The final round of the Staffordshire Summer Bike Orienteering series was held in Clifton Campville. On the border of Derbyshire, Staffordshire and Leicestershire this flat rolling countryside has fairly big areas of farmland criss crossed by few roads. It is also bisected by the west coast main line. All in all the event was geared towards some very interesting route choices.
Getting ready I had lost my SI card. I looked everywhere but couldn’t find it and in the end had to get a hire card.
Starting from the Green Man pub (after pre-ordering some food for 8.45) I spent nearly a minute pondering route choices before setting out which is unusual for me. It was obvious that it was not clearble at all and that also some controls were in the middle of nowhere, up to a couple of km from roads, down bridleways which most probably could be across fields.
Down the first bridleway skimming across corrugated mud I was very tempted to stop a pick a strawberry or 20. We literally rode through a kilometre of them, all nestling under plastic tunnels. The next control featured potatoes, but I wasn’t so tempted by those.
After clearing the first loop I headed off to the west. At one point concerned I had collected a large insect in my helmet I stopped and took it off. Out fell my missing Si Card – very lucky I didn’t lose it through a vent.
I got lucky on the next control getting a tow off a young roadie who did his utmost to drop me. I think it annoyed him to have a set of mountain bike tyres howling away behind him, but I said thanks as I peeled off on a roundabout.
After a control down a bridleway which crossed a grass runway (a watch out for planes sign was quite amusing) it was a blast south to Whitington and Hopwas woods. I was hopelessly over committed on time and punched the last control in Hopwas with just 15 mins left some 14km away from the finish. I got my head down and went for it….
I picked up number 34 on the way in which was a mistake, I should have left it and carried on in on the road as my 15 mins late lost me 50 points. I still won but by the skin of my teeth and luckily I finished just as my food came out of the pub.