Duo Normand 2009

So, to finish off 2008 and as a contribution to Team Grumpy's race planning for 2009, here's the latest info on the 2009 edition of Team Grumpy's favourite 2-up event, the Duo Normand.
"Grumpy" Art Vanderlay has dropped me an email linking to the UCI calendar for 2009, in which the date for the Duo Normand is fixed for 20th September. Early notice is good for me, since my work calendar gets annoyingly booked up a year in advance (one of the contributions to my general grumpiness).
Stage two in planning for the Duo will now involve "Grumpy" Art cooking up some madcap scheme to enter in a new category in another vain attempt to get on the podium. You only get there for a first place in the minor categories, unfortunately. Annoyingly we only placed second in the last two Duos that we rode (2006 and 2008), though the margin between us and the winners of our category this year was alarmingly large. Anyway, the discussion will be argued over by email for the next few months, until one of us just goes and enters. And then it will continue, because we can still change the category surprisingly late in the day (and in fact new teams can turn up in the lists right up to the wire, and after entries have supposedly closed).
Stage three is deciding on how long we will go for, whether we'll bring families, have a holiday, etc. This is important in connection with finding accommodation and sorting out travel.
Here's the preview I wrote of the 2008 race - has details of the course and a number of photographs.
Here's the Team Grumpy report of the 2008 race - complete with photographs and movies.