There was a great turnout and several new faces for our final event of the series. The 3 hour course was Small Area Format (SAF) but the controls were arranged so there was minimal repetition of routes. Despite the forecast being virtually no chance of rain, it did rain for the first hour. This made the trails a bit muddier but the recent dry spell meant that the course area was still firm and very rideable. In mid-October and with the beech woods and clay you get in the Chilterns, this could well have been very different. Unfortunately, there were several punctures and a cut tyre from thorns and flint.

Congratulations to Mark Humphrey for a winning ride and clearance in an amazing 2 hours 35. Ifor Powell and Ian Cartwright also cleared coming in 2nd and 3rd. Rachael Drew won the Women’s and collected all checkpoints but was just over time. Agnes Brooke made her 2nd Youth category win of the series. Ifor’s dominance in the wet and the mud of the first 2 events at the height of the summer secures his overall win for the series. Full results are available on the SLOW website.

The majority of people set off by heading to the muddier side of the map collecting reds to the north east. Most of the rest headed west on the blues. Mark started with reds but headed south west and downhill to the River Thames taking the reds largely in reverse order compared to most. Those on the 2 hour standard course headed for the clusters of controls in wooded areas across the centre of the map. A course map is available on the 2021 results page of the SLOW website.

Thanks to Michael Rackham, Ian Norfield, Ifor Powell and Dave Uglow for collecting in the controls after the event. We look forward to seeing you all next season.