Mountain Hardwear Open5 North Wales
Mountain Hardwear Open 5 Series Review
James Thurlow (Open Adventure) / 09.04.2010
So we started in the Lake District with Anthony Cooper at the helm - it was a last minute change to Hawkshead Primary, as the weather came in we got twitchy about our use of the ferry going slightly wrong. Not so worried about getting competitors across the lake more worried that we wouldn't get them back.
The heavens opened but in a quirky way everyone had a great time - it wasn't too cold and comments about that BCU 2 star coming in handy were abound at registration. Thanks to all who made this flexible change over possible - most organisers would have thrown in the towel and for me it was only possible with great people about to help.
Next in line was the Peak District, Ian Hughes behind the pen on this one - it wasn't that long ago we were here so it was a little deja vu. Putting controls out proved entertaining with one being taken off by a farmer 10 minute after we put it out. Mr Hughes on the case placated what could have been a tricky situation. A control on the far side of some stepping stones also had to be moved on the day after the river rose by a meter. As ever the Peaks had some great riding no doubt we will be back but we might leave it a little more than 6 months.
Howarth was our next event - Emma Van Der Gucht's first time at event planning. A huge amount of work on her part trawling maps and speaking to landowners. It was also the most popular event of the series, with Natural England capping our numbers we had to close entries early.
With Emma out of action due to a shoulder operation I set out to put controls out the week before - some really challenging weather where a pair of ski googles on the bike would have come in handy (and a set of lights!) Hey hoo it was not so bad on the day - aside from a few of you getting lost enroute to the start (lesson learned - more correx signs out when we do this). 2 weeks after we used the community hall the roof fell in and the council condemned it.
The Dales was our next foray with David Hetherington exploring the corners over the past 6 months with his dog (fit dog!) - I think he showed us that what initially appears to be a tricky event to plan with limited bridleways can have a lot of route choice (the trick was to cycle UP the road and down the bridleway). Must admit was a tricky one for us with an event the weekend before causing us quite a number of access problems. The shocker was the blue sky - great to see at an open5.
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