Premier Calendar RR in Port Talbot. Hell knows I am the most anti TT 'roadie' you will ever meet, I agree that the sport of Time-Trialling needs a good shake, it is anally obsessed with fast times on course of exact differences, just to fan the flames a little more, would it really matter if the course was only 9.75 miles long? Does it matter if one course is 30 sec slower than another? Does it matter if the prevailing wind is a south-westerly on the longer leg of the course? What does matter is that on any given day a competition is taking place and you can go out and have a go and easily measure any improvements you make. If you speak to any of the guys in the south-west who race week in, week out (unlike me this season) and they will all blush up with embarrassment and eventually admit that they ride TT's, but as a means to an end i.e. as training and training makes you better.

I agree with Lloyd in that how does the CTT (that's the RTTC to all you old school sorts) attract this mythical 80% of kids out into our sport and the answer is that it probably doesn't. But what can the clubs of the SW do that's different?

It is ironic that amongst all this fervent dismissal of Time Trialling, who are the pro's who constantly get mentioned on every club riders hero list? Lance Armstrong, Jan Ullrich, Tyler Hamilton all of whom are pretty accomplished testers and doing the odd TT hasn't hurt them competitively or financially.

For the sake of further lively debate:

Who was the last none tester to win the Tour? The much missed Marco Pantani?

The difficulty lies in getting people to ride bikes in the first place. If more people did that, by the simple law of averages a percentage of them will gravitate to racing. This would in turn create the demand to put races on.

There’s no way time-trailing is going to increase the number of people who race. On the contrary, it contributes to decreasing numbers. Why? because the whole thing is dead from the neck up. Early starts: pointless now that traffic-flow at 7am on a Sunday resembles that at any other time of day. Course codes: meaningless except to those in the know. Look at the form-filling for an open time trial – who in their right mind could be bothered with that?

Cycling’s moved on. Whilst the RTTC were doing things like banning people for life for riding the wrong way over a start line or some such crap, cyclists who actually wanted to enjoy themselves took up mountain biking, BMX and triathlon. This week, newspapers reported that 80% of children would rather ride their bikes than play football. Well, if I was one of those 80% and my first experience of competition was a typical ‘10’ or ‘25’, I’d sell my bike and go and do another sport.

The reason people pay a shed-load of money to go abroad and ride a Cyclosportif is precisely because it’s cycling as it should be – camaraderie, a sense of achievement, riding in a peloton, safe roads, motorcycle marshalls, great crack when you finish, and so on. Time trialing is none of those things. People want to emulate Armstrong and Virenque, not some dragstrip-obsessed northerner they’ve never heard of who can barely walk erect but who’s just shaved 2 seconds off his PB on the Q10-56.

As for road racing, I know that, when I turn up to ride a Wheelers Crit at Portreath, I’ll get caned by the likes of Sluman, Polkinghorne et al. That’s fine, ‘cos I know what I’m in for. I know as soon as I sign on that I haven’t a hope in hell. I don’t care, but anyone trying a road-race for the first time certainly would care. They’d be totally demoralised.

Newcomers want to know, at least at some level, that they can compete. It comes back to more people just riding bikes in the first place. If you have, say, 40 cyclists, of whom 20 are at roughly one level of ability and 20 at another, you could put on two road races – one for each group. That’s two more road races than exist at present. The participants in each would all stand a chance of winning, of not being burnt off within 30 seconds by the first cats, of not being lapped, of not being demoralised, of not thinking f**k this for a lark, I’m not racing again.

He states that the only reason the old course was stopped was because it meant a time-keeper standing in a 'clear-way' which is apparently a traffic offence!!!

He does however raise a very valid point that whilst we are all very critical of the CTT decisions no-one from our area attends the meetings, my suggestion is that as people as possible try to communicate with Ken on this matter, ask questions, suggest alternative course etc and we must get at least 1 representative from each club in West Cornwall to the next meeting and air our views because if we don't others may railroad through changes for courses they doesn't use. If I am available (ie. not away on business) for the next meeting I will gladly drive club reps to the meeting, no charge or maybe for the cost of a pint on the way back.

Walked down the steps to collect the hire bike and looked up to see Chris Hoy warming down on his rollers. Up the ramp and there is Jason Queally and Jamie Staff. Jason Queally then showed off his team pursuit skills. He quickly left the track as soon as us novices were let loose. "Fixed wheel, no problem errr!!"Pretty soon we were flying around the banking. It was superb being there doing what I'd seen the big boys doing during the Commonwealth Games and for them to be there before leaving for the Olympics. Look out for any pictures of Queally, during a trackside interview the photographer waited for us to be behind him to take the photo. I had my camera with me but didn't want to disturb any of their warm downs. I'm afraid I didn't even wish them good luck (Hoy has just won Gold so no loss there!!) I'm just not pushy enough.

