|
|
|
 |
 |
Waterfoot,
Lancs.
42 miles of muddy slop
& no water stops |
Click to view the route
 |
|
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. |
Mary Towneley
Full Trail Map
Mary Towneley Loop
Info
 |
|
|
|
|
 |
"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" |
Spot the wheel
in all that sh*%t
 |
|
|
|
|
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.
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
RIDER |
CATEGORY |
NUMBER |
FIELD |
RANKED |
TIME |
|
Chiefy |
Full Enduro |
93 |
286 |
D.N.F. |
N/A |
|
 |
Bicyclemania.co.uk
*
g r a s s r o o t t r a i l
& m o u n t a i n b i k e
r i d i n g * |
|
|
|
