Event Details
Club: | Lakeland Lanequests |
Event Name: | Lakeland Bike O - Spark Bridge |
Date: | 09/06/15 |
Format: | Bike O |
Mapping: | Ordnance Survey |
Time Limit: | 2 Hours |
National League: | - |
League: | Lakeland Bike O 2015 (Round 2 of 6) |
Electronic Punch: | No |
Event Report
EVENT 2 REPORT: ROYAL OAK, SPARK BRIDGE Tuesday 9th June
A near record turnout of 160 competitors for the second in the Lakeland Lanequest charity series of cycle orienteering events were treated to a wonderful summers' evening of near cloudless skies, evening sunshine and almost no wind when the Wheelbase Cycles sponsored series converged on the Royal Oak Spark Bridge on Tuesday night. "Fantastic evening", "brilliant views", "steep hills and lots of gates!": these were just some of the comments as everyone bathed in the long awaited evening sunshine.
With a two hour time limit to visit as many as possible of the 30 controls laid out by course planner Graham Christian, it seemed highly unlikely that the combination of stiff climbs and narrow gated roads that required a prolonged stop would see a lower scoring event than usual.
But that would be to underestimate the level of competitiveness at the top of each of the 5 classes.
These are Graham Christian's organisers comments:
As this was my first time as organiser, and with many first time helpers there was potential for chaos when we couldn't get access to the village hall as expected and the first punters started arriving! However, the team stepped up to the task and got things running smoothly. Many thanks to Gary Thomason, Ian Wharton and Ian Ramsey for handling the registration and Gill and Sue McKinnon who did a grand job squeezing around 100 cars into the limited space available in Spark Bridge. Thanks also to Ray and Marion Morriss for looking after the start and finish ably as ever; The Royal Oak who put on a nice choice of food and did a great job of feeding and watering the influx of finishers; and finally the residents of Spark Bridge for putting up with it all. With a good turnout (over 140 riders with many new registrations) and fine weather, I am very pleased with how it went. My chosen charity is Macmillan, who provided wonderful support during my father's cancer battle.
I regularly cycle this area on my commutes and extended commutes and could see lots of potential for a LQ course. The area has many fine vistas: up the Crake and Rusland valleys, out over the Leven estuary or out over towards the Irish Sea. Admittedly, these views mainly come after pedalling up a steep hill, the terrain is lumpy - and the crossings over the Crake between the east and west halves of the plan area are sparse and generally steep. I tried to arrange the check points so there were many options for all levels of ambition and imagined many would head south from the start towards 27 (the least steep route east) and into the area around Bouth and Oxen Park and then head West either from 2 or 14/28. The following route would suit those heading for a high score with options to drop 1, 10, 11, 2, and 22 towards the end (~54km 1030m ascent):
28, 6, 8, 13, 9, 7, 23, 16, 3, 27, 14, 4, 20, 29, 19, 30, 21, 15, 18, 24, 12, 25, 5, 22, 11, 26, 10, 1, 2, 22, 17
A more optimal route aiming for all 30 check points tackles checkpoint 2 early with fresh legs (52 km, 1027m ascent):
17, 1, 10, 11, 26, 2, 23, 7, 9, 13, 8, 6, 16, 3, 27, 14, 28, 4, 20, 29, 19, 30, 21, 15, 18, 24, 12, 25, 5, 22
The road up from 18 to 5 is a bit of a trap, the surface is appalling and there are gates, however that didn't hold back Tom Gibbs!
Which brings us back to Tom Gibbs, a clear overall winner this week.....
In the Men's Solo class, yet again Tom Gibbs and Ulverston local David Heffernan came first and second respectively, Heffernan's local knowledge all to no avail against the exceptional climbing prowess of adventure racing champion Gibbs.
We all want to know which route Tom took, so here is his report:
Another great Lanequest on Tuesday, like the previous week it took a long time to get an efficient route, especially as Dave was close last week and I know he always finds a good route. I looked at a couple of variants, with the main options being how to do the southern group. In the end I decided upon
22,11,10,1,17,26,2,23,9,7 (out & back),13,8,6,16,3,14,28,4,19,30,21,24,15,18,5,25,12,20,29
All the gates made me nervous about whether it was clearable, but distance suggested it would be. I went this way round as I thought that it meant generally steeper climbs (like Bessy Bank) and steadier descents, plus tailwind back from 1. There weren't many options for dropping individual controls, 15 was my option, so decided it was probably better to man up and just get all of them. Had a moment at 6 as I took the top road and then missed the turning (looked like someone’s drive) and went to the next road then had to come back. Cost me probably 3 minutes. After that I pushed extra hard and managed to clear up and get back on time. With that error I was very happy to top score. Total distance was 52.1km and 1000m of climb (on a Garmin Forerunner)
Can’t wait for Elterwater, then hoping Cartmel is overly hard as I’m away on holiday for that one !
The Women's solo was a similar story, with Helen Jackson again triumphing over local rider Jo Cleary, these two drawing ahead of the rest of the ladies field after only 2 events. The Cleary clan did however have cause to celebrate in the Juniors class, where Hannah Cleary Jones was yet again a decisive winner.
Father and son pairing of Derek and Stewart Allison improved from a second place last week to win their Generation Pairs class, with Eddy and Andy Leedham some way behind in second place, nevertheless delighted to improve on 7th place last week.
With 57 individual competitors the Adult Pairs/3's was not only the largest , but also possibly the most hotly contested class. This is developing into a battle of the tandems between Andrew and Tim Seddon, Sarah and Andrew Crozier, Rachel and Mike Toyn and Bruce Attwood and Sally Ward. This is the order in which they finished, but so closely are they matched, it is anyone's guess who will emerge series champions in the 6 series events.
Here is Tim Seddon's report
A fantastic evening great weather, sunny and calm. Andy and I were ready earlier than last week and had a little time to try and analyse the course but no obvious route seemed apparent with pros and cons for many ideas. We settled on going out up the steep hill to the East of the start, preferring to get the bigger hill done with fresh legs than in a panic the end. We then roughly worked our way round clockwise. The last mark we overshot and had to go back to collect making us 24s late meaning that the Pairs event was very close the top 3 teams on the night all with 25 controls separated only by 2 penalty points each and other teams very closely following on.
Our route went 3 16 23 9 7 13 8 6 27 14 28 4 20 19 30 21 15 24 12 18 5 25 22 26 17
Probably not the route we would choose again, I think we would possibly start with some of the controls we missed in the north west corner of the map and maybe cut out 7 and 15 which both required quite a bit of climbing on out and back routes.
Thanks once to all the organisers for coming up with another great course really making us think all the way round, and for all their work on the night. The views around were stunning particularly when riding north looking at the Coniston Fells, helped by the clear air with no haze.
Running down the classes:
Men's Solo:
1. Tom Gibbs 300
2. David Heffernan 286
3. Sam Clifford 258
Women's Solo:
1. Helen Jackson 260
2. Jo Cleary 245
Juniors:
1. Hannah Cleary-Hughes 230
Generation Pairs:
1. Derek and Stewart Allison 190
2. Eddy and Andy Leedham 130
Adult Pairs/3's:
1. Andrew and Tim Seddon 248
2. Sarah and Andrew Crozier 246
3. Rachel and Mike Toyn 244
Next event:
16th June: Britannia Inn, Elterwater LA22 9HP. Charity: Mountain Bothies Association