Pre booking, at around 180, was low but only 3 did not bother tuning up, most probably
due to the forecasted weather. A bloke, over from Finland joined us for the TQ but
got really confused by the scale of the maps… at least he was used to the cold
and rain.

The rain set in around 11:45 on Saturday. So if you had an early start you could
have got a couple of dry hours… unlike myself who spent five hours continuously
wet through! ( Anyone recommend a water proof that actually works when pedalling
hard? ) My wife did the finishes back at the campsite in a “Kermit” green
jacket that Polaris kindly loaned for organisers use… I didn’t ride in mine, what
a PILLOCK!

The usual suspects were in the top 5 of each cat.. ( Results to follow.)

Alas the rain did not abate for the Saturday night bbq so that was held in the barn
with Gary Tompsett’s car backed in and providing background music, not that all the
Super Vet’s really dig “Moby”.

Sunday morning arose bright and early, until it started to rain. The ‘relay’ race
was a larf with a Le-Mans stylee start deep in the forest. On the other hand doing
the MTBO event with a hangover was no laughing matter.. a target time of one hour
to finish the optimum 22km event was more than unrealistic! I covered nearly 29km
in one hour 57.. Oops! Again the usual bodies took the prizes for the Relay ( sponsored
by Schwinn, GT, Giant with a good deal or privateers). Found out later that the one
hour MTBO target had been a guess by the organiser!

Around midday the weather bucked-up and everyone made a scramble to get cars, camper
vans and my Dads caravan of the camping field before the rain returned ( BIG thanks
to the students (Matt B’s m8’s ?) for the push ). I missed the results of the MTBO
and Hill Climb but will post them soon…

Many thanks to all involved in the organisation. Polaris, Giant & Hi5 for prizes
and the Davis’s for letting us turn their field into a mud