Fantastic weather for the fourth event of the 2025 series..Bruce Wilkinson and Simon Farrell were our planners for this event and they certainly tested you out on all the hills in this remote part of the Lake District. Well done to all of the winners. Full results are on the Button below.

Planners’s report

Well that was pretty much the best conditions for a Northern Fells event. We set the course to show the different facets of riding around this less frequented part of the Lakes. Clearing the course was going to require over 80km of riding and about 1,650m of ascent / descent. Taking competitors over high fells, along quiet country lanes, through valley side woodlands and across fields. There were a fair number of gates, ease of opening them was a factor in course setting. It’s why the bridleway N of Ruthwaite didn’t make the cut. Riggwood farmyard nearly went the same way but fortunately the farmer replaced it about 10 days ago.

This spring was spent riding the trails and getting a feel for how quick or not the course would be. We went for a May event as it felt like there was a good chance of getting drier ground conditions and the vegetation wouldn’t have swamped some of the lesser used trails. The bracken in Park Wood was head high last August. It still took about four or five evenings worth of cutting and stamping down to get scratching and stinging risk to an acceptable level.

With Uldale as the start / finish the map split quite nicely into three different areas, each with a slightly different feel. The aim was for each one of these to be a navigation challenge in itself with the additional challenge of how to link between them. We set the bulk of the points W of Uldale with plenty of chances to head back to the Finish. East of Uldale was more committing and it was more about would it be better to climb or descend through 2 and 19.

With the benefit of hindsight the event area would have benefited from including the climb out of Caldbeck so 18 wasn’t out and back. A few fence lines on the map to help navigation around 25 and making permitted routes a darker shade of blue.

We are grateful to Mae’s tea room for allowing us to use them as the event centre and Uldale Hall Farm for allowing use of one of their fields for parking.

Bruce.