Mal has made some crocheted earrings. Keep her busy by buying them from etsy.com!

www.etsy.com - Malwinki

Bring on 2012!

Jack Bobridge - defending national champion in the discipline - rode the third fastest time ever in a sizzling qualifying ride over four kilometres. He posted a time of 4:14.427, knocking six tenths off the time set by Welsh cyclist Gerraint Thomas at the Manchester round of the World Cup in October last year.

It's also faster than the 4:16.304 time set by Britain's reigning Olympic Champion Bradley Wiggins during his gold medal ride in Athens.

The only rider who has gone faster than Bobridge over the distance is Boardman, who set the world record time of 4:11.114 at the 1996 World Championships in Manchester. That mark was set using the aerodynamic 'Superman' position that has since been banned, which means Bobridge is effectively the fastest rider in the world over four kilometres under the current rules.

www.cyclingnews.com

Dremel-wielding, dodgy jersey-wearing, nice bloke from around the corner speaks to Jack T on The Bike Show about Bike Whisperer bike fitting: thebikeshow.net - if the bike fits

Forum-running, bike-hording nice bloke from down the road speaks to Jack T on The Bike Show about www.lfgss.com: thebikeshow.net - do it yourself

Some interesting articles I've been meaning to link to for a while now. Insider doping info from ex-racer Joe Papp.

Joe Papp's Blog

This Guest Post by none other than ex-racer Joe Papp (also a blogger) describes at length how racers subvert and escape doping control. Joe needs no special introduction. He's been there, done that and I think he's a fine candidate to tell us how slippery the pro's can get from the system. How are athletes tricking our intelligence into believing illegitimate sporting performances? Well, find out by reading the following eye-opening article.
cozybeehive.blogspot.com - How Cycling Pro's Defeat Anti-Doping Control

A few weeks ago, PEZ ran an interview with Joe Papp; one of the very few riders to admit, face up to and openly discuss the fact he failed a drugs test. Like most folks, we're sick of the drugs scandals, but then the Tom Zirbel situation pops up and we to have accept that it's still a problem and we need to understand it better. Here's what Joe had to say - and it's scary !
www.pezcyclingnews.com - PEZ Talk: In Depth With Joe Papp

www.thelondonclassic.org

From the site: The London Classic is an urban cycling event run entirely in er…London. It features some climbs, some famous places, some infamous places and lots of cobbles – as many as we can pack in! The event takes place on Sunday April the 11th 2010

For now we are busy finalising the route, designing some cool T-Shirts and setting up a large screen so you can relax with a beer and watch Paris-Roubaix live and direct after conquering Londons pave.

Our mission is to raise awareness and funds for the Evelina Childrens Hospital (part of Guys and St Thomas’s NHS Trust). The event partners are Brixton Cycles.

Free? Free to read what some bloke tells you you can damn well read!

www.internetblackout.com.au

The Federal Government is pushing forward with a plan to force Internet Service Providers to censor the Internet for all Australians. This plan will waste millions of dollars and won’t make anyone safer.

It won’t protect children: The filter isn’t a “cyber safety” measure to stop kids seeing inappropriate content such as R and X rated websites. It is not even designed to prevent the spread of illegal material where it is most often found (chat rooms, peer-to-peer file sharing).

We will all pay for this ineffective solution: Under this policy, ISPs will be forced to charge more for consumer and business broadband. Several hundred thousand dollars has already been spent to test the filter – without considering high-speed services such as the National Broadband Network!

A dangerous precedent: We stand to join a small club of countries which impose centralised Internet censorship such as China, Iran and Saudi Arabia. The secret blacklist may be limited to “Refused Classification” content for now, but what might a future Australian Government choose to block?

