The weather and ground conditions were similar to those at Kendal the previous week, searing heat, bone dry trails, hills in every direction. But there was a bit more of a wind to keep us cool and hinder our progress in a SE direction. The map was fairly compact but it still looked too hilly for a clean up. I headed into the wind to start and did a anticlockwise loop concentrating on the high scores.

As luck would have it, I made a wise choice, a lot of the off-road bits were downhill and the most of the tarmac bits were up. I set off, leaving out 4 and 5, instead heading straight for 19. CP 8 looked worth getting, but I could get it later on my way between 28 and 9. I dropped down past 10 which was a great track thru the fields, and climbed up to drop down the path to 23. This was unrideable due to the foot high drop offs and the slime covered big cobble stones that were bad enough to walk on, never mind ride. The climb up towards 14 wasn't much better but as I reached the level track I saw a very rare sight. A female dry stone waller. I would have loved to stop and have a chat, I do a bit of walling myself, but it was a TQ and time was of the essence. The chance will probably never come again...

The track to 29 started off a good downhill and I even overtook a white Suzuki Vitara, It was a slog up the last bit to 29 and on the way back was a bunny hoppers dream- Lots of concrete drains across the road. The speed required for jumping was a little higher than the speed needed for the hairpin bend to head down to Hebden Bridge. There was some frantic gravel scrubbing to get round it, but after visiting some nettles I was back on track and faced with a choice on the way to 20. Geoff had marked the BW as a steep descent and this sounded like a walk, so I opted to go round by the road. It seemed a long way and I'll never know if it was quicker, but at least I kept moving at a reasonable pace.CP 20 was a little tricky to find because of the amount of tracks, but the BT pole had red/white tape on it and stood out amongst the crowd.

The singletrack heading towards 30 was technical bliss and also the trip to 25 and back. The track down to 30 was very steep and had the Speedblasters working overtime looking for grip. I then headed up the steep climb to 15. I found a bloke fettling his radio controlled helicopter in Wainstalls and he filled up me water bottle as I dug into muesli bar no.1. I missed the first track to CP 15, it seemed to be blocked by a house, but got in the long way round. Then proceeded along Oxenhope white which was full of potholes the size of bomb craters to get to 28. I nipped in and out to 8 then went for 9.

The track to 9 was the roughest, bumpiest bone shaking track I have ever been on during a TQ since Barley 2 years ago. It was cobbled and murderous on a hardtail, but apparently is normally underwater anyway. The track onto 24 was up to start with but then gave way to some superb riding. If you picked your line around the rocks and lumpy bits, you could carry a fair bit of speed along here. The turn off to 24 was well signed and then it was all downhill to the road. After going past Well Heads, it was all downhill to CP 18. Red hot, with the wind behind me and sticky tarmac underneath, the sweet sound of a set of Speedblasters on song at 35mph was a pleasure to behold.

I was really enjoying this and felt good, but the savage climb back up from 18 had me wondering as I headed for 13 on the BW. I was now getting thirsty again and fancied a change from blackcurrant PSP GO. As I came into the estate at Wilsden, there was a bloke washing his Alfa. I complemented him on his shiny car and he seemed more than happy to let me fill my bottle up from his hose pipe. I wolfed down another bar as I went down the road and then collected 7 up the hill in the woods. I now had 1:30 left and thought I had better be heading for home even though I was so close to 16 and 28, they did look hilly.

I called in for 17 on the way back and must admit to leaving my bike and running up the hill. I was getting tired but wasn't ready for what happened up the climb to 22. I was struck by chronic leg cramps, it started in my quads, then my hamstrings too, it was agony if I stood up. If I sat down and backed off the power I could sort of manage but this wasn't making me very fast progress. The track to 22 was quite level but there was so many paths about it was a gamble whether I was on the right one or not. I could see some cars in the distance and hoped that they were at the end of the white lane track by 22. This turned out to be right so I got 22 easily, then thought I would get 12 before finishing off with 21. I climbed slowly up to 12 and relished the downhill where I met Liam on his winning run.

Then I made my way to 21 looking forward to getting back to the finish. I had 40 mins to get up the massive climb and this seemed plenty. I had to walk, there was no way I could ride up the steep hill. My legs hurt walking too, but it did get better. I reached the flat bit in Haworth and had a whole 30 mins left. My legs did feel a bit better for having had a walk and I was very tempted by the 30 points at CP 27. It all depended how level the road was. I looked up the valley and decided that I had to go down fighting. There was a climb up thru Stanbury, another to get up to the level of the dam and finally from the junction to CP 27. I got there in 13 mins from Haworth and had 20 mins to get back. I knew I would do this even if I had to go into penalties, it would have been worth the trip.

The first bit was downhill, but into the wind, then there was a big hill up into Stanbury village again. Once in Stanbury, I looked across to the right and saw the hill that laid before me. it didn't look good, but all I could do was walk up the first bit and see how long it took. While I was walking, my calves started cramping up too. I adopted a strange style of walking to try and alleviate this but just carried on walking until the slope eased. Then I jumped on the bike and weaved to and fro across the road until I saw the summit. I was very relieved to be going downhill again and was even more impressed when I saw I wouldn't be late. I knew things had gone relatively well for me and thought I could be in with a chance of a win, but it wasn't to be. Liam had got 10 points more, credit to him, he had done well.

A superb event really well run, shame there were only 70 or so competitors. The home made butties at the end were very nice, tuna and sweetcorn being my favourite. The venue was great, it's always nice to have a shower before a long drive home. A good selection of prizes, I chose some bike cleaner and GT85, again the wine was slow to move. Thanks to Geoff Moorhouse and all the Transpennine Team for your time and efforts in making the event a success. A really nice touch was Geoff giving his junior helpers for the day a big box of chocolates each. Fantastic day out.