At 1980 metres, the Semnoz towers above Lake Annecy. A few days earlier I’d climbed it from the other direction, up the switchback roads of the Col de Leschaux. It took me two hours. This time, on the Randonnee, we tackle it from the other side, up through the town of Quintal – 25 kilometres of pure uphill, some of it 16%.

There’s no route map; instead, arrows have been painted on the road and on kerbstones at all the turnings. Having collected my card, I set off.

The lower slopes of the mountain are nicely wooded, which offers some protection from the heat of the June morning. The gradient, however, starts to bite from the very beginning, and I’m out of the saddle constantly. In ones and twos I catch and pass other riders, occasionally gasping out a muted ‘bonjour.’

I catch a guy and we ride at the same pace to the top. The summit is shrouded in cloud, something I’m grateful for as it helps keep things cool. It’s here that the ride organisers have thoughtfully positioned the first feed station. Laid out before us on trestles is the universal food of cyclists – cake. They also have a kind of apple sauce substance you spread on the cake before wolfing it down. So, I proceed to do just that.

I ask Hervé, the guy I’ve been riding alongside, and his mate Thierry if they don’t mind me tagging along with them for the rest of the ride, seeing as we seem to be going at the same pace. They agree and we set off again. The road starts to slope downwards and there now begins a glorious descent of virtually 20 miles – about 8 of it pretty steep off the mountain, the rest a more gradual downhill into the valley below. Thierry flies down without, it seems, touching the brakes, and he’s soon out of sight. When I eventually catch him up and remark on his descending, he tells me it’s down to the fact that he’s been skiing all his life.

We drop through the beautiful alpine villages of Bellecombe en Bauges and Pont de Bange. By this time we’ve grown to a group of about 8, and we press on on empty roads. Back down in the valley the heat is intense. Fortunately, about 10 miles further on in the village of Saint Girod, is the next feed station. Here, there’s about 30 cyclists milling about. I get my card stamped and tuck in to more cake with apple sauce topping.

From here remain about 40 kilometres of rolling terrain to the finish back in Seynod. Soon after leaving the feed stop, we hit a fairly sharp climb. ‘Doucement, doucement’ advises Hervé. He’s local and I guess he knows a thing or two, and so we ease back a bit.

Time trialling on the S18 - surely with the new risk assessments, nobody wants to ride through two round-a-bouts, the second one being exceptionally busy, where you may have to stop and wait for traffic for up to a minute. Combined with a right hand turn across the traffic at Camborne West and the volume of traffic on the A30 at that time of the evening. None of this is condusive to a fast time or, if you are baulked by traffic, a fair competition.

Time trialling on the S6 - for myself I could be working down on the Lizard, so I have to drive home through the holiday traffic, get my gear, something to eat and leave home again by 5:15 (sometimes impossible), with the thought of a 65 mile round trip ahead of me. I am afraid this does not encourage me to participate.

While I realise risk assessment is now part of every day life and courses have to be signed and marshalled it is not making for good cycling. I recently rode in the S6 50, and felt that I was virtually riding around in circles. This is no criticism of the organiser, I realise they can only marshall and sign a limited area. As regards to time trials being a veteran sports - you see plenty of youngsters riding BMX and mountain bikes, but how many do you see riding rode bikes - perhaps it is just 'not cool'.

1. Why change a perfectly good 10 course in the form of the S18 so that it is safer for the time keeper (I understand that this was the reason for changing the course-correct me if I'm wrong) so that the afore-mentioned official can sit is his car to do the deed. Every time we run a TT on the new course we are endangering the life of every competitor as they negiotate the Avers roundabouts just for the sake of keeping the time-keeper dry. No wonder no-one will ride.

2. As an active cyclist I see that the sport now seems to have 2 groups of cyclists, the 1st group being those that can and do so at every opportunity, yes I'm talking about racing. The 2nd group are the 'all the gear and no idea pretend pro' group that will travel half way round the world to ride what is in essence a big randonee just cos its going to be ridden in a few days time by a load of guys that get paid to ride the course. Save your money guys, buy a licence and get out there and race, stop pretending that its a race, do the real thing and our sport may survive.

