Tony Thornley ran an excellent event yesterday, which included some great mapping.The updated results are here.

Here’s his report:

“Thank you all for coming and for the many kind comments.

An especial thank you to my beautiful assistants, Pete and Ali, and to Tim for printing the maps.

The church car park donations raised £50 for which thanks to all who contributed.

I hope the map worked well for you. I’ve always felt it would be better to make the viable routes, whether road or off-road, clearer for MTBO events, and to give more cyclability information. From the routes (below) you can see that both Ian and Al did their best to avoid the really miserable tracks across Ilkley Moor and around points 16 and 26. I don’t think anyone got to 16 but one or two made 30 by the Twelve Apostles.

The challenge was to decide the best route at the outset. Most people opted for the North loop and then used the road route via 25 towards Riddlesden. Very few people got down to the canal, although it is very fast going. Rob King gets the prize for the longest distance cycled without getting any points – from 26 to the finish.

I hope no-one had too many problems with the awful bit of bridleway down from Langbar at point 24 back to Addingham. I deliberately extended the map to give the option of using the road to the NW; although a lot longer and not flat I suspect it may be quicker.

Hope to see you all, virus permitting, at the Washburn Valley event on April 18th.

Tony Thornley”

Ilkley showing winners routes