The case of the cracked carbon blade and Barry's misguided missive ...

Saturday was superb here in Geneva. I guess it was close to 20 degrees in the afternoon. I rode in summer gear and a gillet and to be honest didn't need the gillet as I wasn't descending from any significant hills. A short 30k ride was all I got around to doing after finishing off the usual Geneva Saturday chores. One thing I couldn't shake though was this cracking noise whenever I went into a high tempo pedal. My first thought was that a spoke had come lose, but nope. Next I thought maybe it was just some dirt between my cleat and the pedal base. Nothing. 

On Sunday I was out early to check out the bike and the annoying noise on a long ride with 2 Cat 3 climbs. Another great day. No real noise until I raised the tempo out of Messery. Mind you I was more concerned with a malfunction in my cadence sensor for the first 35k's. I fixed that with a system reboot. After that the noise came back. Once I got home I decided to clean the bike and re-lube the chain gear. I was hoping I'd find it was something stuck in a tight nook. OK, so below is a picture of a Look Keo Blade pedal as per my bike. 

The last thing I did was wipe down the pedals. When I flipped them over I believe I found the problem. That piece on the left with the small red stripe is a carbon blade which on this model substitutes for a conventional spring. On mine the carbon blade on the left pedal has a crack almost clear through it running from left to right. Bingo. The noise is the flex of the blade along the crack as it fights to keep me in the pedals as I crank up the power. A new set is 300 bucks, but thankfully Look's website says that the blade can be replaced by a dealer. I guess the boys at Jean Brun are going to get a visit from me tomorrow. I hope they have the part as I don't fancy spending 300 or riding the Grand Fondo with such an obvious fault.

The summary of the weeks exercise looks pretty good to me. I rode or went to the gym everyday. Overall I increased the output to 280km's this week and although I'm looking forward to some carbs tonight I feel pretty good.

As for the weekend financial press I won't refer to the Spanish back-sliding over deficit targets. I think it's getting boring to continually flog the dead euro horse. Nope, my fun piece comes courtesy of the UK Telegraph. It would seem that the boys and girls of the Pru are none too happy with the FSA. Check out "Barry's Weekly Note"; Barry is of course deputy CEO Barry O'Dwyer. I'd like to know more about the personal prejudices he refers to. I reckon Barry has quite a lot of grovelling to do. It's also yet another reason why you should always pause before hitting send on this type of thing. Cheers Barry!