The definition of madness.....

is making the same mistake twice.

I spent all day, and I mean literally all day, rebuilding my Argon TT bike. I had got it back from my local bike shop who had finally managed to get the spacers off that had been welded firmly to the steerer tube with my turbo sweat. So I set aside all of yesterday in order to get it ready for today's Charlotteville 50 mile TT.

I had barely serviced the bike over the last couple of years and if had finally failed on a few fronts and needed some tlc.

• New rear brake installed.
• New front chainring installed.
• Headset bearings stripped and re-greased.
• Selcof handlebars installed and the steerer tube trimmed to neaten up.
• All new gear and brake cables installed.
• New chain
• New bar tape (obviously!)

Thankfully, Mrs Wheezy and the cat decided that I was best left to it, that conversation would be useless while I wrestled with the intricacies of the Argon's engineering. This also involved a lot of swearing and a lot of cups of tea. By 6 o' clock in the evening I'd got it sorted and after two months, I had a working bike.

All good, but there was no time to road test the bike save for checking all the indexing. I would have to test the fit of the bike in the following day's time trial at the Charlotteville CC event.

Today's event was one that's been a bit of an early season opener for me for the last couple of years. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but I struggled from the off. It was really cold this morning and I never got warm. Probably on it's own, this would have been fine but I had raised my saddle a few millimetres during the rebuild and this came back and literally bit me on the bum. I ended up riding 2:06:14, which is the slowest I've ridden over 50 miles in a few seasons. The bars were comfortable but they did slip which didn't help. I was some 2 minutes down on Simon, so not a disaster but I need to get my position properly sorted before thinking about the 12 hour in a few weeks time.

An existential crisis

Our first race back in 2013

Do I sell my TT bike?

I’ve been thinking about it for a while. Part of me knows that I will regret it, while another part knows that it will set me free from aiming to go faster, produce more power and get more aero. Of course, I would replace it with another bike; I’m not *that* stupid, but there is quite a large part of me that wants shot of the Argon, and for good.

It’s not the Argon’s fault. It’s been a brilliant first (only?) time trial bike. Comfortable, forgiving, adjustable, it’s been everything that I could wish for.

It’s more to do with what it stands for. Whenever I ride it I’m usually absolutely burying myself on some windswept dual carriageway, sucking down my own snot while attempting to get every last muscle fibre to produce power and I’m just a bit tired of doing that these days. On top of that, I can't keep up in the arms race that is time trialling. At best, I'm around the 50th percentile in any given field, so hardly pulling up trees. I've gone well under 1 hour for 25 miles and under 2 hours for 50. I feel that I have gone just about as far as I want to go with it.

So sell it, or keep it? I could keep it, put drops on it and turn it into an aero road machine, while the Van Nic becomes my tourer/Audax bike? Or, just keep it attached to the turbo while I sort out what I want to do.

 Answers on a postcard please.

Broken noodle stops play

I never learn. I really never learn. At the start of every TT season I take my Argon off the turbo and begin to tinker. This tinkering usually occurs some 2 hours before I am due to sign on to my first big event. Yesterday was no different. The only thing I dislike with my Argon is the low rear brake under the bottom bracket. It looks great and is maybe marginally more aero than one in the standard position but is doesn't half get covered in road crud. Not a problem if you religiously clean your bikes, but I don't. So with two hours to go before signing on for the Phoenix Open 10, there I was trying to recable my rear brake. Not a difficult job and I do have an engineering degree after all, so it should be a pretty easy job. But no. Despite much mucking about and vocal blasphemy, the new cable wouldn't go through. Five minutes later, and the noodle thingy which guides the cable into the caliper is in two bits when it should only be one piece; completely sheared off in my hands.

Broken noodle thingy

Twenty minutes later and I am on my road bike, heading to the 10. It wasn't all bad. A solid 60 miles in the afternoon, but the 10 was very hard. No aero benefits and tired legs battling the winds. particularly on the way back. I was the minute man for the joint winner, Liam Maybank. He's winning everything in the district at the moment and I was hoping that on the Argon that I might be able to hold him off until the turn at halfway, but being on the Van Nic I thought that I could hold him off until Beare Green at quarter distance. Nope, not a chance. He went past me just after the petrol station pushing his 60 tooth chainring like an exocet. The guy is a complete machine. I, on the other hand, spluttered my way round with a mid 26; some 3 minutes slower than this event last year. I'm not too despondent. I did an ftp test earlier this week and that's improved from 226 to 253 watts, which is great news and that test coupled with a hard interval session on Thursday left me feeling pretty wiped, but the test proves that the training's working.

I'm enjoying my running again. Just a few times a week, aiming to get one long one in with a couple of 3-5 milers. No speedwork and nothing stupid. Just slow or steady comfortable miles aiming to keep injury free. Today, I even went for a swim. Well sort of. I took the two little wheezys to the local pool and tried to do a few lengths, dodging the floating mats and inflatables with boisterous teenagers. It was almost like an open water swim start. Ended up doing 900m. A start, but a hell of a long way to go. Onwards.