The 4th and final day of the Open Adventure C2C took racers into the 3rd National Park of the race, the North York Moors, and finished with ice creams and a Bank Holiday Monday dip in the sea at Robin Hood’s Bay.<br />
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It was an early start, a bleary-eyed and aching 5am for the earliest to leave the leisure centre in Northallerton and as it had been all race the wind was still blowing hard. The route book said, “if we could have moved Northallerton nearer to the moors we would haveâ€Â?, and the day began with a rare ride along a main A road, followed by a climb up and over the hills from Osmotherley to the first TA at Swainby. It was inevitable there would be some ‘linking routes’ on a C2C multi-sport, and remarkable that there was so little use of main roads in the whole 4 days.<br />
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From Swainby stage 15 was a run over Carlton Bank following the Cleveland Way where the paved trail was hard on the legs, but the views off the escarpment were stunning. This was the ‘King of the Mountains’ stage for the day and it was no surprise it was won convincingly by Mike Gradwell, who took 3 out of 4 of the £50 Mountain Hardwear vouchers from the race, spurred on by the desire of his support crew to go shopping!<br />
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The stone path was slippy on the descent to the Clay Bank car park and the view of the bridleway climbing up towards Round Hill wasn’t encouraging. It was a climb that proved to be every bit as tough as it looked but the tracks and roads from there on to Glaisale Cricket Club were easier going and by now racers could almost smell the sea and the finish! <br />
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Just one stage remained ��" the ride to Ruswarp and then along the busy Esk Valley Way to the finish, though this proved a little tougher than expected as despite heading towards the sea it was gradually uphill!<br />
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The finish was set up in a field just above Robin Hood’s Bay as the tide was in and there was nowhere to finish by the sea, but everyone was encouraged to add a final non-competitive stage and walk down to the sea once they’d finished and been presented with their medals.<br />
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For once the showers held off and the sun came out, so it was a celebratory finish with all the support crews and friends gathered to see the racers in after their journey across the country. There were hugs and tears, poses for pictures and plenty of stories to be told, and I suspect the story telling will go on for some time!<br />
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One of the earlier finishers was team Full of Eastern Promise, who were naturally delighted, all the more so as they completed the team race with the youngest competitor in the event. Sixteen year old James had completed 12 stages, a remarkable performance in only his second multi-sport race! <br />
SleepMonsters
