It was great to see 51 riders set off from the Blacksmiths Arms on a bright but very cold day. Jeff Barber had planned an excellent course but he needed the assistance of his daughters Amelia & Laura to manage the start and finish. Congratulations to the category winners. Hopefully, they will post their routes but here is mine. 2 26 20 6 14 27 16 21 17 25 13 22 8 18 12 11 5 29 10 15 I was happy with my route until I realised at Monk Fryston that there wasn’t a way back to Biggin without going through Thorpe Willoughby which meant that I was relieved to finish only 20 minutes late. Still a cracking day out. Hopefully we’ll see as many riders at Sicklinghall next month.
2015 Biggin TH 50000 Working Drawing with Controls 22nd January
nymbo : north yorkshire mountain bike orienteers 
We had a great day which was made even better for the girls as I must have grabbed their sheet from the car so even though the boys went to more controls they got a better score than us! epic fail
Brilliant day out to an area that I hadn’t really visited since I lodged in the farm house at Partridge Hill over 30 years ago, the railway bridge by clue one and the railway were being built.
I set off North west to clue 2 then 26 aim was a generall ant-clockwise loop but on the way to 20 realised I had left my rucksac with water, tools , phone and car key on the bench by the start so quick replan back to the start and off to 1, 30 , 10 , 19 , 29 then a 3 minute clue write up waiting at the level crossing, off to 24, 23 , 5 , 30 , 11, 12 , 18 then with 30 minutes left which way , decided to miss out 22 and go straight to 13 but go to the level crossing and waited 10 minutes for a slow freight train to cross, off to 13 then 25 and 20 and with time running out had to go for home thankfully with a tail wind. decided 5 and 7 would add less than 3 minutes so picked those up and arrived back 13 minutes late.
My route is https://www.strava.com/activities/245364502 if interested
Thanks to Jeff and his Daughters for the organisation and Jens for the map
Luke and I had a good if windy ride, with slick tyres being the correct tyre choice for the day (and possibly worth the effort of putting two sets on and then taking them off afterwards). They made a big difference, but I spent the two hours wondering why Luke kept dropping off – which was all explained when changing his tyres after the race – as his rear break pads were clamped on to the disc – so he had had two hours of resistance training!
Route was anti-clockwise with the plan that we would have the wind behind coming back. route – 1,30,10,19,30,24 – from where we did not think you could get under the A63 without going north back on to the main road (but from talking to others with local knowledge you can). We then had a bit of an inefficient route through the controls at Hambleton. After 5 we should have gone to 28 first but went in and out for 23 then 11 and the 28 doubling back then to 12. Those who went straight on on the bridleway from 28 lived to regret the choice – I had the pleasure of cleaning the copious sticky mud off Jemima’s bike later.
Remainder of the route – 18 (slip streaming a roady), 8,22,13,25,17 and then heading for home against the clock (looking wistfully at 21 and 16) via 4 and 7 to take 8 minutes of penalties.
Adrian
Enjoyed the clear skies and the headwind on Saturday. I went:
2; 26; 20; 6; 7; 4; 16; 21; 17; 25; 13; 22; 8; 18; 12; 11; 28; 29; 15
My pencil broke half way round so I spent the rest of the ride performing some form of ‘kitcheb parlour’ memory game. I also learned a hard lesson about folding the map as I hadn’t appreciated the distance form Hambleton back to the start – much like Steve did! So a substantial penalty incurred.
A good ride, enjoyed sticking to the roads for a cold January.
A beautiful day to be out on the bike, and my first competitive event for over two months for one reason and another. Heading anticlockwise to put the miles in against the wind early on, I collected 2 26 20 6 14 27 16 21 17 25 13 and 22 with little trouble. I then eyed up the remaining checkpoints with considerable bravado (they look so close together!), but showed restraint – very wise given that the SE corner of the map required more demanding route choice. I opted for 18 12 11 23 5 (perhaps 18 12 23 11 28 5 would have worked for a few more points) 29 10 30 1 and home. A slow puncture on the front revealed itself shortly after finishing. A huge thanks to Steve and NYMBO for another great event.