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It had been a warm muggy day on Tuesday and the wind dropped for the evening leaving a warm night with lots more flies to get stuck in our teeth. Malcolm had planned a perfect layout with a certain amount of choice, but there was a route to tie all the controls together. The winning route by Paul Trott was 1 2 6 25 5 4 7 8 9 13 15 16 17 18 14 11 10 29 12 20 22 23 27 24 26 28 30 21 19 3. This was a route taken by many, including myself except we didn't have time for the 21 and 19 loop at the end. I covered 29.6 miles at an average of 15.8 mph.
The views from Harrisend Fell and Catshaw Fell were impressive, I saw a hot air ballon down Preston way, Blackpool tower was clearly visible and Ken Shepherd claims he saw the Isle of Man ferry coming in?. I haven't been to Abbeystead before, but it looked a nice quiet village with hills in every direction. The part I liked most was weaving back and forth accross the bridges on the M6. We all must have been under these bridges many times and wondered where they all go, now we know. The bridge at control 30 was very steep and now I know that it is Scorton church spire that can be seen off the motorway.
The Motorway at the bridge near control 26 was a very straight stretch, just like a runway. 6 times I crossed the M6 tonight during the event. Thanks to Malcolm for getting us the permissive route along the reservoir, always nice to see something different and exclusive. The biggest climbs seemed to be from 17 to 18 at Abbeystead and from 12 to 20 up past Crosshill Farm. There were some cracking descents, I remember it being very fast down past Yates after control 14 and also under the trees between 27 and 24. It really was a nice area and not one that I would usually find myself riding over.
There were plenty more entries this week and the mens reuslts were close at the top, B Barnes even creeping into the top 5. R Slattery made a firm statement in winning the ladies solo by a clear margin, although I do know that P Chapman lost a few points being late back. Junior C Hebbert gathered an impressive 180. There was a strong Croppers contingent in the pairs class, the Walkers and Wedderburns 1st and 2nd... Ken Shepherd would like to thank all those who stopped and offered help to him when his chain snapped 100 metres from the start. 2000 miles isn't bad for a mountain bike chain that never gets lubed from one week to the next is it?
A big thanks for Malcolm and Kay Hartley plus all the keen helpers at the start and finish for a very slick faultless event.
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