John Houlihan (Santa Cruz) has become the first Solo to win overall in the two-day Polaris Challenge, narrowly beating the Whyte pairing and previous winners Aidan Leheup and Steve Heading. John was lying a close second at the rainy (and icy!) overnight camp at the head of Buttermere, and was seen hurriedly sewing his rucksack together before the start (he had custom-made the flyweight rucksack for the 2002 Polaris Season). But it held together enough for him to bring his Santa Cruz and mandatory equipment flying across the finish line with seconds to spare.

The event is being widely praised and is now considered one of the best ever, despite changeable weather, with the successful planning pairing of Adrian Gidney and Peter Strong (who are locals and previous high placed finishers in the event) giving all abilities of rider a considerable challenge in the western hills, passes and forests of the lakes. Hundreds of riders were seen grinding up and over Winlatter, Newlands and Honister passes on the road, and many others pushing and bumping over Scarth Gap, round the ‘Back ‘o’ Skidda’, and descending Cap d’Ail-like trails all around.

New at this Polaris was the Sport Ident electronic punching
system, which enabled competitors to ‘dib’ their punch at the controls. All timings and splits were downloaded and printed at the finish of each day, which must have made fascinating reading at the candlelit Pot Noodley supper.

It was a fantastic event, even by the high standards of the Polaris Challenge. The Polaris has been running for years (this was the eleventh Autumn event) and continues to go from strength to strength. If you haven’t done one yet, you should definitely give it a try.

Results for all classes, information about further events and the busy forum can all be found at http://www.polaris-apparel.co.uk/.