A randonnee or a cycle-sportif or for that matter a club run in November ain't a race.

If your not racing cos you're scared that you might get found out or horror of horrors get dropped (trust me that hurts) do the 10's they are the best training your ever gonna do, it only costs a few quid for a bit of honest competion and its got to be better than kidding yourself that you're Lance Armstrong when you're sat on the turbo in front of the tele. Keep doing them and you might get fast enough not to get dropped in the next road race you enter. Don't worry if you do the odd 10 no-one will sneer 'tester' at you on the next club-run, they'll only be interested in your time. You never know if more of you guys actually turned a wheel in anger organisers, like Matt Southam who put their own time and effort into racing, might be convinced that it is a good idea to put on more races. The alternative is a sport which dies within 10 years, it's up to you guys and you know who you are.

I would like to make it clear that this is not intended to be a criticism of any clubs or event organisers. I know that there are individuals spread across the Cornish clubs who have put in a lot of good work over many years, and that the recent changes in regulations regarding safety have made it much more onerous for them to organise races. My aim is to stimulate some debate about how we can halt this decline and improve bike racing within the county.

I have always thought that there were too many mid-week time trial races, and that fewer events would result in bigger fields. To some extent this view has been vindicated this season. Then new regulations have reduced the number of races and the Wednesday evening events on the S6 have been well supported. However, the Thursday races organised by Kernow have been very poorly supported, largely, I suspect, because competitors feel that the 'new' S18 is more dangerous for the riders as well as being slower. The demise of the S18 is particularly disappointing because it was the only Cornish course on which one could register a reasonably 'fast' time at 10, 25, or 50 miles.

Why is time trialling becoming a 'veteran' sport? Is there a future for 'sporting' courses? Why aren't the Crits at Portreath better supported by local riders? Are there any other closed road circuits that could be used? What about a revival of grass track racing? Would you support cyclo-cross races? There used to be a tarmac cycle track used for racing at Falmouth Rugby Club - is it still viable?

The race started very fast with the Cafes Baque team controlling things as they have the series leader. But as always there are some fools who try an go early but I wasn't feeling that great as it was 35 degs and my legs were feeling like lead, so I just sat in.

We started climbing the first serious climb and the bunch split with me in the front half, but it all came together on the decent. The next climb after 40kms was taken at high speed with some real hard attacks being made and by the top there was only 40 riders left, with all the top riders in there.

Came to the next climb, were I tested the bunch with a little atack at the bottom which drew 20 riders away. With 20kms to go, we worked all the way to the top. With about 10 to go, 4 went away and all the time people were firing off up the road trying to get across, but none would work.

It was up an down all the way to the finish climb, which was 4kms long, with the last 1.5kms at 16%. At the bottom we all regrouped and started climbing. An Orbea-Ollara rider attacked, which is the Euskaltel feeder team, so I went with him, and 5 of us went clear. Got onto the steep bit and I attacked again, followed by one other. So I went to the other side of the left of the road. They were still there, so swung across to the right. They didn't follow, so I went. Had 20 secs with 500 to go and 15 by the finish.

First win in 14 months and the first of hopefully more in the Basque Country. And as a bonus I also won the KoM prize as well, so not a bad afternoon's work. Now some rest and tomorrow I'm going to watch the Classica San Sebastian before anther race on Sunday.

With the race taking place only a week after we arrived, there was some essential training and acclimatisation required, as well as serious consideration about gear ratios. Normally when I go to the Alpes or the Pyrenees, I have a 39x27 just in case, but usually manage to avoid using it. After three training rides, each taking in one big climb - Les Arcs, Cormet de Roseland, and Grand Naves - all of which I managed without dropping below 39x19, I decided to use my usual racing block which would give me a 39x23 to fall back on.

So I collected my 'dossard' on the Saturday afternoon and arrived at La Lechere at 8.00am on Sunday morning for 'Le Depart' at 9.00am. There were 180 riders signed on, with about 100 doing the 174 kms Grand Parcours and the rest doing the Petit Parcours which avoided La Madeleine. Ominously, the field was populated by lean, bronzed types in club strip, and the announcer introduced AG2R professional rider Nicolas Inaudi, riding with the No 1 dossard!

