Event Report – D&W 2 – Birchover

Saturday night saw me driving to Yougreave Youth Hostel for the Annual General Meeting of the Trail Cyclist Association (Governing body of MTBO and Trailquests in the UK – see separate post to come later in the week). Several faces were missing, being stuck in Cumbria by the flooding. I believe evryone is OK, thank goodness. The Peak District had not escaped the heavy rains and the rivers were swollen and the tracks very muddy as 200 riders set out on Sunday morning on Dark and White’s Winter series round 2, this time from Birchover Campsite, near Matlock. I have competed from Birchover twice before and I have either been too early or very very late, such is the terrain in the area you are always faced with a huge uphill finish as the campsite enjoys fine views over the surrounding countryside in all directions.
Unfortunately I’d managed to leave the waterproof cover to my mapboard at home (Id taken it off to wash it!) so I phaffed the start losing about a minute to elastic bands and cold fingers and struggled for the next three hours with a ballooning plastic bag whenever I went over about 5 mph. Id decided after being horrendously late at Birchover in the past that I would cross the Derwent Valley early on and then approach the finish from the SW so I did not face a hideous climb when tired. After grabbing #1 and #4 I rode very strongly up onto Darley Moor and was really pleased with the way my climbing has improved in the past 6 months. The weather deteriorated as I splashed though some axle deep puddles on the way to #19 but it never got too bad, just enough to you generally wet and cold when not climbing. I was still riding strongly for #22 and #21 covering familiar ground so navigation was easy, but due to my ballooning map I had no real plan for what to do next. Riding up the B5056 I still did not have a plan and after #9 I got sucked into a route with no getouts via #13 and #12. The climb upto 12 lost me too much time and I knew I would be late…..very, very late.
I crawled up the final climb back to the finish and punched 20.07 mins late. Penalties for lateness are ramped on Trailquests and, unfortunately, after 15 minutes you hemorrhage points. I score 235 points today but lost 110 of them in penalties. Perhaps I should have gone out for an hour and spent the rest of the time in the pub: I would have got a better result (but the extra riding has done me far more good that a few pints of real ale & a packet of pork scratchings)!