Polaris Challenge
Cross Border Riders
Rob Howard / 06.07.2006
The Polaris was back in the cider country of West Herefordshire and making a cycling raid over the Welsh border on the weekend of July 1st/2nd, with the event base and campsite beside the sports field in the market town of Kington.The area has been used extensively for Polaris Challenges before (94, 95, 99 & 2002), but never for the Summer Polaris with its fixed camp format. So, some regular riders will have been familiar with the area of rolling hills, quiet country lanes and open moorlands, but others were exploring it for the first time.
“Historically, the summer event has been very much a ‘northern event’ with most of the entries from Northern England�, explained Race Director Gary Tompsett, “but we wanted to try something new and open it up to more competitors, even if it meant a bit of a drop in numbers this year.�
The planner was once again Jeremy Atkinson, a Kington resident who seems to know every inch of every bridleway and every farmer in the area. He has planned previous events in the area, and others like the annual Rough Ride, and was the first ‘outside’ planner Polaris commissioned.
“The area has the highest density of legal rights of way in the country,� he explained, “and thanks to good relations with land owners there is plenty of scope to give the competitors lots of off-road riding. The area isn’t overused and the tracks are on hard mudstone, so are not easily worn down and you get a smooth ride.�
A look at the (very large) 1:25,000 event map showed many shaded areas of open moorland, most of them marked ‘use any path in this open access area’ and the majority of the checkpoints were within these. There was also a join down the centre of the map where two OS sheets had been combined, and it was obvious to spot as the colour shading was a little different either side … and so was the contour interval!
With a 5m contour on one side and a 10m contour on the other it made the hills on the north eastern side of the map appear much steeper at first glance (and some hills on the join appeared far steeper one on side than the other). “That was how the OS data was provided,� said Atkinson, “there was nothing we could do about it!� There was no note on the map or mention of it at the briefing. Did Tompsett think it was obvious … or was it pure devilment? Some riders never did figure it out.
It was a tight squeeze on the camping field (due to losing permission to use an adjoining field at the last minute), but everyone managed to find a spot, and those who found the shade under the trees and hedges were lucky. The event centre was in a dell at the lower end of the campsite, with Wilf’s cafe nearby, a planetFear shop and several large open sided tents instead of the familiar marquee. (It wasn’t missed in the hot weather.)See All Event Posts
