We hope you all had a great day and that you come back to Dentdale and ride the parts you didn’t get to on Sunday.
The event area certainly packs a lot of climbing in, although it is possible to climb on tarmac and descend on tracks. Tom rode an anticlockwise circuit around the outside of the map that made the most of a strong tailwind and only left 4 controls out, which is impressive over such a huge area.
Making it a 4hr event in remote country made it hard work setting out, not helped by the road closure that was impassible to bikes a couple of weeks ago. Thankfully, the council relented and opened a foot/cycle route past it.
The rough terrain caused a few mechanicals around the course and Mike suffered a puncture above Dent Station that required four hands to get the tyre off the rim (thanks Alice). Todd ripped off his electronic gear lever and had to go back up to the Occupation Road to find it.
The tracks closest to the event centre were the roughest but the further east you went, the faster and smoother the terrain got, although the Cam Road is high and a long way from Dent.
All the checkpoints were visited but 19 was a bit tricky to spot from the road on the north side of the valley because the fingerpost is well camouflaged in the farmyard and number 30 was a steep out-and-back.
Fortunately, the event managed to coincide with a brief weather window and those who started earlier got back in the dry. As soon as the last rider finished the rain set in and clag came down to 100m and stayed there for the day.
Thanks to Tony for his usual help and guidance and to all of you for making it such a great day.
If you have a few minutes to spare can we ask a favour?
We are trying to persuade the National Park to look at establishing a permissive bridleway through Dodderham Moss to connect the Pennine Bridleway and the Cowgill/Garsdale bridleway. On the day this would have been number 29 to number 30 which would have been a great link. The track already exists, it just needs a willingness on the part of the landowner and a couple of gates at either end.
The National Park are swayed by the number of people who raise particular issues so if you think it is a good idea could you please email the Area Ranger at Steve.Hastie@yorkshiredales.org.uk

Thank you

Andy & Rachel