Same format as last year, the 2010 Tour Circuit Series consisted of 10 races spread around the country. Some new venues and some we have visited before, but as in the first running of the series, there was some terrific racing.
The first race was at Canary Wharf in London's docklands. Although I have been to the Excel Arena I had never seen the main business area around Canary Wharf before. It took me 7 hours to drive from home and I arrived there completely goosed. This was no joke because I then had to start 'work' and unload the van before setting up the cameras and all the kit which goes with it.
I knew beforehand that the setup would be harder and with not having John with me I had only one photofinish camera to work with. Of course I still had the IdentiLynx video as well, but I would have preferred two FinishLynx cameras as usual.
Here's a few pictures showing the finish area being constructed during the afternoon with the impressive buildings of London's financial heart providing a backdrop.
 
It's fair to say that there were problems. The first being that the road closure was not put in place until 1730. With a support event scheduled for 1800, it was really a non-starter, and that race was put back until 1830. This meant that the main race would start half an hour late at 1930.
Consequently the race would not finish until around 2045 and guess what? It would go dark! The pictures were quite good during the event for the intermediate sprints, but with a couple of laps to go the light went completely and I could not read the photofinish pictures.
The little IdentiLynx video camera was slightly clearer and I could just make out the riders' numbers from that. The picture below shows part of the screenshot to highlight what I mean. Without the video there would have been no accurate result.
 
 
There was a first at Peterborough. The organisation tried out transponders for the first time as an experiment. They were not the 'proper' AMB ones as used in the major tours, but basically a chip on a thin strip of plastic using RFID technology.
They were initially going to stick them on the bikes but there was a problem with that so they stuck the chips on the riders helmets. Quite a good idea really because it would still work if a rider changed bikes. Here's a bike with chip sort of attached! 
Of course, some bit of kit was needed to receive the information, and here it is (below) set up in our unit. Bit of a monster box really. 
So how did the box of tricks receive the pulses from the riders? The image below shows four antenna on the underside of the gantry. They are the white boxes underneath the clocks and to either side. The equipment seemed to work reasonably well but then I was not able to pay too much attention to it. However I was aware of some issues which would need to be sorted if this particular piece of technology is brought into wider use. For a first effort, not bad, but the software would seem to need a bit of input from someone who knows what cycling wants. 
These races get harder as I get older. Why, I don't know! With all the equipment to unload, set up, dismantle and put back in the van at the end of the day it is physically getting a bit too much. So I was delighted to be able to park the van the closest I have ever managed. Below, look at the view from our unit at Chester. Couldn't get much better than that. 
 
Best pic of the lot to finish with (below). Rob Hayles taking the mickey out of me by fitting a frame number the size of a place mat on a dinner table.
All because of a minor hiccup at an earlier race! 
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