To make up for an almost total lack of weekend cycling I hit the turbo tonight after swapping cassettes and wheels on the Planet-X TT machine. I've now got the wireless Powertap on it.
The last attempt at a turbo session was dismal - failure to hold anywhere near 75% FTP - dropping to 50% for 10min. I have a feeling there's actually something wrong with my Wired unit since this time I managed a 2 x 20min with relative ease. First 20min at .75FTP, 5min rest, second 20min at .80FTP with the last minute around 300W.. for fun.
The wired Powertap was out of action for ages with suspected water penetration due to a cracked cover. I swapped the cover for a new one but wonder if it's possible that the new cover is on too tight or something?

photo from Ron & Gladys Purdy

Me with 2009 Willesden Cycling Club Hill Climb Champion & New Years Green Lane Sportive Cup. I also received four medals for these two cups and two TT medals (I need to find out how the TT handicapping system works). I didn't realise how many other members we had not to mention there were four current National Champions amongst us! Well done to everyone and thanks to the organisers for a great night. Big thanks must also go to Simon and Jayne for the GT85 winning ticket and driving in circles to get us home.. :)

92.7kg this morning, by the way, Simon. That weedy little Hoy bloke ain't got nothin' on my physique.. :D

You know you're in the UK when your first ride of a new bike is done on a turbo trainer indoors because it's too crap outside.
I've made a few changes and will probably make many more but I rode this on and off the aerobars for an hour or so today. I might try and get it to the Willesden turbo session Tuesday.
Many thanks to Corinne and Scherrit from www.thebikewhisperer.co.uk for the lovely build (sorry about asking for Nokon cables!). I see BW have started a blog - Bike Whisperer Blog. It must be Corinne's work since I'm sure Scherrit 'Dremeled' his computer into a set of ergo levers for a client..

I mean, the UK, but it may as well be Russia, it's cold enough.

After 34 hours and 17 movies watched in transit, Mal and I arrived yesterday to drizzle and sleet.
I don't know what day it is. I don't know what time it is. I do remember where I live and work though so all is not lost.

I hastily threw some old pedals on my old Pugeot road bike and went out to ride a TT tonight after spotting 'cycle race in progress' signs out near the M-CCC circuit after showing Mal around Woodsie's Gem Shop and Kings Billabong.

Whilst driving around the circuit I saw an M-CCC club trailer and eventually found and spoke to the guy driving. He said get there for 5..30pm for a 6pm 16k TT.

Unfortunately, my brother has my bike and seems to have taken my helmet but I found Dad's and adjusted it to fit. I fitted some ancient clip + strap pedals I probably had on the track bike and put on the trusty skate shoes that are so renowned for fast time trialling.

In the end I got lost, arrived too late to sign on and then found out you can't race TTs now unless you are a Cycling Australia member. I haven't held a CA licence for 5 years and wasn't going to push for an expensive day licence (if they still offer those) and late sign-on just to do a windy 16k (10mi) TT. Bummer.

It would have been funny racing in my sneakers with no speedo, power meter, no funny hat, no skinsuit, no training, not having ridden the bike for 5 years, a gut full of chicken schnitzel burger and milkshake from Woodsies (chunder power) etc. :)

Instead, we drove up the road and cheered the riders on.. I know from experience that being yelled at can help motivate a little extra something from knackered legs and so Mal and I are claiming the large number of PBs set as being due to us yelling out encouragement. ;)

It's a bit of a shame I won't be able to race without a CA licence but perhaps I can fit in a M-CCC club run now I've found some pedals?

"The British government has brought down its long-awaited Digital Economy Bill, and it's perfectly useless and terrible. It consists almost entirely of penalties for people who do things that upset the entertainment industry (including the "three-strikes" rule that allows your entire family to be cut off from the net if anyone who lives in your house is accused of copyright infringement, without proof or evidence or trial), as well as a plan to beat the hell out of the video-game industry with a new, even dumber rating system (why is it acceptable for the government to declare that some forms of artwork have to be mandatorily labelled as to their suitability for kids? And why is it only some media? Why not paintings? Why not novels? Why not modern dance or ballet or opera?).
So it's bad. £50,000 fines if someone in your house is accused of filesharing. A duty on ISPs to spy on all their customers in case they find something that would help the record or film industry sue them (ISPs who refuse to cooperate can be fined £250,000).