We were soon dispatched by the starter. The first 25 miles was flat, along the valley bottoms. We were well protected by a rolling road closure affected by motor cycle outriders and marshalls at junctions. This included traffic light controls as we passed through the outskirts of Albertville. The peloton swished along at a steady 25 mph, with everyone behaving themselves and no heroics. The first short climb of about 1 mile came as a bit of a shock. It was quite steep and the leaders didn't seem to slow down! Mindful of what was still to come, I dropped off the back with a few others, but got back on again on the descent. After another few miles we came to another climb of 3 or 4 miles. Again the pace remained high and discretion seemed to be a good idea. This time there was no return to the lead bunch on the descent, and that was the last I saw of them!

Finally, after about 40 miles, us stragglers reached La Chambre, the foot of the 12 miles climb to the 'hors categorie' Col de la Madeleine. Now, let me make it quite clear to you at this stage that there's a world of difference between poncing up these hills in 39x19 when you're fresh in training, and doing it during a race! I was soon grovelling in my lowest gear of 39x23 and wishing that I'd put on that 12-27 block. Just to make things worse, I started to get back trouble - I never usually have back problems! Despite all this I managed to overtake a couple of rivals and avoid being overtaken by anyone else, and about 90 minutes later reached the exceedingly chilly summit.

The descent was both terrifying and freezing - it could have been either that was making me shiver uncontrollably. I thought I was going fairly fast, but a couple of other riders came past me as though I was standing still. By the end of the 12 miles drop my fingers, hands, wrists, arms and shoulders were painfully fatigued. But not much time to reflect on this, as it was straight into the next climb, the 8 miles Grand Naves. Once again I managed to overtake a few riders without being overtaken myself, with the added bonus of feeling warm again, but started to detsct those ominous twiches of cramp in both thighs. The last couple of miles was a bit of a struggle, but at least there was a feed station at the top! At the pre-race briefing, we'd been warned about 'gravillons' on the descent from Grand Naves, and sure enough, not only was it steep, single track and twisting, but there were the aformentioned patches of loose gravel just to make it even more hairy. A couple of riders who I'd overtaken on the ascent, soon came screaming past me and rapidly disappeared in the hairpins below.

Once more on the valley floor, there was hardly time to reflect before the final 9 miles climb to the finish at the ski resort of Valmorel. This was a real struggle against fatigue and cramp. Several riders caught and passed me, spinning away on their low gears. Bloody stupid idea to try to do it on a 39x23! Finally, there it is, 'L'Arrivee'. Try to look casual crossing the line as the announcer signals my arrival. Stagger into the refreshment tent to gobble down a 'spag. bol.'. So tired that I become totally incoherent trying to talk French. Then have to cycle 10 miles back down the hill to the car, parked at the start.

The next day there was a report, results and pictures in the daily newspaper. The race was won by Nicolas Ougier, from a local club, in 5-46-38. The AG2R pro, Nicolas Inaudi, finished 16th, in 6-33-42, saying that the mountains were not his 'tasse de the'. I ended up 40th in 7-15-54. 38 riders abandonned, which was thought to be an indication of the toughness of the course.

So, what have I done, a brief summary of each month I think.

March: form started to decend rappidly from my fFebruary peak (unintended), which then wasn't helped by me training more to compensate and becoming overtrained. That was a bit strange, seeing the Dutch rider my age, who I was training more than, going faster than me! I was doing over 500km a week at this time and 1 training race a week.

April: no improvement in form, 1st race of the year actually in England. Holland had been quite warm so when I came to do a Welsh race, part of the junior series, the cold wet conditions didn't favour me to say the least. Result: Packed, cold wet and shivering! Rode a time trial at the muched famed Laddock course (the only one I really know where it is) did ok, 2nd fastest so was good. Also rode Sid Standard mMemorial in Nottingham and was now acustomed to Cornish weather once again and finished cold and wet but in the top 20 (19e) -home for 2weeks.

May: this is the part of the season where I was meant to be going well, and when I rode at Portreath on the 15th (transition from Holland to Spain, home 5 days) it was confirmed that I was going ok, so I decided to reserve myself for the next day as it was the junior divisionals at Brent Tor. Going on my performance of Portreath I should have done well. I'm not sure what happened but it wasn't to be, I packed not long into the race, and am not entirely sure what was wrong.

May 17th, off to Spain. I've never seen a mountain before, and certainly never ridden one. Graham Baxter of Sporting Tours arranged for me to come here and he lives in the same town as me, TOTANA, no bigger than truro. So the 2nd day I'm here we went out training and up a hill, I was lectured about what hills and mountains are at this point as I mentioned about mountains and my inexperience riding them, this is where I was cut short halfway through the sentance "that's no mountain" in a Leeds accent. My lesson was learned, and a week later I finally got to see one, in Sierra d'Espuna, a Cat 1 climb used in Tour of Murcia.

