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As seems to be a feature of this winter, it's tricky predicting upcoming conditions - Met Office reckons Saturday will be dry and 4-6 degrees, Metcheck reckons it'll be snowing and 3-4. Your guess is as good as mine.

Given the impending season start though, let's pencil in those fast laps of Escrick. 9:00 in the square and split into groups there, head to Escrick and three laps of the circuit. If the weather's hideous we can reconsider and (as last week) simply head out for a brisk three-hours-worth.

Good ol' Met Office pretty much nailed it this week; wet roads as we gathered in the square but no rain and - occasionally - a hint of watery sunshine. Of course Escrick being Escrick we all ended up soaked anyway - and a brief moment when TimJ took to the mud got the adrenaline going - but it could have been much worse (eg:- like last week ).

We split into two groups in the square and once the big guns had set off in a "brisk" group the remaining six of us rolled south, picking up RichT on the way. Once hostilities commenced we quickly shrank back to six, and five by halftime. 1hr 36min at 222W for me, and I'm glad it wasn't a lot longer. 22, 21.5 and 21mph for the three laps, which is still a bit down on likely first races but given the small group wasn't bad at all. Nice safe riding; many thanks to all.

Cyclingnews has a pre MSR interview with Haussler where he comments "it’s going to be a good race for guys like Goss, Hushovd, riders who like the shitty weather and the cold. It’s 6 or 7 degrees with rain, that’s almost freezing and that’s really hard. Do that for 6 or 7 hours and half the peloton will be blocked in the head and a lot of other guys won’t be able to move their legs". "Almost freezing"? HTFU!

To be honest the only reason why the group dropped to 5 halfway is because in the time it took me to get my glove off and retrieve a gel from my pocket in Thorganby on lap 2 (and therefore drop to the back and ease off a bit to do so) you'd all b*ggered off and put 30 metres into me which despite my best efforts I couldn't get back. Rode the remaining lap and a bit on my own and finally caught RichT on the run back into town. A few guys looked round as you rode off and I thought you were going to knock one off and let me back on, but it didn't happen. Shame cos I actually felt better on lap 2 than I did on lap 1. C'est la vie...

You lost 30 metres taking a gel Nigel! Have you got a combination lock on your jersey pocket?

Awful weather as usual, and by the third lap I couldn't see where I was going. I hated it and I'm just not good enough to ride with you, but thanks for putting up with me because my heart rate never dropped below 170 for the Escrick circuits and considering that I think my max is about 180 that's got to do me good and I certainly worked harder than I did in the MTB race last week. Thanks Chaps.

No Darren, thick winter gloves, a zipped rear pocket in my rain jacket and no coordination! Roll on nicer weather and easy access pockets!

Or perhaps I need XL gels?

I kept saying up nigel up<youre>..!Anyway to the ride.As Nigel says roll on some good weather Felt ok during the ride and we rolled through pretty well with some strong efforts from both RichT and Phil.That circuit is always tough for me somehow and as we headed home i was pretty bushed.Had the lurgy last week so maybe a hangover from that.cheers Timj