Sunday morning 05.30 the alarm sounds , im up getting sorted for the days fun ahead. Collected Tim and his trusty machine at just gone 7 and we where enroute to the event stopping only to collect the last member of the posse Rom, the newly serviced van flew upto Raleghs Cross and we arrived in plenty of time to sign on etc although getting into the rather wet and muddy field was a bit of fun and a pre-cursor to what we where going to see later in the day ! 

As we watched others arriving in vans etc and having some major "Moments" trying to control the direction Tim spotted his pal from Bristol "Ollie" wheel spinning his rather nice van, after giving him a push we all had a chat and got kit on ready for the off. Everyone all nice and friendly chatting etc , saw Capn'Paul at the start and after a quick chat it was time for the start. All four of us me ,Tim, Rom & Ollie started within a few mins of each other so we could kind of ride as a team.

I couldnt possibly give a blow by blow account of what followed but some of the high and low lights .............. After a brief tarmac section we where on the first bit of off road terrain all was good and the four of us , by the way the rain at this point was coming down but it was no real bother.

We soon were at the first section with a couple of other riders in front of us and bear in mind we started at numbers 107 + so all those riders had already been where we are going so a bit churned up !

Tim was first and bish bash bosh he was at the top  , Ollie was next and had some issues half way up and ended up coming back down , my turn  all i will say is that it didnt go to plan ! That will be a 5 then ! I think Rom made it maybe with a dab or two ? Please correct me if im wrong.

More Rain

Next test that i remember ! Stop in a box , from point A to B , you dont know the distance between nor see the end ! Very steep little climb with S bend stop in box
cant remember anyones time !

More lovely Forestry and farmland to cross which brings me to my activity i found i did rather alot from here on in , and i do believe became infectious !
Jumping off my bike ! The rain was now set in for the day, one of the team his name escapes me, predicted that the weather would be a bit rubbish in the morning but would get much better with no rain , hmmmmmmmm. Come back Micheal Fish all is forgiven. So my first of many was a fav of mine , riding in a bit of a rut lots of fresh long grass all around , 15mph'ish , cross rutted, lose front end leap of bike in a belly flop kind of way into the soaking wet long grass slide a few feet , remember i washed the waterproof liner out of my jacket (disintigrated into 1 million pieces) soaked to the skin

Onwards we battled through the sections , some seemed totally impossible, but what the heck you gotta have a go which we all did. 

More Rain

The next bit i remember was the large branch that punched me in the chest forcing me and the bike to become intimitly involved with a crumbling wall , i was trapped ! Ollie kindly lifted the bike off me, Ta , Onwards on not 20 secs later Tim had rather unsightly slipping incident on soaking wet moss covered slabs of rock resulting in a broken gear lever !  Nightmare , got to the end of the lane and that was the least of Tims worries , the engine had decided to start make a very strange lumpy noise , Tim diagnised the problem which i cant remember but decided that was it for him for the day , a sad moment

Another couple of sections and it was drink stop / Fuel , we rode back to the van , in the mud field and fuelled the bikes for the afternoon sections , Oillie also decided to retire at this point , having not ridden for a while. 

Rom and I returned and joined back onto the route , all was going ok apart from the RAIN, until we arrived at "Devils Staircase" and "Nagery hill" sooooooooo hard , at this point i think i probably dropped my bike 20x riding cross camber on the soaking wet mud which was nearly impossible to stand up on being so steep i think Rom and i spent 20 mins doing a 100 yrds , it was mental .

Hailstorm , you could hardly see , then more rain.

The end was in sight i passed of a couple of special sections as my energy levels were low , Rom had a go , but ended up with me helping to pull him out !

The progressive hill was next which i had been looking forward to, Rom was first and sailed up to 3 point marker , very commendable. My turn , drop the clutch , yank the throttle , 1st 2nd , im going up engine screaming , bump bump , things started to get frantic back wheel was coming round , oh heck , actually oh Donut ! A perfect 180 feet up power slide on the face of a wickedly steep hill.

So to the last section , another very hard steep climb up hill via a torn to pieces track roots and tree stumps everywhere once you stop thats it game over zero traction , i had three attempts but that was me done , Rom made it on his 2nd attempt , a far braver and fitter rider than me !

We had finished , signed off and back to the Raleghs Cross , Tim had moved the van from the mud field thankfully so it was a quick chat couple of pictures , some dry clothes and we where on our way back , as it was now 7pm ! a long day.

Would i do it again , for sure 100%