Life in the Bus Lane

Tonight was the first official training session at Odd Down Circuit. VC Walcot were running it this week and split the evening in to three sessions, mixed ability, club rider, and E/1/2/3/4′s. I went for the former.

Checking the weather forecast earlier in the week didn’t fill me with confidence, the forecast was for heavy rain and strong winds gusting up to 50mph. Turns out the forecast wasn’t far off. Despite my better judgement I kitted up and rode up to the circuit in plenty of time to sign on, I needn’t have hurried as there were only two other people there, both hiding in a car. Eventually another rider turned up so Andy opened up the circuit and two of us took a slow ride round to remove any debris from the track. Turning the corner on to the bottom straight was an experience, the evil headwind robbing you of any speed you’d gained on the descent to the corner. Coming back along the bottom was nice and easy until you turned into the back straight and ground to a halt again. No-one was going to be setting any lap records tonight.

After a mere 9 laps I called it a night and rolled back down the hill for a shower, food, beer, and a film. Hopefully the weather will be somewhat improved for next week.

My second trip out with the VC Walcot Easyriders today, and this time we headed out to the wrong side of town, not somewhere I’ve ridden much for some reason. Probably something to do with Bathford Hill being a bit on the steep and long side of things for my liking. However once that was out of the way it was mostly downhill ride to Lacock where we stopped for coffee and a cake. After the coffee it was time to get back on the bike for a long gentle climb back up to the top of Bathford Hill where we got to enjoy it as a 40mph descent rather than a 7mph climb, followed by a spin across town to Chelsea Road for another coffee.

The new 11-speed Campagnolo Record chainset on the Firebird seems to have cured the chainsuck problem alluded to a few weeks ago, but I need to retape the bars again as the tape keeps slipping.

Today was the official soft opening for the new 1.5km Odd Down Cycle Circuit in Bath.

The official first lap was taken by the local MP Don Foster along with some school competition winners and representatives of the local clubs VC Walcot, Bath CC, and Somer Valley CC, following that there was a 2 hour long open session which I was helping marshal. Plenty of riders turned out from young families through to club racers and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves.

There will be a bigger opening festival and family fun day on 13th July.

More photos: Odd Down Cycle Circuit Soft Opening

More coverage:
road.cc: Odd Down circuit opens in Bath + video
BBC: Bath cycling circuit opens at Odd Down playing fields

After some gentle persuasion, I finally got around to joining Velo Club Walcot, and today dragged myself out of bed in time for my first ride with the Easyriders. Give or take a few minor changes, today’s route was my normal Chew Valley ride. This meant that when I disappeared off the back on the climbs I still knew where I was going. We stopped for a much needed tea and cake at Chew Valley, then a coffee at Chelsea Road before making it home in time for the last couple of hours of Liège-Bastogne-Liège. The only downside was a bit of chainsuck on the Singular Firebird, probably as a result of using a 10-speed chainset on an otherwise 11-speed drivetrain.