Where do we start?
RTAs, Light failures, and fuel contamination. this weekend had it all!!!
This event had had to be moved from its original in March to November as the March date clashed with forestry work and the annual deer count.
Current forestry work meant much of the Night course had to be rethought at a late stage, and only while setting out the course did I realise it was now particularly tough for the 1 hour that the Day/night points ratio would have allocated it, so we decided to up the Night CP values by 50% I feel this brought it more in line with the Day Scores
Setting out most of the Course on the Friday was horrendous, gale force winds and heavy rain were pounding the hillside. Come the end I was soaked through and freezing old, depressed, and miserable which led to the omission of CP D11 ( I thought no one was going to come, and there was no real need to drag riders up that hill, so I dropped it!!!)
After speaking with the Park ranger as to the likely hood of the forest being closed, he seemed optimistic that the storm was going to blow over by late tomorrow morning.
Race day started unfashionably late for a race day, normally we are up before the crack of dawn to be ready to start you all by 0900. We arrived at the hut by late morning, leaving me enough time to put out the remaining CP's I didn't get chance to the day before. The weather had improved with only one heavy downpour while i was out, and by just after midday we were all set up and ready for those earlybirds who only wanted to ride the 3 hours in the daylight.
We chanced the kettle, for a cuppa, while the laptop was on ( the ranger had warned us that the hut had very low power capacity, and that having too many things on at the same time would trip the power. With the trip switch not accessible to us we didnt want to take any chances!!!) I worked, and was lovely!!!
By 1330 all the Day-only riders (including Jon Dodwell) were out on the trails, and it wasn't long before the Day & Night riders started to arrive. Most riders chose a 2 hour Day /1 hour Night split, so to be ready to start the Night Course at 1700, when it opened, they all started between 1500 and 1530.
With two different sets of riders ( Day only, and Day & Night) meant that there wasn't that usual long period of quiet between riders starting and finishing. Shortly after the last D & N rider had left, the Day only riders began to return ( with the exception of one)
Time went on, and daylight gave way to dusk, and dusk to darkness. Riders returned from their day course for their maximum half hour transitional period before heading out on the Night course. It wasn't until most riders were out on their Night course, that we realised we still had an outstanding Day-only rider, Mr Jon Dodwell, who was supposed to be rushing back to support his wife in a SW Coast Path race that evening. We all know how accident prone Jonny is, and we were having grave concerns as to his safety. He could have come off in any of the Combes, and could be lying unconscious somewhere in the now darkness. After going through the S & S procedures, it was my first job to check that his car was still here, then to try and phone him. This in it self was pragmatic with very little signal at the hut, so I had to drive out of the valleys to civilisation. here I had reception, but only Jonny voicemail. We were starting to get very worried now, and were starting to put a team together for CP extraction & interrogation before calling in Exmoor Rescue.
Fortunately, as we were starting this, the phone rang. It was Jonny. He had been running out of time so had decided to drop down onto the main road to get back before it was dark, but subsequently got hit by a car, and was in the back of an ambulance on his way to hospital with a suspected broken arm. It turns out to just be badly bruised, thank goodness, but it sure gave us a scare!!!
By this time everyone was back, and telling tales of their adventures, but in all the commotion, we completely forgot the presentations, so here they are:
1st overall: Harry Kingston 521pts, 2nd overall: Gary Davies 440pts, 3rd overall: Ian Cartwright 413pts. Class wins went to Harry M21, Gary M40, Ian M50, Nigel Worsey M60, Mike Wimpenny M70, Issy Boyd W21 ( who completed most of the Night course using the light on her phone, as her bike light had failed!!!), Kate Darlington W40, and Hannah & Luke Gibbons in the Pairs Cat.
With all the action over, it was left to us to clear up before heading upto the pub, which a few of us managed to find, for a well deserved pint!!
The next two days were used to collect in CP's after I managed to put unleaded petrol in my diecel car!!
Thanks to Jen Mason for helping to collect in on Monday, and to all you riders who made the event worthwhile.
It is at this point that myself & Faye would like to announce that we have decided to take a well earned break from organising, and look forward to competing more. We have had a number of volunteers come forward who are interested in organising events next year, so hopefully we will still be able to put on a good league next year,
Thanks again for your support,
Will & Faye.