This was the second Langdale this year and as usual was the drier of the two that the club runs. The recent good weather had helped dry out the going in the forest so even the wettest bits were quite easily passable and other sections baked hard.

It was a pleasant change after the number of wet, sodden events that have almost begun to seem the norm these days.It was a good length lap of 24 miles split into two checks. The club had done their homework with the course and there were new bits, old bits and a good few of the regular sections included to run us around the forest using very little of the forest road.

The first check was a tight one all through the event. The first lap gave us 24 minutes and my slightly leisurely pace saw me get there with just one minute to spare. This first check had almost no forest road and wound it’s way around with lots of short blasts through alleys twisting and turning you. Then onto some regular tracks which have been used as the special test and finally onto some single track stuff again twisting through the trees till you hit the check. It was a really good blast with not too much to catch you out. In some of the wetter rutted bits people had been taking fresh lines through the long grass to avoid the ruts, with no way of knowing whats lurking in there I opted for the main route on all three laps and managed to keep up a good pace on all of them.

On the second lap the time was down to 15 minutes, a fair old chunk less than the first. Despite a fall then missing a turn and having to turn around in a tight alley I dropped 6 minutes which seems to be about the norm. The third lap it went up to 18 minutes and I again dropped some time, only 3 minutes though, so I managed to knock out the same pace as my second lap.The second check included the test and refuelling and  as such was slack on all three laps. This check had some of the more challenging riding in it and had it been wet some of it could have become pretty tricky. With some short steep climbs and lots of riding through the trees on narrow twisting tracks it could have rutted up very quickly but the hard ground showed no signs of use really, even on the last lap. This check was about 55 minutes worth of riding and it too didn’t have that much forest road in it. You could ease up a bit and enjoy the riding.

The test was very different to the one earlier this year. Being set entirely in the trees and pretty much single file for a lot of it. I managed to get into third gear only a few of times it was that tight. Having said that, even a fast rider probably wouldn’t be going that much quicker than a slower rider in the same class. No doubt I’ll look at the expert and championship test times and wonder how they managed to go that fast!Even though the course wasn’t that hard it seemed to be a bit quiet around the pits when I finished. I don’t remember passing many peple and only a few came past me but I still would have expected to see more people finishing than I did.

Due to this I’ve no idea how I did. It’ll be decided on the going, that’s for sure. Making up a minute or more on the test would be nigh on impossible for riders of a similar standard.Despite the event being one of the best around it didn’t seem that well attended. Like the Yorkshire a couple of weeks ago it just topped the one hundred mark for entrants and I hope they managed to break even. It was a beautiful sunny day and a great course, it really doesn’t get much better for riding or doing an event.

For those who didn’t go you missed a cracker that’s for sure.