June: I've now learnt what a mountain is and how to climb one. I'm also rather inexperienced with extreme heat and decending, so dehydration has been high on my list of what to avoid, and I'm doing ok. However, decents are prooving tricky, last monday I decided at the end of my ride to just ride up to a hotel on top of the mountain and coming down managed to lose some skin. Lesson two possibly learned, don't push it on hot roads downhill.

So I have now decided to finish my season in Spain rather than return to Holland as it suits me better here and living in a flat with another English rider Chris Daddy from Hull is proving to be much better than staying with a family.

Saturday morning dawned bright, but chill. We entered on the line and soon found ourselves assembling in the start area with about 2000 other riders, 1147 of whom, like us, were entered for the 'grand parcours' of 155kms. Some artful manoeuvering enabled us to edge our way near to the front of the grid. The flag dropped, cleats clicked into pedals, and the massive peloton rolled away.

As we left the town and hit the first hill, John's chain jumped off, so he had to stop to replace it and that was the last we saw of each other until after the race had finished. Once out in the country I could see that a lead bunch of about 100 had already opened a gap of 200 metres. It took a big effort and the help of a few other riders to bridge across. There was no hanging around - on the flat bits the speed was consistently over 25 mph.

At about 20 miles the front group hammered up a steep hill and I decided that it might be a good idea to let them go, if I was going to finish. Luckily a few others had the same idea, and we soon had a compact group of 8 or 9 riders doing 'through and off' like clockwork. Nothing much changed as we worked our way round a large loop of about 50 miles through the countryside north of Douarnenez, except I was starting to feel really bad. Just as we were about to hit the town, a large group of about 70 riders caught us up, and we were soon climbing out of town again starting another long loop to Pointe du Raz at the end of the peninsula west of Douarnenez. The initial stretch of about 20 miles was fairly flat with a following breeze, so we were consistently at 27-28 mph and catching stragglers who had been dropped by the lead bunch.

At Pointe du Raz we plunged down into the Baie des Trepasses, rather hairy in such a big bunch, before climbing out of the other side, where we hit the headwind and it started to rain as we started the final 20 miles back to the finish. Thankfully, despite the cold, I was feeling quite good now, the bunch stuck together, and we caught some more stragglers. The rain stopped as we neared Douarnenez. The group was still about 70 strong as we plunged down the final hill at nearly 50 mph and thankfully everyone seemed to realise that a sprint through the town to 'L'arrivee' would not be a good idea!

Well first race of the season and it felt so good to be back in the peloton after 6 months, I'd been really looking forward to it since January when I'd become bored of "puttin money in the bank". But at the same time I was bricking it... worried that I haven't done enough speed work,enough hill sprints, lost enough weight .... well we all know that will never happen but it gave me something extra to worry about. I also didn't want the DS thinking this Cornish lad ain't got it" First race and I survived, got in a few breaks but the carrera ended in a bunch sprint where I finished 53rd after a shit or bust move with a km to go.

The 2nd race was mental, over 200 starters, with the Liberty Seguros and Saunier Duval feeder teams riding and add into the mix a 30km circuit to be riden 5 times, a 7km climb every lap and the rest rolling..... welcome to the Basque races! Well with my moral good after last weeks race and some very hilly rides I was fairly confident. The first time up the climb it just split I managed to get up there, the only one from the team, so the pressure was on. Stayed with the group to finish a respectable 24th, wanted a top ten but hey....

My last race was a complete disaster. Had put in some hard rides so the form was good and also my girlfriend has come out to stay for 2 weeks so i really wanted to show off and do a mega ride . After the jokes from the mechanic and the DS about had I got a good nights sleep or not, they said they would see after the race, but I'm a good cyclist, very professional, and would never think of it... Well aint seen her for a month! The race started ok, usual adrenalin crazed start but nothing out of the ordinary then we started the climb and there was a crash and guess who was at the bottom of the pile.... yes yours truely. Then just as we started getting going again some short ass Basque ba*t!?d rode into me knockin me sideways. I lost my balance, unclipped, put my foot down and some t*at rode over my foot giving me a mega sore ankle. Got a few days off the bike which Cerian is happy about.

He then stayed in Monaco for two days at a teammates flat before returning to Italy for the four day Coppa Bartali. He is expecting to see Lloyd on day two who is out in Italy this week.

