Event Details
Club: | |
Event Name: | XCC Summer 6 - Whinlatter Cumbria - Mountain/Road/Family Bike Event + BBQ |
Date: | 21/08/11 |
Format: | MBO Score |
Mapping: | Ordnance Survey |
Time Limit: | 3 hours |
National League: | - |
League: | XCC summer 2011 (Round 6 of tbc) |
Electronic Punch: |
Event Report
XCC6: Whinlatter, Cumbria. 21st August 2011.
The weather was perfect for racing; its going to be a sunny 19¬oC, with a gentle breeze.
0845hrs Rich from Cyclewise opens up the Cyclewise shop as promised with a big cheery smile as usual and asks if there is anything he can do. Soon he’s made us a great cup of tea as we unload the Sportident kit, which I’m using for the first time as an organiser, but over the last couple of weeks I’ve had some great help from fellow organisers getting my head round it all. We get set up in the Cyclewise Hut and everything is perfect.
0900hrs and the first riders start turning up, ready to go. Everything goes smoothly. It’s great to see some old faces and more importantly some new faces, who want to be added to the trailquest mailing list. I also get some requests from parents wanting to go get their kids on Cyclewise Academy waiting list. This is all going too well.
Early arrivals are Rob Morris & Steve Gibbons and from vitocamperhire.co.uk who have offered up today’s big prize. Steve has managed to break his arm doing some sneaky training at Whinlatter in the week. Rob is new to trailquest, so gets paired up with Alex Chaudri, top local orienteer and one of the stars from Cyclewise Academy. A steady stream of cheerful riders arrive for the next 2 hours and. Simon from Cockermouth Mountain Rescue, today’s beneficiaries, is on hand to help to do the safety briefs and set everyone off. Simon coped well with his 3 year old son’s constant nagging to get to the nearby playpark.
John Johnston turns up, just out of A&E with 6 stitches in his head; “it’ll be fine, I’ll just see how it goes”. Hard man indeed.
1100hrs and all 42 competitors are away. That was a nice steady flow.
1230hrs. Two competitors back well before the 3 hours. 1 lost dibber (a present from his wife! Sounds lke he’s in trouble), 1 cut leg, but plenty of smiles to go with it. We offer first aid, but again, we get “it’ll be fine”. There are some seriously hard people racing here.
1400hrs. It was great to see those who were first time trailquesters coming back with such enthusiasm. Zoe Ferguson won her class on her first attempt. A few people got lost. A few people couldn’t find the checkpoints, but then realise they were looking in the wrong place after talking to colleagues. The scores have increased as the competitors return to a cuppa and homemade flapjack. The flapjack was going to be for prizes, but what the heck, the atmosphere is relaxed and it seems like a better use. Thanks for those who put money in the Mountain Rescue Collection box at the end.
1415hr. One competitor is still out on the course already 23 minutes past the 3 hours. We’ll give it 10 minutes and then we’ll start the search. We fire up the BBQ and stay calm. Bang on the 10 minutes, Martin Hebbert turns up. He’s just lost all his points but doesn’t seem to care (nice bike haven’t seen a Whyte PRST for years).
The overall results were read out shortly afterwards to rapturous applause .
3rd Andy Williamson’s who’s lead of 395 stood for the best part of the final 30 minutes, before
2nd place Alan Hartley nipped in with 400 points in the dying seconds. Just when it looked like it was all over, with the same points but 23 seconds faster was
1st place Graham Fielding.
The routes of the first 3 were varied. Andy Williamson followed the route I thought would be optimum, apart from checkpoint 28 (high up at Darling How). I did feel bad putting that one in, it looks so close. If Andy had gone for checkpoint 29, at the top of the South Red Route he would have surely won, but it’s easy to say that when I’ve been sat looking at it for weeks. Well done Andy, you can’t win ‘em all.
Routes of the top 3
1st 1 11 4 16 26 25 24 17 18 6 7 28 15 14 29 13 23 5 22
2nd 1 11 4 16 26 8 5 22 23 14 29 13 15 28 17 27 21 2 3 12
3rd 1 11 4 5 22 23 8 16 26 25 24 17 7 27 28 14 13 15 12
Most Popular Checkpoints visited.
Checkpoint Number 4 15 11 23 1 5 22 14 26 7 24 16 25 13 17 28 29 6 12 2 21 3 8 18 27 9
Times Punched 30 30 27 27 26 26 26 21 21 20 20 19 19 18 18 14 13 12 12 11 11 9 8 7 7 0
Then the draw for the £240 Vito campervan long weekend donated by vitocampervan.co.uk. All entrant’s names including the 6 which didn’t start (but still paid) were put in the hat. Graham Fielding drew out the name of ....................... Rodney Carter! He seemed to be a popular winner and was genuinely looking forward to enjoying his prize.
The BBQ was then in full swing and much fine food cooked and socialising done. It was great to relax after a long week and get time to meet some new faces. We packed up the BBQ at 430pm. It was hard work, but worth it. Cockermouth Mountain Rescue will receive very close to £300 from the day’s proceeds. Let’s hope we never need them, but it’s good to know the Rescue Teams are there when we are in trouble.
If you have any further feedback on how we could make these events better, it would be appreciated. Fetch a friend along next time and let’s try to keep the sport growing. If you are unsure about organising an event, I can confirm there are plenty of people out there who will help.
See you all on a trail soon. Thanks for all your smiles.
Best Wishes,
Les Barker.
Thanks also to
• Andy Williamson, Bernard Moore, Peter Leeson & Ang Ball – for collecting in check points.
• Colin & Elsie Barker (brother & daughter) – for making the flapjacks a general help.
• John Houlihan – for picking up the Sportident kit – it included waiting up until midnight while I collected in the final checkpoints. Whinlatter is very spooky when you are on your own at night when you take a totally inadequate torch with you (I expected to be finished before dusk, but that’s another long story).
• Forestry Commission – for the free car parking passes and allowing us the use of the forest.
• Cyclewise Whinlatter – For the loan of their Hut, publicity and general support.
• vitocampervan.co.uk – for the BIG prize
............................................................. and many more.
Event Results
Results: | Download |
Club Website: | Unavailable |