Ride It! at Harewood House. Thoroughly enjoyable!

So I'm back from my first off road 'event'. Very tired but very happy.

Had loaded the GPX file on the Garmin Edge the night before so was in full preparation.

Arrived at Gateways School, the event HQ, at just before 08:00. Beautiful clear skies and sun! Car park was starting to fill and some lovely bikes on show. Mobile café already set up and ready and a lovely Latté was bought. Managed to fight back the urge to have a bacon butty too. Check in opened a couple of minutes late but no big deal. Handed out a very clear map and offered a pick of SIS energy gels/sweets and given the timing tag to attach round my ankle.

Went and got set up and headed to the starting area. Rides start from 08:30. Very clear explanation of route signs. Green cards with black arrows, at the splits for the different rides different coloured chevrons for the different routes. Orange ribbons on trees etc every now and then to put your mind at ease that you're on the right route. And the signs were very clear all way on the course. 2 feed stations also with water and SIS liquid to fill up too if required. Also at the start, there were tubs of water or tubs of SIS liquids to fill your bottles/hydration bags up.

Started off with a few guys all together at a respectable pace. After a couple of miles a first for me, river crossing Very Happy

Took the same approach as the others, carried bike across. Banks really steep and river bed uneven. Managed to dab a foot down and get it soaked! Laughing

Just after 3 miles we hit a steepish climb, disaster, puncture!!! Arrgghhhhh! So off and quickly checked tyre for any protruding foreign object and found none. Quickly replaced with a new tube and got going fairly quickly. Can I just say nearly everybody that went past asked if I had everything! Was great to know! Back on the bike but I started to panic. Set off far too quickly to try and catch people up and also thinking OMFG, I heard people say about these tyres, Schwalbe Rocket Ron, that they puncture easy. But It's the first one I've had on them despite miles and miles previous. Thought long and hard and tried to calm down. Used HRM and steadied myself down and relaxed.

After a few miles was great. Route signs were fantastic and having the route on the Garmin was fantastic to keep checking on. The trails were great. A mixture of open fields, thin ones through wooded areas, fast downhill sections, steep up hill intertwined with sections of quiet roads and farmers lanes. Another river crossing which looked better so I flew through without getting off. Loved it! One section was fast and then warnings. 'SLOW DOWN, STEPS' Very Happy

Got down the first few then old age kicked in and I pushed it over the last 2 Laughing

Wearing the Sixsixone bodywear with pads did give me that bit more confidence and some of the downhill bits I was going faster then I would normally.

Got about 2 miles from the end, riding through the Harewood estate, views of Harewood House and a long steep climb. Masochists! Just as I was near the top a herd of dear came running up. So wonderful to see!

Arrived back feeling very tired but happy with my achievement. Then I saw my boot open on the car! I'd left it open the whole time!

Laughing

But everything was still in the car including my wallet, satnav etc.

The bike was absolutely fantastic, new brakes were faultless if a little noisy from the pads when just riding. Some of the sections I hit at great speed and the bike is still ahead of my bravery! When getting out of car at home I'd got another puncture, on the front this time. Looks like a huge thorn had gone in though!

All in all a fantastic day. I timed myself at 3hrs 25mins, just over 35 miles, average 10.3mph. Don't know about moving average as, for some reason, it had started the counter from last night when at my fiancés in Hull so it's saying it took me over 18 hrs and 1.9mph moving average Laughing

Battle Scarred! Needs a good fettling Very Happy

Joined: 30 Oct 2010 Posts: 1224 Location: leeds w/yorks

sounds like you had a great time,the course passed close to where i work i saw lots of mtbers passing but none had numbers on and i could only get out every couple of hours so i think i must have missed you & everyone else,i knew the start time was 8.30 but i couldnt work out what time you would be passing by would have been nice to see you and give you some support

Posted: Sat Apr 16, 2011 5:08 pm Post subject:

Was great bud, no numbers though. Thanks for the thought though Very Happy

Joined: 30 Oct 2010 Posts: 1224 Location: leeds w/yorks

no worrys mate i might even do one of the evans rides myself,not sure i would be up for a 30 miler yet tho need to get my fitness up a bit more me thinks Laughing

Posted: Sat Apr 16, 2011 5:22 pm Post subject:

Sounds like you had fun.... And leaving the boot open was a bonus nothing was taken as well

Posted: Sat Apr 16, 2011 6:50 pm Post subject:

Joined: 15 Sep 2009 Posts: 729

Yeah,great write up.Almost felt like i was there.

Makes me wish i'd done it now.Me and Dagza briefly thought about it a while ago.

Posted: Sun Apr 17, 2011 7:39 am Post subject:

Results published

25th out of 97 entries.

I'm quite happy with that although I'm still a long way behind the 2hrs 50mins fastest time. So plenty of work to do still!

3:25:32 is my official time

Posted: Sun Apr 17, 2011 9:14 am Post subject:

Seems you had a good day Mixman brilliant write up... Wink

Posted: Sun Apr 17, 2011 7:14 pm Post subject:

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