10:25am Saturday 9th May 2009
DRY, baked trails over the Furness fells made the first round of the 2009 Cross Cumbria Trailquest mountain bike orienteering series a tasty prospect, but many riders were caught out by the deceptive distances.
With 30 controls spread over Kirkby Moor, Broughton and Subberthwaite Common, judgement as well as stamina and bike handling were key to ensure getting back to the Pennington HQ on time, and many were up to 30 minutes or more late.
Not so national champion Bryan Singleton, from Langdale, who took full advantage of the fine conditions to post the day’s top score of 549.
Although that included 11 lateness penalty points, the Veteran Men’s victor was still more 70 points clear of the Senior Men’s winner Paul McGreal, from Scotland, who scored 475 in the three-hour event.
Visiting all 30 controls would have yielded 650 points, but only five riders scored 400 or more – the top two Senior Men and top two Veteran Men – and the Masters Men’s winner.
Ray Morriss from Windermere took the Over-60s with a remarkable 409, losing just one penalty point and putting many younger riders in the shade.
Keswick’s Emily Brooks would have scored over 400, except that she was nearly half an hour late. It left Lorna Stewart, from Morecambe, to win the Senior Women with 240, while Brampton’s Helen Costelloe was top Veteran Women with 247.
Yorkshireman John Rawden took the Super Veteran Men category with an excellent 386, with Sue Edlington, from Lindale, taking the Super Veteran Women on 290 and Karen Blackburn, also from Yorkshire, scoring 309 in the Masters Women.
Other winners were Geoff Moorhouse and Andrea Foster (Mixed Super Veteran Team) 306, Michael Connor and Barbara Hickson (Mixed Veteran Team) 297, Sarah and Clive George (Tandem) 251, and M Thomason and George Taylor (Generation Team) 229.
The next event in the series, another three-hour trailquest, is on Sunday, May 17 at Keswick – for details visit www.crosscumbria.co.uk.
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