Flying Solo in The Peaks!

Last weekend I took up the challenge of competing as a solo in the second Open 5 of the series, Neil had wedding commitments, so I made preparations to go it alone. The first hurdle was trying to get a good plan together for the bike, as this is usally Neil's department, the deciding factor which way I went was finding controls 20 & 21 were dummies on starting. This led to me taking an anti-clockwise direction, which proved a good choice as I was soon going head to head against Andy Conn all the way to a misplaced control 12, after which we went in different directions.

I was managing to put a reasonable route together, picking up all controls except the ones on the top of Hollins Cross and at the far end of Ladybower Reservoir, arriving back at transition bang on 3 hours. With the use of my inov 8 Race Pro 18 pack and donning my X-talon 212's I was quickly out of transition and on my way again. I had a bounce in my stride and a plan to pick up as many controls as possible, but my undoing was to go for one too many! At the furthest point from the finish I only had 45 mins left, so had to push hard for home trying to beat the clock. I decided to go for two extra controls, worth 40 points, rather than taking the direct route back hoping that the time defecit would be less than the points value. I arrived at the finish just over 12 minutes late with tired legs but only losing 35 points. Thinking I had blown my chances of a podium position with a strong field, it soon unfolded that others had struggled too and my decsion, which gained me 5 points, which suprisingly put me in 3rd place in the male solos.

Looking forward to getting back to racing as a pair in the next event though......