A big thankyou to all who turned out yesterday. The weather gods have certainly been kind to us. The forecast was not at all good. We thought that we were lucky putting out the controls on Friday in the dry but it was almost as good yesterday too. We took loads of spare gear expecting to get soaked putting the controls in and out but the washing machine breathed a big sigh of relief when we got home.

Sadly, the nice weather came too late to dry out the trials and anyone who rode the woods or the now infamous #25 will know what I mean! Just be thankful you only had to do it once.

Apologies for some confusion in the woods. I did warn that there were extra trails but, when I set the controls, the route from 4 to 28 was the obvious route. However once one or two of you had mistakenly taken the right-hand fork, because of the muddy conditions the wrong route had become the obvious route. I was quite surprised how it had all changed when I collected the control in. Costly for those who thought 28 would be a quick in and out at the end.

Many thanks for all of the kind comments on Facebook. When someone tells me that they could not work the obvious route or where to go first then I know that we have done our job well! There was quite a bit more road than we would have liked but hopefully the peaceful, pastoral scenery of the Caldew valley made up for it. The ride along the fell track was the jewel in the crown but earlier in the week it was covered in snow and would have been very different. Alison even said she loved the track along river through the woods which was not for the faint hearted in those conditions.

Well done Tom and Astrid Gibbs who kept the top prizes in the family. Who will be vying for the centre of the mantle piece at the end of the season?

Full results are on the www.bmbo.org.uk website.

Well done all and time to recover before Ben Martin tests you all in the Forest of Bowland. Starting from Longridge on 30th April. See the BMBO website for further details. Hopefully the website will be accepting entries in the normal way by then.

Tony & Angela