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A Grand Tour of Northumberland

Rob Howard / 30.07.2009

Open Adventure and guest planner John Allen took this year’s Open24 competitors on a tour around most of the best bits of Northumberland on this year’s Open24. From the start on the trim lawns in front of Clennell Hall, to the finish running across the drawbridge of the magnificent Alnwick Castle the racers encountered settings and scenery they will remember for a long time to come. At sunset they were high on the remote Cheviot Hills, in the middle of the night they were searching the torture chamber of Chillingham Castle and by dawn they were on the coast under the ramparts of Bamburgh Castle. After passing the ruins of Dunstanburgh Castle on the coast trek they finished up in Alnwick for a prize giving in the Great Hall. Aside from the disappointment of a cancelled kayaking stage it would have been hard to pack more into a day!

At the pre-race briefing the route books and maps were given out, this time with all 112 checkpoints pre-marked on the maps. Competitors were told about one change, moving a kayaking checkpoint from the coast onto Holy Island and warned about the rain damage from the previous weekend. There had been severe flash floods, Race Director James Thurlow had written off his car while trying to get checkpoints placed, and John Allen warned of “potholes 8 feet deep on some trailsâ€Â?.

Fortunately the weather was more friendly on the weekend of the race and for the mass start at midday on Saturday the temperature was perfect for racing and the rain was holding off. Two buses ferried all the competitors to the start at Clennell Hall, near Alwinton and after a brief run in the grounds the pairs collected their bikes and scattered into the Cheviot hills and Kidland Forest. There was no obvious route, and plenty of choice on how to get to the first transition at Linhope, depending on ambition, speed and tactics.

The first special challenge was included in Stage 1, as on arrival at transition at Linhope (open from 16.00-18.00) there was a scramble up Linhope Burn and a jump into Linhope Spout , worth a valuable 175 points (and not to be missed in any case!) Only one or two pairs made it to the westernmost checkpoint at Windy Gyle near the Scottish Border on the ride, but they won spot prizes for this effort later, and the flood damage was noticeable everywhere in washed out and closed roads. So much for the Barbeque summer the forecasters had promised!

The first teams arrived at Linhope in time to start the river scramble at 16.00 and Safety Supervisor Andy Sallabank lead the first pair upstream. “It’s amazing how much the riverbed has changed since we first came here,â€Â? he said. “Last weekend the water was several feet higher here and logs and rocks have been swept away or moved. There is even a huge tree trunk stuck in Linhope Spout but conditions today are fine and we’ve checked everything out. “

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