But that's just for starters. The real meat is in the story we broke yesterday: Peter Mandelson, the unelected Business Secretary, would have to power to make up as many new penalties and enforcement systems as he likes. And he says he's planning to appoint private militias financed by rightsholder groups who will have the power to kick you off the internet, spy on your use of the network, demand the removal of files or the blocking of websites, and Mandelson will have the power to invent any penalty, including jail time, for any transgression he deems you are guilty of. And of course, Mandelson's successor in the next government would also have this power.

What isn't in there? Anything about stimulating the actual digital economy. Nothing about ensuring that broadband is cheap, fast and neutral. Nothing about getting Britain's poorest connected to the net. Nothing about ensuring that copyright rules get out of the way of entrepreneurship and the freedom to create new things. Nothing to ensure that schoolkids get the best tools in the world to create with, and can freely use the publicly funded media -- BBC, Channel 4, BFI, Arts Council grantees -- to make new media and so grow up to turn Britain into a powerhouse of tech-savvy creators.

Lobby organisation The Open Rights Group is urging people to contact their MP to oppose the plans.
"This plan won't stop copyright infringement and with a simple accusation could see you and your family disconnected from the internet - unable to engage in everyday activities like shopping and socialising," it said.

The government will also introduce age ratings on all boxed video games aimed at children aged 12 or over.

There is, however, little detail in the bill on how the government will stimulate broadband infrastructure."

from: www.boingboing.net - Britain's new Internet law -- as bad as everyone's been saying, and worse. Much, much worse.

news.bbc.co.uk - government lays out digital plans

“Oh well, nobody died,” says the Flying Scotsman Graeme Obree as he reveals how depression and his home-built bike wrecked his latest World Hour record bid.

Obree was intent on reclaiming the title he won twice in the 1990s later this month. But the 44-year-old came unstuck when his psychologist warned his mental health was too fragile.

The lanky Obree had self built a typically unique bike. With an enormous 67-tooth chain ring for speed, Reynolds 653 tubing and silver soldering, it was ridden with an extreme flat back style and extended arms.

Obree's home-built bike.: obree's home-built bike.

Obree spent a year and a half training on the bike which worked brilliantly on the road. Despite his age he was clocking some promising times. Obree said: “I was just a smidgen short of the form that I had when I was racing Jason MacIntyre.” Friend MacIntryre was a triple British and Scottish champion time trial cyclist who was killed, while training, in 2008 by a careless driver. Obree says he was regularly beating MacIntyre two years ago.

Some thought Ayrshire-based Obree might just take the World Hour record for the third time. Two years ago Obree was riding sub-20 minute 10-mile time trials in Scotland.

But when Obree took to Manchester’s velodrome for a trial run in August it went badly wrong. Watched by former national British cycling coach Doug Daley, Obree’s bike proved useless.

“That whole riding style that I was reliant on to support your arms didn’t work on the bankings. And most of it is banking, let’s face it!” said Obree.

It was the end of the dream for the sponsorless former champ. Obree, who could have asked for help from British Cycling, had done things his own low-tech way. No sports scientists, no coach.

“If I had to go back to scratch and spend five weeks on the track, like Chris [Hoy] did, it would cost a fortune without a sponsor,” he said. “Then I became so depressed that I wasn’t allowed step up for it.” Obree twice attempted suicide in the past and has a history of clinical depression.

“I spent weeks under the duvet,” said the softly spoken rider. “I never had back up plans, I was so sure about the bike. A normal person would just have been bitterly disappointed but it went beyond because of who I am.

“I had to find out. I would have regretted it if I didn’t give it my best shot.”