This year I decided to head off to the Basque Country for the season to get some tips from those lovely people known as ETA terrorists..... Well unfortunately I’m here to the ride the bike and am riding for OPEL-IBANGE ARRAKITEA who are in the Spanish first division and are a development team for 19 and 20 year olds with the aim of getting their riders in the top echelons of the Spanish teams, and from there into pro teams. The team have supplied me with a bike and loads of kit, never had so much stuff given to me at once... The bike is an Orbea with 10 speed Chorus. It’s fast and light, so it will do.

The team has 14 Basque riders and me, so there will be some rather thrilling conversations on the team bus... What with my excellent Basque and well outstanding Spanish. I am learning but I’ve just been very slack... Er, I mean I’ve been doing so much training that I have been too tired... I’m living in a town called Durango about 20 mins from Bilbao, a very Basque town miserable looking when it rains (all 9 days I’ve been here). Well, even so, it’s still better than Vire in Normandie where I was holed up for half of last season!!

There are a few average pros who live nearby and meet in a square for training every day, Mayo, Etxeberria. I’ll see if I can persuade them to stop for cake when we are out and then try to help Mayo with his time trialling by suggesting he goes and rides on the S6 evening tens.... I’m sure he will agree...

Hopefully next time I will write I will have some races to talk about and something in the way of results. They will come if the cake stops with Mayo are limited....

All the 4th cats wobbled down the road until Mid Devon CC's young giant moved to the front to educate us in the art of through and off. This is fantastic I thought a real race and we might even stay away for the first prime. It was after just seven miles that I realised that perhaps I'd done too much. The second group had caught us and it all became a bit frantic. As we approached the first prime I tried to move out and move forward. It is a bit disconcerting to have your efforts acconpanied by the commentary "there's nothing left in his legs" I looked around only to realise that I was now at the back of the bunch as a half metre gap became 2 and then 5 metres. Yes I was the first to get spat out.

About 2 minutes later Tony's group came past and he urged me to join on. My legs would not oblige so I was left to ride the remaining 15 miles alone save for the pitying looks of the spectators. The final group passed me later, the sound as they go past is tremendous, I nearly held on to them. Nearly, but not quite. At one point I managed to shelter behind the ample windshield provided by (Ian?) Houghvenagle. Bigger thighs than mine soon saw him move ahead and beat me by 200m.

"Spent last couple of weeks in England training (or at least grovelling in the wheel) with Steve (Lampier) which left me pretty hanging after every ride but as I've found out riding at a training camp in Valkenburg this weekend it has at very least given me some kind of form!

"Before this I spent a weekend on Dartmoor staying with a friend from school which was windy, hilly and very wet! The week before I rode the 2nd Revolution track race in Manchester where even having suffered on every club run since whenever I managed to get off the front in the scratch and points (it was already agreed I was going to 'show' not for results). But the whole atmosphere was incredible, you could ride until your throat was sore and eyes were watering and not even notice as you're being willed on by everyone around. The velodrome was at capacity and it was a brilliant event, definitely worth going to as will the next two be!!!

"Back to Valkenburg we did 155km on Saturday in 4hr 55min and 100k in just over 3 hours on Sunday which really hurt especially after attacking every single climb each day. We got to ride some of the (Amstel) 'Gold' race circuit which was cool but rode plenty of long gradual climbs which was better than the shorter steeper ones at home!!

"Over the top of one hill just inside Germany the ground was still covered with snow, no one seemed to understand how uncommon snow is for a Cornish person so didn't find my idea of a snow fight on bikes appropriate!.

"I got to speak to the new Rabbobank Pro Hans Dekkers which was good. He's a sprinter but was doing a real good job of dropping most riders up the climbs even when seated in what looked like a 53-16!!

This problem was highlighted on last Sunday's club ride, when three novice riders turned up. Two of them sensibly realised that they would not be able to manage the full ride, and went off and did their own thing, but expressed a desire to participate in easier rides in the future. The other newcomer, John Hoskins, despite his inexperiece, showed great guts and determination to reach the cafe stop. He was dropped on the return journey, and I think that Layton stayed behind with him, but I don't know what kind of state he might have been in when he finally arrived back at Long Rock.

It seems to be important that Wheelers address this problem. Mark suggested that a possible solution may be to publish the telephone number and/or email address of a person or persons who were interested in leading an easier ride. They could then be contacted in advance by anyone interested, but would not necessarily have to turn up if there was no demand. What do your think? Is this an agenda item for the AGM? [24/11/03]