After our recent YPR team meeting, the Board has decided to award monthly “Yellow Jersey of the Month”, for the team rider who has accumulated the most mileage for that month. The method of deciding the Green and Polka-Dot jerseys is still under heated deliberation.

I’m going to go ahead and award myself the YJotM for October, unless anyone thinks they can catch up on the 300km lead in the next 2 days. Here’s the retrospective YJotM awards and this month’s current standings:

July
1. HY (410km)
2. Geek (270km)
3. Keith (240km)

Aug
1. Keith (690km)
2. Geek (540km)
3. HY (370km)

Sept
1. HY (750km)
2. Keith (681km)
3. Geek (200km)

Oct
1. Keith (802km)
2. HY (517km)
3. Geek (511km)

After some determined negotiations, Team Recruitment has finally convinced HP into joining the ranks, and he will joining us as of November 1st. More to follow…

TYP managed a clean-sweep of the bottom 3 places in C-grade:

5th – Keith (still single-speeding)
6th – HY (dropped a chain)
7th – HP (just plain unfit)

Good work guys!

It has been a while since I have looked for any new information on the particular form of arthritis that I suffer from. This is mostly because the symptoms have been quite good for the last 12-18 months so I have been off the drugs. However this past winter has seen a return of some of the symptoms. Fortunately I have managed to deal with it for the most part by going on the meds again.

Recently, I came across some new(ish) research into low-starch diets in the treatment of ankylosing spondylitis. There is plenty of information if you can be bothered reading the Google results, but it involves a particular bacteria which feeds on undigested starches and is found in high-levels in people with AS. The hypothesis is that cutting down on starches in the diet will help to prevent this bacteria from multiplying and as a result preventing the autoimmune reactions which is what causes the symptoms of AS.

It’s going to be tricky going on a low-starch diet as a cyclist though.

There was quite a turnout from our extended MTBing group for the first of the Saturday morning Knobbysports Bushy Park dirt crits.

Full write-up here at wurple.

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