Ramsay

Frank, I'm planning to ride. See on Thursday. Cheers Ramsay

Darryl, I'll see you at Morrisons. Ramsay

Jannza, Thanks again for time keeping. Ramsay

Cracking effort guys. Amazing route and great photos. Where do I sign up for next year? Ramsay

Hoping to make it along. Have only done 10s this year and not since the club 10 champs, so a 25 should be fun!! R

Would really love to, but also have a wedding that weekend, in London! Next year.

Great results guys. Sounds like most are getting into some great form. Ramsay

Was the only JWCC rider down in the Borders this morning for the Lothian Flyer Memorial. Full field of 60 riders rolled out and the pace was fairly good even in the neutral zone! 5 laps of a lovely wee course gave a 37mile race, with a bit of climbing every lap. For the first three laps a solo rider was off the front, but then got cought. I had been around the front of the chasing group (about 25 riders). A lap and a bit was fairly steady tempo and then after a tricky left bend a Nevis RT rider sneaked off the front. I tried to go with him but he was away pretty quickly. As we had 3/4 of a lap to go, I thought we would catch him!! At the start of the last climb, with about 2miles to go, the Nevis rider had 28seconds on the group, so it really was all about 2nd place. The finish was a right hand turn off the main circuit and I stupidly hand't checked it out during the warm up. To cut a long story short, I got to the turn off and went for it, and held a slender gap (i.e. - 2nd overall) as we passed the 100m to go flag. But, unfortunately, my day was done!! Once again, I had the old finish line fever and past the 100m flag was a good steep finish, where most of the main bunch passed me!! Think I was about 20th! You would think that as I had been saying to myself over and over and over again in the last five miles "Don't do too much and don't go early", that I wouldn't have done too much, or gone early, but....... Anyway, good day out and a good spin. Legs felt not too bad. Brain clearly not learning anything from all the races I have done this year! Only slight downer on the day was a loud mouth a**e from a club down the road, who, as well as shouting at people for "cutting him off" when he was weaving all over the road, also took to cursing and swearing at passers by for using the public road!! Idiot! Ramsay

Nice one Greg.

I'm keen and can do 24th or 31st July. On current form though, I should perhaps have a salad, a glass of water and an early night! But I wont. Ramsay

I'm looking for some advice on serious technical gearing problems I had last weekend, both in the road race on Saturday and the early club run on Sunday. On Saturday the problem started on the first climb, where, despite me trying several gears, I could only find reverse. The result of which was I dropped from 5th in the bunch to 75th in less than 45seconds. At the top I manged to find a gear that worked, but by the next climb I once again could only get reverse and was un-ceromoniously dumped out the back! For the early morning run on Sunday I decided to take my winter bike, as clearly my other bike had problems. All appeared well until the Brisbane Glen climb, where I once again could only find reverse and was once again out the back! Thinking I could narrow the problems down to inclines, I also found that reverse gear engaged when I tried to sprint. I did have the same problems earlier in the year and on many occasions in the past, but thought my regular servicing would have solved the issues. I do use a well know Italian brand of componentry and can't find anything about the reverse gear in the manual! As the bikes have sat gathering dust for nearly three weeks (while I have been at four BBQs, and watching about 10 games of rugby, with a beer or two), I can't see how the reverse gearing problem could have occurred! Can anybody help with this recurring technical issue? Has anybody had similar problems? If so, how were they overcome? Ramsay

I'll hit the track at about 7.30ish and head towards Morrisons. R

Would love to, but I am racing the day before and have something pre-arranged for the Sunday afternoon anyway. Had it been a morning start, then I would have done it, but the support race is a 4.30pm (which is a strange time!). Ramsay

Alan, Sunday morning sounds good to me. I'm racing on Sat down at Straiton, so will confirm for definite on Saturday afternoon/evening (depending on whether I can still sit on a bike or not!). Cheers Ramsay

Al - You only get a PB if you finish! Not going to be able to make it tonight. I also can't make Thursday if any APR training is organised. Ramsay

Sounds like the APR is not going to happen tonight?!? Hopefully next week though. Martin - Sorry, not going to make Bellahouston as there is no way to get from work to Beith and then back up in time. Cheers Ramsay

I'll be there. Ramsay

I'll be there. Ramsay.

All, Sorry for very late notice, but something has come up at work that requires my time tonight and I now can't get down to timekeep tonight! As Frank is down to timekeep for next week, I'll do the week after (16th), unless he wants to change. Have a good one. Cheers Ramsay

Sean, What date is it on? Ramsay

I know Frank has volunteered for time keeping, but I am definitely not going to ride on Tuesday (2nd) so am available to time keep. Cheers Ramsay

Darryl, I'll be there. Is it opposite the Gateside Inn we meet? Cheers Ramsay

Paul, I can now make Sunday. I don't mind giving Darryl some company in the first group either! Cheers Ramsay

My cousin Mark's book (The man who cycled the world) was out last week, so I thought I would post a shameless plug for it! I went to the launch in Edinburgh last week, which was good. I'm currently about 30 pages into it, and so far it is a good read (and I'm not just saying it!). http://www.amazon.co.uk/Man-Who-Cycled- ... 132&sr=1-1 I was also at his leaving party on Saturday night for his next adventure (which he starts tomorrow), which you can read about here: http://www.markbeaumontonline.com/mbo/ Or here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/cyclingtheamericas/ Enough now Ramsay

As Paul said, it was a great day out in the sun (and I also have quite sunburned arms!) The constant accelerations from trying to hing onto the fast guys just took too much out of my legs. Also, on the second lap, three of us made a bit of a break for 5 miles or so, but got reeled in (luckily, as a bit of cramp had started in the legs)! Some good photos on the Falkirk BC website. Ramsay