Hackness - The week after!
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Hackness - The week after! |
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I am writing these comments as the rain is lashing against the window and the bottom of the garden has disappeared into the fog – just a slight change from last weekend. Hackness made a superb event centre for these 2 events and those people who stayed on Saturday evening could appreciate the atmosphere, views and climate of England at its best!!
Mandy Faint made us think as we rode around Broxa and Langdale on Saturday. Some of the single tracks were remarkably fast, the LangdaleQuest vehicles have really opened up some of the tracks as long as you avoided the worst of the mud hollows. However there are a few extra tracks as a result which can cause problems. Sorry about the path marked between #3 and #23. The forest has been felled so it should have been removed and will be on the next edition of the map.
Nick Harmer nearly cleared up which is even more impressive when you realise that he then put out the controls in Wykeham for Sunday’ event. Steph Fountain won her first solo event so Bernard has obviously holding her back. She repeated her success on Sunday making her the only rider to win her category on both days. Wayne Nicholson had a disaster both days so will be hoping that Andrew Windrum’s success in the World MTBO Champs (37th) will inspire them both back to winning ways in the Wolds.
Nick and Danny Chan had planned a very different event in Wykeham but equally as challenging. If there was an obvious route on Saturday it was harder to find on Sunday. Most successful riders went anti-clockwise into Bickley and then stayed high before finishing off in Wykeham. I went the other way!! Mandy Faint’s efforts putting out all of the Langdale controls obviously paid off as she was the first solo female rider. Richard Harrison provided a new name at the top of the Senior Men’s category but it was up the Simon Coiley in the Veteran class to record the highest score on the day.
2 apologies from Sunday. #39 was in the wrong place so if you couldn’t find it you should already have been given the points. Some riders did find it and passed the word around but it had been placed on a different junction about 200m south of where it was marked.
There was an extra track leaving the main track south of #41 which caused some confusion. However, as the control was in the right place and only 50m from the major junction which was correctly mapped I am not intending to credit the points to anyone who couldn’t find it. Jens has already altered his database so that the next edition of the map will be correct. All of our planners are volunteers and do an excellent job planning the courses and checking the tracks but I think it would be unreasonable to expect them to ride every track in such huge forests.
Thanks to all of the helpers who volunteered to make this event run smoothly. Thanks to Hackness for making us welcome and providing an excellent hall and camping field. We will be back.
Thanks to the Forestry Commission and Wykeham Estate for allowing us to use these forests without too many restrictions; and final thanks to LangdaleQuest for scaling down their operation on Saturday and asking their drivers to give way.
Finally, good luck to Frank Appleton who is recovering from major knee surgery and should be back in the car park, if not the saddle, next month!!