But he says it hasn’t taken away from his achievements. Obree broke the World Hour record in 1994 with 52.713km and held the World Champion Individual Pursuit 4000m title in ’93 and ’95.

Speaking before his attempt Obree said: “If you have to win every race then there’s something not right about you. I don’t have any choice – once I started thinking that I could get onto that pace … I had to do it.”

Obree is now writing a book: A Survivor’s Guide to Depression, which will be packed with “good, solid advice”.

At least Obree can rest on his laurels, despite never receiving the recognition due to him.

“Muhammad Ali got his jaw broken but he’s still known as the best boxer ever,” he said.

bikeradar.com - Graeme Obree dumps hour record plans

from cyclingnews.com - Fabian Cancellara to attempt hour record

Time trial world champion to break 50 kilometres?

Switzerland's Fabian Cancellara is likely to be the first of cycling's modern stars to attempt the hour record.

"I have the hour record on my mind," he told Bicisport magazine in its November issue. "I am certain that sooner or later I will make it happen."

Cancellara won his third time trial World Championship in Mendrisio, Switzerland, September 24 in such a dominating manner that he had time to raise his arms crossing the line. He set an average speed of 51.58km/h and finished 1'27" ahead of Swede Gustav Larsson.

"I think I showed that I am suited for this type of effort in Mendrisio," he continued. "But it is not enough to go strong. You need to know how to give that same effort on the track. I will find time to do it."

Czech Ondrej Sosenka set the current hour record of 49.7 kilometres in Moscow, July 19, 2005. Before Sosenka, Brit Chris Boardman (49.441km) in 2000 and Belgian Eddy Merckx (49.431km) in 1972 made successful record attempts.

The hour record is established by riding the furthest distance on a velodrome in the time of 60 minutes. The International Cycling Union (UCI) standardised equipment limits in 2000. It banned aero helmets, wheels and frames.

A project exists to convince Cancellara to attempt the record in Montichiari (Brescia), Italy, according to Tuttosport. The 250-metre, wood surface velodrome opened in May.

The last world record set in Italy was in 1967 at the Rome Olympic Velodrome by Belgian Ferdi Bracke. He beat the distance set by Frenchman Roger Rivière eight years earlier, 48.093 kilometres.

This assumes you are running II5 firmware and know what adb is.

- Download 'signed-google_ion-ota-14721.zip' (51.5MB) from developer.htc.com.
- Extract 'libhgl.so' from the /system/lib folder in the zip file.
- In a command prompt, run adb remount
- In a command prompt, run adb push [location of file] /system/lib/libhgl.so

Originally: www.android-hilfe.de

1st place in 1:47.

Today's weather wasn't looking good and I almost stayed in bed. I'm glad I didn't though. I usually do better in bad weather since all the actual fast people are all scaredy bed wetters. ;)

I finally left the house and rode 30k to Windsor Hill. At the top of the hill there were a few people milling around but I assumed the sign-on was at the bottom and rode down. Nope. Doh! So I had to ride back up to the top of the hill and sign-on. Extra warm-up for the win. I met mitre_tester from lfgss here and he pinned my number on. Cheers!

The course was maybe 100m shorter than the last time I rode it, starting after the bridge. This worked to my advantage since I had wasted time on the flat start last time spinning too fast. This time I would be geared higher and take off on the actual hill. It also meant the ride would be shorter, so it wouldn't really start to hurt until half way up.

I was #12 and got the countdown from 30 seconds.. 5..4..3..2..1 off strongly (in a good gear this time so no faffing with changes). Around the first corner ok and now the breathing starts to get ragged. There's some photographers on the right and I get out of the saddle and grind on for a bit further, getting a little wheel spin here since the roads were damp but nothing too serious. Back in the saddle and now the real misery is all systems go. I feel like I'm moving at 1kph, my legs are like wet bags of concrete and breathing is gasps. I get out of the saddle approaching the finish and think what a waste of time this was, coming back here only to finish so slowly.

