Big Al

Just in case we're in the position of the Georgetown being closed/unusable again (and it is getting resurfaced soon anyway) do we have any thoughts or opinions on alternative courses? Obviously we have the Westferry and Langbank courses, and the old Gateside APR course as possibilities but what are the thoughts on the options below?

Option 1: a T or Y shaped course based round Red Smiddy roundabout involving possibly a start on Barnsford road at the Christian place, heading towards the first roundabout (I know it's not ideal but is it safe enough?) at Inchinan Drive, either going right round to return (or adding the section of Inchinan Drive to the Rolls Royce roundabout, absolutely beautiful piece of road) to Red Smiddy. Left turn onto A8 to the convenient new roundabout and back. Left turn again at Red Smiddy onto Southbar road and then 3 options: turn at roundabout 1 and back to finish just before Red Smiddy at the sign on the left; or turn right at roundabout 1, include the stretch of Parkway round roundabout, back and left turn onto Southbarr road to same finish; or go straight through roundabout 1, through the Belisha beacon pedestrian crossing, round the big roundabout at petrol station and return (through pedestrian crossing for second time) same finish.

Advantages: start is just round the corner from GTown if it's a last minute change. It's flat. Good Tarmac.

Disadvantages: Roundabouts!

Option 2: Kingston Road just Southwest of Neilston towards Dunlop.

Cracking rolling piece of straight road which is about 4.5 miles long, start just over the top of the hill from Neilston at the big pylon/gravelly road end. Dead turn around the road that leads to East Muirshiel farm and back.

Advantages: no roundabouts, quiet, straight,

Disadvantages: further away (but not much further than Shilford), windy, dead turn

Any other ideas?

18:30 Georgetown 7.2 miles

Roll up, roll up for the (hopefully this time) first of the Georgetown club confined time trials of the year!

The road surface isn't perfect just now, but not really any worse than it's been for a while. As of the time of posting there are no traffic lights! I'm going to start a separate thread on alternative routes just in case we're caught short again

Meet at 18:15 at the Inchinnan end of the Georgetown Road for an 18:30 start.

2-up means you ride in teams of two and share the effort of cutting through the wind. Open to all club members and those without a club intending to join the Wheelers. A reasonable road for a first try at a time trial, if you need someone to ride with just post here and we'll fix you up! You can just come along on a normal road bike if you wish, if you really want to ride on your own you can do that too.

So, who's coming along and do we have a volunteer for timekeeping duties?

Thanks Alan, will have a wee peek tonight, I've got an idea for an alternative route but will look at that tonight as well

Your inbox is full

Hi Alan

Emma has the 50cm, the front wheel needs some attention but I can give you a wheel off the 60cm for the time being. When do you need it?

Al

Are the traffic lights still there? Is it still feasible to run the TT if they are? If anyone's in the area can you have a look and see, I won't be able to swing by for another hour or two

I should be fine for marshalling

Results are now up for this

http://www.braveheartfund.co.uk/Community/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=13373

Perversely enjoyed this outing in the borders up (and down) some nasty "Mountains" in the fog battling cattle grids, sheep and a 35 mph chicane that very nearly took a few people out. Definitely not a big boys course, any even where James Mccallum finishes 7th, Mark Stewart 8th and Big Ben 15th is a toughie in my book. I finished 29th but at 100kg I can't argue, heart rate was over threshold all the way, nearly stepped off on the way up the Swire, Euan Popestar didn't catch me till after both the climbs, I'm happy.

Oh, Mike, 10:01, will catch you next time

They start on the 2nd as far as I know which is Wednesday, unless they've gone ahead early?

Was going to aim for Thursday next week for number two, if they were still there and people were keen?

I'll take a look later and see Alan, not quite sure where I'm at yet!

Think I'll leave it till after the Easter hols now, have fun!

I did see Robert's dad on Braveheart last night complaining

Glad I missed it!

What happened this time Martin?

18:30 Georgetown 7.2 miles

Roll up, roll up for the first of the Georgetown club confined time trials of the year!

Meet at 18:15 at the Inchinnan end of the Georgetown Road for an 18:30 start.

