Polaris Challenge
An Overseas Polaris
John Houlihan / 05.05.2003
Those who made the journey over the bank holiday weekend were rewarded with terrain similar to a condensed West coast of Ireland or a mini Scotland. It took several years for local course planner/organiser Graham “IoM� to convince Polaris that it was a suitable venue and with countless kilometres of permissive paths organised it was probably riding never to be repeated. We hope the headwinds won’t be either.
At the overnight camp Helen Jackson and Ben Bardsley (both of SAAB-Salomon) surprised themselves with an overall lead, 3 points clear of Czech National MTBO rider Petr Strejeck. The next placed riders were grouped together 30 points behind. I made my usual spring error, a big score and 31 mins late (big penalty points don’t mean prizes). I summed up my ride at the time with “I was riding like a bull but obviously thinking like a donkey.�
The overnight camp was sunny but event stronger winds swept in from the north and the temperature began to plummet. With no queues for the toilet in the morning and lots of fresh water (causes of the occasional gripe for Polaris competitors) we were happy campers.
Sunday was threatened by rain but it never materialised and the under tyre conditions remained hard. Ben and Helen had a nightmare on day two taking in too many northern checkpoints before heading south and although they kept their 1st in the mixed category were reduced to 9th overall. Nic Hodgetts and Mark Holt rode to day 2’s biggest score and into second place. This leaves Nic in the (still) unenviable position of winning every class available in Polaris except the Seniors and Overall winner. Steve Willis (the EBORienteers race organiser who runs the country’s most successful MTB orienteering league) had a very well deserved 1st in the competitive supervets -“about time� he said. Paul Thornton had his highest placed event with 4th overall. Heather Dawes also got her first, overdue, win as a solo in the women’s category.
Overall winner was Petr Strejeck, who rode a sensible and well judged day 2 becoming the first foreign winner of the Polaris who wasn’t riding with me! Still at least he travelled with me to the Isle of Man and I even cooked him dinner before we went!
Although the Isle of Man is a bit of a trek to get to, overall it was well worth the effort.
[In case you are wondering why The Polaris Navitac 24 hour event planned for May disappeared from the calendar it was unfortunately cancelled due to permission problems. However, the date for 2004 has already been announced.]
SleepMonsters