I'm over the line and roll to a stop almost immediately, lying over the bars and gasping for air. I have an ice cream headache. I think the blood that was supposed to be going to my brain has been directed to my legs (no change there, some of you will think). I have the same wobbly legs as last time but I make an effort to get the bike moving again and slowly roll down the road a bit, drop the gears down and spin a bit before returning to the finish to be congratulated for a good ride. Really?! What time did I get? "1:47, the next guy is 15 seconds down on you". "Wow", I'm thinking to myself, that's pretty odd since it felt like I was riding through treacle. "Not the record, that's something like 1:32, but still a good ride". Also met clubman from lfgss after the ride. Had to skip the cafe stop for some xmas shopping but a big thanks to the Hounslow Wheelers for running this.

The S-Works even got washed after the event and now has (almost) white bar tape again. This will probably be the last ride it does until well into next year so it's only fair. It has served me well this year.

I'm pleased that these show bigger power numbers than the last attempt. Even if it didn't feel like I'd worked as hard or was going as fast, power doesn't lie (much). :)
Distance: 551m
Time: 1:47
1114W max
620W avg

www.londonfgss.com

This is the process I went through to upgrade my phone from II5 to the Galaxo ROM. This is for my information only. If you follow this and turn your phone into a paperweight, I don't care.

Thanks to kam187 on androidforums.com for the bulk of the knowledge and the guys at hdblog.it for the ROM.

Before doing any of this, you need to upgrade your phone's firmware to II5 first.

You need to have the sdk tools on your computer:
- Extract the android-sdk-windows-1.5_r3.rar files to a folder on your computer.
- Copy recovery.img from the 0.42 Recovery Image over the existing recovery.img in the tools - Copy folder.

You probably need to install the adb usb driver at this point, if you haven't done this before, otherwise the phone won't respond to command line actions:
- Turn on USB Debugging on the phone: Settings > Applications > Development > USB Debugging and wait for a prompt to install a driver.
- Install the correct adb driver from the usb_driver folder.
- For more information on the adb usb driver, see this post.

From kam187, the key things are:
- Never boot II5 after a wipe and BEFORE applying update.zip
- Never boot after update.zip without G.Apps restored

Copy the 0.42 Recovery Image and Galaxo ROM and the II5.tar to the phone:
- Connect the phone to the PC (use the factory cable, Rastaman-FB had issues with a non-Samsung cable) and mount the internal storage using the USB Connected button that appears in the Notification Bar, then Mount.
- Copy rectools.tar.gz (from the 0.42 Recovery Image) to the root of the internal storage.
- Copy the update.zip (from the Galaxo ROM) to the root of the internal storage.
- Find the II5 firmware I7500XXII5-PDA-CL64494-REV5(VIA).tar and rename it to II5.tar and copy this to the root of the internal storage (this is how the Google Apps are restored later). Your internal phone storage should look a bit like this..



- Switch off the phone.
- Boot into fastboot mode by holding the Call button (bottom left) whilst powering on the phone with the Power button (bottom right). The phone should appear to be waiting..
- In Windows, go Start > Run and type cmd then press OK to open the DOS command prompt.
- Navigate into the Android SDK tools folder where adb.exe and fastboot.exe are located (On my machine it is: C:\Android\android-sdk-windows-1.5_r3\tools - Copy since I was using kam187's repacked 1.5 SDK). Basically you need to type something like cd\android\android-sdk-windows-1.5_r3\tools to get to the directory beneath where you have extracted android-sdk-windows-1.5_r3.rar or android-sdk-windows-1.6_r1.zip.
- Now, in this folder type: fastboot flash recovery recovery.img
- Once this is complete, pull out the phone's battery and reinsert it to leave fastboot mode.

