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A Review of the 2010-2011Mountain Hardwear Open5 Series

James Thurlow (Open Adventure) / 08.04.2011

Open Adventure supremo James Thurlow gives his take on this past year’s Mountain Hardwear Open5 series.

The Mountain Hardwear Open5 series passes another exciting year – to get our take on the preceedings read on.

<b>Slaidburn</b> – This was a little surprise; the MTBing at Gisburn Forest was a true gem, but with no venue nearby we needed a solution to get competitors safely to the forest from Slaidburn. United Utilities came up trumps with the assistance of some local farmers who gave us permission to use a few tracks to get in to the area. It was touch and go at times whether it would all come together and we only just managed to squeeze all the vehicles on the field. We’d love to go back again one day … so let’s hope we can secure those permissions again. Thanks to Emma who put so much work in to making this event happen.

<b>Sutton Bank</b> –This event had a bit of a false start! We’ve run an event from here before and were keen to go back. Andy Conn, one of our faster competitors was the man behind the circles on the map – lots of time went in to making the event workable … and then the snow came.

Dave Johnson, the man behind the curtains of Open5s, had an interesting couple of days trying to put controls out – although we were confident the car park would be clear of snow and the A170 would be open, the reality was there would no MTBing and MTBing is part of an Open5 - so we shelved it for a month.

January came with its own cold snap which put the wind up us all – it was bit of an ice rink on some of the roads, but still this bit of the country showed us some blue sky and great views. Yet again the York Moors showed us all what a great venue this can be for an Open5.

<b>Kirkby Stephen</b> – I think the word wet comes to mind, rain, oh did it rain! Even the cycle to the start was an adventure. All credit to those who completed the event and shame on you if you entered yet didn’t get out of bed. For those who did the course it was tough, but an adventure – I don’t recall hearing a bad word. All went O.K. except for the catering van - I think we will avoid using that fella again. As ever, well done to David Hetherington for putting on a great event – I think we need to come back for a little unfinished business.