HONC 2012
What a turn out! 1300 riders were registered for the event and good proportion was Bigfoot. I cannot say we had a sea of orange at the start since the new club kit has arrived and the orange tops had to compete with the new Olympic ones. Neighbouring Sudley Castle is celebrating the 500th birthday of Kathrine Parr and so the race was started by Lady Ashcombe and the medals we got at the end are commemorating this quincentenary as well. The Bigfoot group was quite at the front when the signal was given and off we went through Winchcombe and the grounds of Sudley Castle. The sun was out and the trails mostly dry. The atmosphere was extremely friendly. The sign posting was discreet with the consequence that more than one Bigfooter had to retrace steps and find the right way again. Almost everyone I spoke to had done some extra loop somewhere during the event. At the 30km food stop we had a kind of relay situation. When one group of Bigfooters had finished stuffing their faces with cakes and bananas the next one arrived. Vicky and I had a really good ride. It felt so good to ask people to give way and let us pass and that was uphill. Even downhill hardly anyone overtook us. Not that I did see much of what was coming but I followed the advice to trust the bike and let it find the way. I have to say the HONC is scoring high on the fun scale and has already made it on the to do list for next year.
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- 5 min before the start
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- old and new tops
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- The riddler started and finished
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- Jason giving last instructions to the racing pack
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- Terry at the food stop
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- Ricky stuffing his face
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- cake bonanza
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- as much as you can eat
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- either I am small or Ed is tall
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- the father and son team
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- our only mechanical
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- girls’ power
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- and more winners
Well done all. A good route with some tough climbs, and a horrible head wind back over cleeve common!
A few issues with route signs playing ‘hard to find’ in places and ‘completely non-existent’ in others! Still, it sounds like everyone enjoyed it and the weather was great (if a little cold in the wind!).
Big congrats to all but special mention to the machines that are Ian & Jason for coming in sub-3hrs, and that’s on top of 80+ miles yesterday!
Great pictures Susanne and we’ll done to all.. Special well done to Peters Jo for completing the 50k.
Ian was taking it easy today, me I was knackered especially after yesterday.
Oh and the kits look great btw. Even cc-cc were impressed.
Well done all, really good day and I manged to get under my five hours whoop whoop, but I think I was still the last Bigfoot rider back but hey. Suzanne is there any way I could get a copy of the photo you took of me please.
Hi Andy,
you can just save the picture from here. The resolution is good enough for an A3 print. Or I can send you the original.
Nice photo’s Susanne. It was a good day, but what felt like a headwind in virtually every direction, how does that work?
Cleeve Hill doesn’t feel any better on the 50km! Still rubbish and draggy…..
But great company and spirits made up for that and it was another successful HONC
Update on Jo’s first ever bike event: she can’t walk this morning but she is glad she did it! She say’s thanks for all the support; she may well be an ‘Easy rider’ very soon!
Well done to all. Another great day except for the chilly wind,
Managed to get round sub 5 hours along with Andy b (thanks for the company)
Having a cold and no pre training not helping things.
O.K. Pete, before Jo is getting any other offers. She is mine. The Easy Riders want her.
Great day was had by all, must admit the devil in me had much fun passing people on the descents, goes to show how we take for granted the routine trails we ride and confidence they do give us!! Honest Susanne, I was only trying to eat two cakes when you took your picture…
I have to say,for my first HONC event i wasn’t sure what to expect but i sooo enjoyed it,long draggy hill climbs,head winds,no signage the lot.
The bigfoot crew was great very supportive and i got to wear a bigfoot shirt(thanks Mike),pictures showed me enjoying it,great pictures susanne and well done everyone.
Well done all, looked good fun.
HONC pictures up:
http://gallery.sussexsportphotography.com/gallery.tlx?containerid=201655
Great day. Squiz J and I really enjoyed it. Nice to see such a big turnout. Christened my new bike with a decent ride. Squiz J and I are looking forward to the HOTS now. Great photos Suzanne. Who was taking photos at the stream crossing then? I can’t find any of those. The photo’s that Sussex Sports Photography took have got to be the most benign shots I’ve ever seen! What a crap place to position themselves!
Squiz,
I went on the Sussex S Photo gallery this morning,7 shots boring,boring!!,man the last decent from cleeve hill to main rd Winchombe,now that would have been hot.