Now we boot into the 0.42 Recovery image:
- Reboot the phone in Recovery Mode by holding the Volume Down and Call buttons whilst pressing Power to power up the phone.
- You should see a green 0.42 Recovery Console screen like this



- Choose Nandroid backup to make a complete backup of your system.
- Choose Wipe data/factory reset to clear your phone and reboot into Recovery automatically.
- Choose Apply sdcard:update.zip to apply the Galaxo ROM and reboot into Recovery automatically.
- Choose Restore G.Apps to restore the Google Apps that were automatically backed up (you must have copied the II5.tar file to your phone).
- Reboot into a lovely new ROM!

If your phone hangs (like mine did) at the loading screen - did you remember to restore the Google Apps?

Galaxo ROM: http://forum.hdblog.it/showthread.php?t=4842
0.42 Recovery Image: http://forum.hdblog.it/showthread.php?t=3995
ROM Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0a-swBMfys8

Firmware I7500XXII8 is appearing in some countries now (Sweden and Finland).

Did Ron Purdy take this?

Our little group rolling from Rich's to the start.

We set a good pace and were at the start pretty early. Bit of a bugger since it was freezing we had to keep riding around until nearer the start time. Since I had no intention of taking this hill climb seriously I wasn't going to bother with a practice ride up the hill. It wasn't until Rich and Simon rolled down from a test run, and suggested I give it a go since "you have ages to wait, you may as well" that I bothered riding it. I was struggling on the practice climb! It was ok until it kicks at the half way (300m) mark. By the time I got to the top (and this time saw Ron, yes Ron not Jumbo!) I was struggling.. and this wasn't even pushing it. I heard that the course record is 1:33 and I think last year's best was 1:40ish.

I was 28th to start so dropped my bag at the bottom and had another roll around the green (getting my breath back - ha!).

Paul, the starter, joked about me being fast. Not because I looked fast, oh no, but because I had the same bike as him :)

And 3-2-1, we are go go go! Spinning away from the start I change up a few to reduce my silly cadence and over the bridge I'm telling myself to "calm down, it gets steeper".

Around the left hander there's a cameraman so I just drop my head or stare ahead, I can't recall which, grip the hoods and grind on. I think I drop another gear or even two here. I'm really hating this stupid climb now, really hating it. I feel like I'm going embarrassingly slow (and probably was). It kicks up now and I'm out of the saddle, woah, jelly legs I'm back in the saddle, woah, not quite, my knicks have hooked the saddle and I'm back out of the saddle. I'm ~100m away from the finish line so I force myself to stay out of the saddle and really dig in.

Maybe for the first time I look like a real climber, albeit a chunky one. This is where it gets crazy. I was into new realms of horrible. It was like a sprint finish but all wrong.. there was no one else around so there was need to dig in to edge your wheel in front of theirs. There was no "winning", it was all mental now, my brain willing my carcass towards the line.

The line, oh where's that damned line?! Argh! Just one more pedal and DONE! Roll over and stop within three metres. I just manage to un-clip my left leg and put my foot down before I topple. I'm breathing like there's not enough air in England. I try to move towards the grass verge but my leg just wobbles and I have to steady myself so I don't collapse. I must be like this for a quite a while.. simon comes over and says I did good.. and to take it easy. Ha! I must've looked pretty bad. I finally manage to bend my legs enough to allow me to sit on top tube. Another minute or two and I can wheel myself over to the grass and sit down. I stay here until all the others finish. There's some confusion about times. Rich and I have to ride down to get the stuff and back up again. At the top, I think Simon, confirms that I've got second place and that I might've won the club hill champs. I laugh out loud at the thought that I suddenly have climbing merits!

Still, pretty chuffed with 2nd. Thanks all.

Results: www.westdraytonmbc.co.uk - 2009 hill climb results
Course: HCC011 - Windsor Hill, Wooburn
Willesden Blog: Hill Climb
Willesden Blog: More Hill Climb

"Take that, sober, skinny people"

Distance: 670m
Time: 2:02
272W min
930W max
587W avg