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ROSSENDALE
ENDURO CHALLENGE
'ON THE MARY TOWNELEY
LOOP'
WATERFOOT, LANCS
42 MILES OF MUDDY SLOP & NO WATER STOPS |
Full route map
click-here
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Mary Towneley
Loop
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The info:
The Mary Towneley Loop takes in some of the
best scenery & off-road riding the south Pennines
has to offer. Traversing the hillsides and
crossing the valleys between Rossendale, Burnley,
Hebden Bridge, Todmorden & Rochdale. The entire
route is marked & the riding surfaces are good
..!. The Pennine Challenge followed the route in a
clockwise direction, the route crossed high
exposed moorland which can be made even harder by
the wetness of the terrain. It is a strenuous and
demanding day out. |
Click to super-size
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~ Bicyclemania Ride
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"This Was A
Tough One"
At the start
of the event you could pick a time to set
off. 8.00am - 8.30am - 9.00am. Chiefy had
opted for a roll out time of 9.00am, it
was the first dry day in about a week of
rain. The Bicyclemania crew had ridden the
trail before and most of it was on good
hard packed surfaces. The start was at
Fearns Community High School, Waterford,
Rossendale. Each rider was provided with a
waterproof map of the trail & a card with
info on about the feed stations and cut
off times with telephone numbers in case
of difficulty.
The start & a short tarmac run to the
first bit of off-road, the riders had to
pass through no end of gates, but luckily
most of them were left open. As the trail
unfolded the terrain became boggier and
boggier until all the riders had to get of
and push or pull the mountain bikes along.
The first check point and feed stop came
up at the bottom of Deerplay Moor in Holme
Chapel, and guess what "No water".!
This was not good news when you are riding
at race pace, anyway the riders were told,
that at the next feed stop between Widdop
& Gorple Lower Reservoir they would have
some water and guess what no food or
water. Chiefy was running on empty, so he
decided to give it one more big slog to
Hebden Bridge and call it a day.
"The event organizers hopefully will
get their act together for future events" |
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Part of an extracted from a
letter by G.Wright. (Rossendale
Harriers & A.C.)
*
The weather was kind to us on the day
although it had rain for almost
every day for the three weeks
prior to the event meant that some
sections of the route especially one
section early on proved to be heavy
going to say the least.
*
286 actually set off in 3 even groups
some of the potentially slower riders
not taking the advice given to use the
earlier start times and being timed out
at checkpoint 4. Several riders found
the route too hard and had to be
transported back, most vowing to train
up and come back and try again next
year. 29 retired which seems a high
number, perhaps underlining the
severity of the route and the
conditions on the day. As organisers we
would encourage everyone to turn up and
"give it a go" rather
than put anyone off, "better to
have tried and failed then never to
have tried at all" or so the
saying goes. Everyone certainly gave it
their best, nobody wimped out early on.
2 riders had pretty serious
accidents reminding us all that
our sport can be a dangerous game, both
lads are doing ok and we send them our
best wishes for a speedy recovery.
*
Whilst several route finding errors did
occur we didn't hear of any real
howlers, lots of riders were seen
cycling straight past way marking signs
not taking enough time to look out for
them ! Several riders ended up in
Hebden Bridge having cycled straight
past the way marking sign near to
Colden.
"I know the sign is there I cycled
past it on Saturday & again on Monday !"
*
Whilst there will always be route
finding errors on a route as intricate
as this one and some farmers and
landowners will always resent us being
there we were pleased with way things
went and most of all we hope you all
enjoyed yourselves on the Mary Towneley
Loop.
A lesson
to learn from this is always carry
plenty of water !
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Spot
the tyre!
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RIDER |
CATEGORY |
NUMBER |
FIELD |
RANKED |
TIME |
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Chiefy |
Full Route |
93 |
286 |
d.n.f. |
n/a |
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