2-up means you ride in teams of two and share the effort of cutting through the wind. Open to all club members and those without a club intending to join the Wheelers. A reasonable road for a first try at a time trial, if you need someone to ride with just post here and we'll fix you up! You can just come along on a normal road bike if you wish, if you really want to ride on your own you can do that too.

So, who's coming along and do we have a volunteer for timekeeping duties?

Some gorgeous sunshine but rather cold for this race, the scenery was spectacular throughout and definitely going to do it again in the future!

I arrived early enough to drive the first 5 miles of the course and wasn't looking forward to it before the start! The first 2 1/2 miles is pretty much all uphill, although I knew that was going to make for a nice finish.

So, got signed in and then headed back to the course for a proper 30 minute warm up on the turbo just round the corner from the start.

Warming up within sight of the start certainly reduces stress, rolled onto the start still not quite sure how the legs were going to be.

Managed to stay above 14 mph on the first hill staying in the big ring with a bit of standing up. Track league definitely helps with being able to transition from seated to standing and back without taking too much out the tank.

There were some strong riders in the field, all the half decent ones being a fair but lighter than me, so I expected to get caught by at least one or two on the course, but it never happened. After the first hill I managed to maintain at least 18mph on most of the drags, cruise at 28-31 mph on the flatter sections, and hit 40mph a few times downhill, with the best being 44mph into a cross headwind.

I caught my minute "man" 2 minutes in and just kept rolling up to more and more as the race progressed, passed at least 15 people with the biggest catch my 21 minute man! Don't see that happening again any time soon (not before the first 50 or 100 mile TT anyway!)

So, managed to hold a reasonable heart rate all the way, keep it in the big ring all the way, beat my aim of (pessimistic) top 20 finish, not get passed (genuinely expected to see Gerry McGarrity (starting 5 mins behind me) on the out leg), and to feel reasonably good after the finish (although nearly fell asleep against the window of the car waiting at a level crossing on the way back to the strip). Didn't manage the 1h 10m target for the 30 miles, but times were a good 3 minutes slower all round due to the wind.

Overall a great day, with a surprising 9th place finish!

Brief report, more full effort later

Mr Cowden and I had a fun day on the rolling hills of West Lothian.

In short I got an unexpected 9th place and managed to not get passed by anyone!

Lovely weather with a little flutter of snow at the end

Sunday's going to hurt

If ever there was a chance for Couttie to beat me this is it. Cowden will be on the start line too. Oh dear. :/

Forecast does look sunny and probably <20% chance of rain, windy and to "feel like 1 degree C at 9am", I'd say take your good bike but leave the 808's at home

Tempted, but think I might do the Scottish 100 instea

I'll take the cranks Rich

It's basically from junction 5 of the M77 to J6 roundabout and back, except on the A77!

Strip at Fairweather Hall

Thanks Paul, it wasn't really sweaty anyway!

Not a huge bunch in the A's tonight, think there were 9 in the first 40 lap Scratch, finished fourth as four of us managed to lap everyone else, not much of a sprint left and some burning lungs after that effort!

Reasonable effort in the 60 lap points, penultimate sprint was just piped by Davy Lines (should have stood up for the sprint!) then kept rolling at speed with 10 to go after it and found myself approaching half a lap up. Pulled up the track as the first chase group approached, they caught me, I tagged on and then they gave up. I continued my breakaway for another 5 laps with a couple of chasers eventually catching again, got swallowed by the bunch on the last lap, all good fun!

Wasn't feeling very motivated for the last 30 lap scratch, but our bunch of 7 stayed together till the last straight despite a couple of big digs by Andrew Whitehall, rolled over in 7th.

10:00am Langbank 10 miles

Could we have a show of hands please for Saturday, also if somebody would like to take their turn of timekeeping then please make yourself known.

The start is in Langbank, just along from The Wheelhouse restaurant. The course runs up the B789 all the way to the roundabout at Houston, where you turn and re-trace most of the way back to Langbank. The end of the course cuts off before the last steep sections and finishes at the entrance to Gleddoch Country Club.

A slightly undulating course, reasonably quiet road for those keen to do their first TT, open to those who intend to join the club or are already a member. Relaxed and friendly event (might hurt a little in places though)

A for me

Finished 11th in 22:56, my aims were sub 23min and top 10, so nearly there!

Mike home in a 26:57, Emma in 29:04 so well inside her 30min target, well done!