Pic: Scott Watson/SleepMonsters.co.uk

350 riders took part in the inaugural Polaris Light & Night event. They had a total of 12 hours to accumulate as many points as possible by visiting checkpoints between Settle, Horton, Grassington, Kettlewell and Malham. Some elite riders clocked up outrageous distances and altitude gains. Mick Smith competed somewhere a little more mid-pack – here’s his report:

It was the event we had all been waiting for. The inaugural Polaris Light & Night is a new format for a tried and tested classic. An hour’s riding was to be shaved from both the Saturday and Sunday rides to give an “extra” ride – two hours in total darkness on the Saturday night! The other big change was to run all three stages from base camp, with no “wilderness” camp – that one will be saved for what will now become the spring “classic” event.

Organiser Gary Tompsett was hardly taking any risks with the new format, as he chose the stunning corner of the Yorkshire Dales that surrounds Malham as the backdrop for the event, and enduro/MTBO legend John Houlihan (Santa Cruz) to set out all three courses.

Friday afternoon gave a promise of the weather to come, with Malham welcoming us with a rare dose of early autumn sunshine. We pitched our tent within easy reach of what was rather optimistically called the “toilet block”, rebuilt our bikes, signed in and eagerly devoured the Saturday day-time map. I’d been here before and was pleased to see that some favourite trails would feature in our rides. The campsite was filling up fast. Everyone seemed to be comparing this season’s “must haves” – brand new light sets!

A chilly night was replaced by a gorgeous morning and we were soon forcing noodles down our throats on top of the previous evening’s spaghetti ready to fuel the day’s exertions. We elected for an early start and soon found that climbing out of Malham was harder than escaping from Alcatraz. But once up on the moors the riding was fast and furious – totally awesome and exactly what mountain bikes were made for. Our modest loops took us along the Stockdale Road then via Stainforth to Malham Tarn then past Street Gate for the big climb towards Hawkswick Cote. No casualties to report, unless you include the cow standing guard over its long-dead calf just south of checkpoint 19.

Back to base and time to push pasta into our faces and fit those shiny new lights. Boys and their toys! Saturday evening grew very dark, very cold, with no moonlight and no city street light haze. Everyone seemed eager to be the first to try out the long-awaited night section, and soon the fells surrounding Malham were done up like Christmas trees. Words just cannot do this experience justice, but here goes: Awesome. Bizarre. Surreal. Get the idea? Throw in some drifting mist around Malham Tarn and you found yourself as an extra cast in remakes of “An American Werewolf in London” and “Close Encounters of the Third Kind”. Out of the pitch blackness would appear a silent blue-white haze, then dancing blinding blue airborne lights, then totally mad people thrashing bikes around trails navigated by touch as much as sight. Never has two hours sped by so quickly. And never has the phrase “battery life up to two hours” been so sorely tested! Incredible!

After that, Sunday’s ride could easily have been an anti-climax – but it wasn’t. More top trails, top weather and topped off with a Wilf’s classic end of ride meal. Gary and the Detail Events team have struck gold with this format. See you next year!

Winner!

This Autumn saw a change in the Polaris format – gone was carrying all your kit to a remote overnight camp, but in came a two-hour night stage. This meant three stages in all: six hours and two hours on Saturday and four hours on Sunday. The trick was that all stages counted equally.

I was looking forward to trying this, although I knew with my problematic back still worrying me, I would not really be racing. It would make a change being able to relax and not feel under pressure. I didn’t bother looking at a map before I arrived. I even forgot to pack some kit and had to scrounge stuff (including a battery for my Lumicycle headlight!)

Great weather greeted us on Saturday and the tracks turned out to be excellent. I was enjoying riding – relaxed but keeping up a good steady speed. As the hours passed I could see I had judged the route just right for my riding pace. A fast downhill into the finish at Malham and I was done, with almost a minute spare, and – just for once – not collapsing over the line!

As the results came in it turned out I was leading. This is the beauty of the Polaris Challenge – if you get the route just right you can still beat faster riders. Sadly it meant the end of my relaxing weekend – the old Heading competitive spirit kicked in!

The night stage was great, again helped by dry weather and patches of mist to add to the atmosphere. Without any mishaps all the top teams finished with very similar scores – I managed to add just six more points to my lead.

Sunday also delivered with the weather. Could I deliver with the map? I rode as hard as I could, and my back suffering for it. The pace was OK but I knew it wasn’t as fast as I would like, and I knew it wasn’t as fast as some of my competitors could manage. So it would be down to the route. Very tricky since there were many options. I finished thinking I had done alright, but felt there were better routes I could have taken.

How much better was hard to tell until the scores came in. I was right – my 352 points was second highest, but only 8 points down. A relief – I had held onto the lead to win the event overall.

Now, I mustn’t race hard again until my poor back gets a proper chance to recover! It was all worth it though – a great event, widely praised as being probably the best ever Polaris.

Now wait for next year

Polaris Challenge events for 2008 are to be in the South, The Lakes and the Scottish Borders. The spring event is the “old school” Classic Challenge, carrying all equipment to camp remotely overnight. The summer is a basecamp event, returning to the start point for the overnight. The autumn event will see the return of the Light & Night format. See www.polarischallenge.com for news.