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Well, what a big map! this was twice the area covered last week at the Helm, surely it was impossible for Paul Trott to clean up this week. The controls were laid out pretty much all over the place. There were a few loops, but all roads led to Crook in the middle. The weather was again perfect, no wind, mild temperature and a bright night. That is 5 out of 6 events that have had fine weather. An impressive turn out of 95 riders was the biggest yet at the Wilf's Cafe final.
Seeing as I won with a score of 230, I'll explain my chosen route. I set off up to 2 then 1 which seemed a long way apart, then 5, 4, 6, 7, 8, 17, 18. I left 19 out on purpose, it looked too far out on a limb and too hilly to be worthwhile. 20, 21, 22, then just after I got no. 23 1 hour had already passed. On to 24, then I reckoned I had time for the lower loop so 25, 26 and across to 27. Up to 28, then up a long drag to 29, across to 30 and with only 22 mins left, my options were pretty limited. I had considered looping round by Burneside, but not enough time left, so straight back home collecting 9 and 10 and landed back at Wilf's with 1 minute spare. This was exactly 30 miles and my ride time was 1:56:49 so just 2 mins spent punching controls and messing with gates. I reckon I had my share of good luck, I made no mistakes, everything fell into place. The gates worked well for me, there always seemed to be someone else there to either open or close them. It was a close run thing, Paul Trott did a very similar route, but got 19 and left out 27 . He finished with 16, 15, 14 instead of 9 and 10 scoring 240, but 3 mins lateness reduced this to 225.
Dropping down to control 1 presented some fantastic views of Langdale Pikes and surrounding hills. The cycleway alongside the A591 proved very handy, though it wasn't quite as easy to overtake on. There were a lot of gates around controls 5, 4 & 6, plenty of climbing too. A nice descent down past 7 and no. 8 was cunningly placed in the bottom of a dip just to catch out the unwary. After control 20, it took no time at all to get to 21. Good level roads around 25 and 26, nice to get the speed up down here. 27 was bad, further up the hill than it looked and 29 and 30 were also hilly. It seemed to take a long time to collect 27, 28, 29 and 30. Good views from the road by control 9 out onto Benson Knot, Scout Scar and the Howgill fells beyond. I only had 4 mins left at control 10, but with it being all downhill, it was easily achievable
Everyone's scores were down because of the big area covered, the unfortunate thing about this is that using the best 4 out of 6 events, many of the results did not count towards the final totals. So the results remained as last week, class A was dominated by Paul Trott, there is just no other word for it. Even though he organised one event and only had 5 scores to count, he was a clear winner with 1145. Tom Somers Cocks was a respectable 2nd on 1090 and yours truly 'King of Wilf's Hills' scraped a 3rd with 1060. It's a shame that Henry Syska could not make more events this year, even though he is a veteran, at last Sunday's national 5 hour trailquest at Pickering, he still beat both me and Paul Trott! Had he done more Lanequests, I expect the top placings would have been different.
Class B was won convincingly by Anne Plant scoring 1045, Jo Barret in a clear second with 970 and Rachel Slattery just getting 3rd with 905. 3rd, 4th and 5th were very close, only 10 points separated them.
Class D was won by Charlie Hebbert with a fairly impressive 780, 2nd was Jason Webb on 350.
As for Class E, well, it was always meant to be a 'fun' category but it got more competitive towards the end. Cheeseman & Morriss seem to have won with 1020, They were challenged by Tyson & Shepherd throughout the series, but a 'no show' from Ken Shepherd at the final event handed the win to the mountain bikers. Colyer & Warburton were 2nd with 885 and it's good to see Mr & Mrs Karen Blackburn bringing up 3rd with 790. I'm sure they felt all the traveling was worthwhile.
So, that's it for another year, it's all over now, including the shouting. Tuesday nights just won't be the same for a month or 2.
Thanks to Charlotte Webb for a good map and a very challenging route, plus all the staff from Wilf's Cafe who helped with the start and finish. Kay Hartley again doing a great job at registration. A super duper huge thanks to Carol McNeil for getting this series off the ground in the first place and continued encouragement throughout. Charlotte is donating the money raised from the last event to Guide Dogs for the Blind.
Fancy a go at organising an event next year? It is very rewarding and presents a great opportunity for you to generate some money for your chosen charity. All it takes is a little organisation, 2 or 3 days worth of time and some friends / relatives to help out on the night. Please don't be shy, organisers are needed to keep this brilliant series going and without them, it simply could not run. Even if you are just thinking of it, give Carol a ring or send her an e-mail, her encouragement will convince you.
I picked up on some comments and feelings at Wilf's Cafe. Some people saying the Lanequests are getting too competitive and others saying they would like more events. Even a winter series, possibly at weekends. The Lanequest series was started by Carol McNeil around the National Bike Week in June and was meant to be aimed for all levels as an introduction to Trailquests, but also as a simple evening ride out round local lanes that you wouldn't normally use. The bonus is that around £100 is raised each week for charity. The format is kept simple to appeal to everyone and it has steadily grown over the last 3 years. I don't see that this has changed, the basic format is still there and the individual can decide how challenging their 2 hour ride is to be. We welcome feedback good or bad, so any comments regarding any of the above, please drop us a line....
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