Quest On!

The 2008 National Trailquest series kicked off on the 9th of March with an excellent 3hr event in Grizedale Forest. A lot of work has been invested over the winter to create a permanent mountain bike orienteering course consisting of a detailed 1:20,000 orienteering map and 32 checkpoints distributed throughout the forest. As the location of the checkpoints had not yet been divulged, the event organizer, Henry Syska, made good use of the facilities by placing a Sportident timing device at all 32 checkpoints.

For some reason I always find events in Grizedale difficult – mainly because there is so much route choice and navigation can be particularly difficult considering the huge number of tracks throughout the forest. It’s certainly an area where local knowledge can be a huge advantage, which is why Brian Singleton and Neil Atkinson are very hard to beat in Grizedale. Not surprisingly both of those guys turned up for the event, no doubt eager to get some points under their belt early in the season.

A blank copy of the event area was posted at the start, which showed a really good quality and easy to read map. The area was noticeably small considering that it was a 3hr event, which meant that checkpoints would be tightly spaced but also meant that the ‘clean up’ was probably on. For some reason I had a clockwise route in mind, so when I got the map it didn’t take much time to decide where I would head first. The first few checkpoints came quickly and fairly easily. I was feeling quite strong and forcing myself to spin up the hills as much as I could. I rode past the fourth checkpoint and had to retrace my route, frantically looking for it. Eventually I found it and tried to claw back lost time. One more checkpoint bagged and then for some unknown reason on a completely flat section of forest track the sidewall on my tire blew out. I though it was game over but managed to mend it by slotting an energy gel wrapper between my inner tube and tyre. It worked a treat and I was off again. After approximately an hour and a half, I reassessed the map and my route plan. I suddenly had doubts that I would be able to get all checkpoints so made a rash decision to drop a checkpoint worth 10 points. The event progressed well despite a spectacular dismount over the handlebars, which I landed on my feet! I crossed through the event center to the east of the map with an hour to go, still thinking that I would be late back, but I still felt strong and the checkpoints came quickly. With half an hour to go I was kicking myself for dropping a checkpoint as it became obvious that I would get the remaining checkpoints and be back in time. Sure enough I finished 36seconds early with one checkpoint dropped. Would it be enough?

I downloaded my score and waited to hear talk about several people cleaning up with minutes to spare – thankfully this was not the case. In fact the best score was unsurprisingly Brian Singleton who had also dropped a 10 pointer but was a couple of minutes faster than me. That meant that we both had the same score and were both awarded 100%. A very pleasing result for the first national!!