[Closed] Hit the North - The show's over love, go home.

ah cool, i was chatting to you afterwards with miketually a bit- nice to meet you fella!

And you - might just see you up at Lee Quarry for the Brownbacks series - after my result here I'm hoping Mr Brailsford will be keeping an eye on me........... 🙂

Aah, right. You used to work with my bro. Names and face, faces and names!

Great ride/race, cheers guys

Rusty Spanner - OOOPS. Sorry! Was that when you fell on my shovel?

great event again lads, cheers for putting obvious amounts of effort into organising it all.

Thats me being assaulted by marshal Brant...

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I had just lobbed a load of mud at him in return for the above mentioned "words of encouragemant" after an off.

Cheers to Ed-O for the push start again!

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Pretty much sums up the vibe of our spot.

Sorting through pictures. Should have some up of the usual suspects a bit later, and the rest on Monday.

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unfortunately, sums up the vibe of my spot 🙁

Pretty much sums up the vibe of our spot.

A few up of you lot on my flickr. The rest on Monday at [url= http://qwertyphoto.com ]http://qwertyphoto.com[/url]

[url= http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4071/4374112256_503689f1a4_o.jp g" target="_blank">http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4071/4374112256_503689f1a4_o.jp g"/> [/img][/url]

C'mon, most of those were take by your daughter weren't they!! 🙂

those pics remind me why i packed up racing a long time ago!

no disrespect to anyone who rode or organised the event intended but i only get so much time free to ride and i prefer to enjoy it in a fun way rather than an 'ill look back on this and smile' way.

well done all!

First flat on the opening lap, while in top 25. BAck to car, rummaged through spares and found a 26" road tube.

Second flat on third lap.

Retired and went to offer my support to thise still riding.

Apart from the carries (which have ruined my back) and The Somme, the course was really good, and prob better than last year.

I'll come back next year with full set of functioning inner tubes.

That looks a lot like riding around a muddy field.. each to their own !

Whatever...

3 races, 3 sell outs. So we must be doing something right.

We are probably doing it again in July but with camping, beer tent and live bands. If you don't like riding round muddy fields stay in and watch Ant and Dec, if you want to do something stupid and have a laugh keep you eyes peeled on here and www.hitthenorth.net

It has been a long day.

Nighty night,

Harry the Spider.

Cheers guys,

I had a great time today and even surprised myself by finishing in the top half!

Big thanks to Ed-O - Your jovial encouragement was just what was needed to keep me going (and the push around the corner was greatly appreciated), and gave me the enthusiasm to throw myself down the mud bank each lap!

John c (mud-spec camoflaged summer season)

I'll come back next year with full set of functioning inner tubes.

Nah, come back in the summer, it might be even muddier and even more fun! 😀
What bike were you riding OMITN?
The 'cross boys & girls were hellishly fast and seemed to have less problems with the mud than the MTB'ers.

Slowrider and Spoon - It wasn't just a muddy field. There were muddy uphill bits, muddy downhill bits, muddy singletrack and even muddy asphalt. These people know how to vary things. 😀
Honestly, it was actually quite fun at the time 🙂 The course was well thought out with some really funny downhill bits to counteract the purgatory of the uphill slog. TBH I quite liked all of it.

tthew: Give your Ed a call early in the morning - he's just left the pub, pissed as a fart and would really, really appreciate an early morning wake up call.

Ed-O: don't worry - you were trying to help me up at the time! Ta for the push.

Harry - I loved it last year & was really looking forward to this year but ended with a bad cold from Thursday so missed it. However you've got me down as finishing 18th, so I thought I better let you known as someone will be a bit fed up at me taking their glory.

Rich

Sorry, but that looks about as much fun as sticking nettles down your undercrackers.

Just spotted Tom got 4th. First MTB as well.

well done matey

Andrew, that was absolutely brilliant mate. 2 hours of pure grit and determination. Loved it! Put a 1.5" tyre on the back of the Yeti and that solved any mud plugging problems - Designed in Colorado, tweaked in Manchester... Looked a bit mad though.

Thought the course was much better than last year. Either that or I'm getting fitter. Sure I only did 3 laps last time and managed 5 this year. Banter out on the course was ace. Twinklydave clipped wheels with me twice. Was about to gesticulate when I realised who it was - we'd rode the start of the Mary Townley Loop together last year, so frustration turned to laughter. Then some mannerless t in a Leisure Lakes top ploughed into me as I waited for a rider who was down where Brant was marshalling. So rude, but as he failed to apologise everyone took the p...

Thanks to all the marshalls too for you words of encouragement, smiles etc

Think the club (Manchester Mountainbikers) had about 15 riders and everyone had a blast (except Peachey :-)). Pretty sure we'll all be back in the summer mate for the next one. Already looking forward to it...

Excellent event! I Did the original 12hr Hit the north solo and the mud definately brought back memories!
To Ed-o I was one of the Hope crossers that you informed was getting beat by "the old chap" riding for hope - He's 62 and came 15th!!!
I've got 23 years to catch him! (if it works like that!)
See you all in the summer.

Dickie, at this race we decided to take a more holistic approach to the results based not only on the number of laps but also your karma and where you sit in the World. So, to come 18th without actually being there you must have set up an orphanage or found a cure for the clap. Well done.

The truth is that the information given to the guy who was entering the results into the computer was a little sketchy. The top 4 was correct, the rest is a little random. HtN isn’t really about whether you were 78th or 87th though, it is about having a laugh and telling everybody how heroic you are.

Fantastic. No rain or wind and it wasnt too cold. I might be tempted to enter the Summer event 🙂

Glad you enjoyed it George. HtN wouldn't be the same without very tall men on very big 6" travel bikes mixing it skinny chaps on tiny little crossers.

I noticed that the Manchester Mountain Bikers posed for a team photo at the end. Can somebody post it on here so that we can steal it and put it on our website?

Were you there Hora? You should have come over and said hello. I would have given you a Mint Ball.

I arrived after the start and heckled a couple of riders that I knew ("stop trailing your brakes/your holding everyone up" etc) 😆

Porridge was nice 🙂

Harry_the_Spider - where were you? Will do next time 😉

Ooops, looks like I misinterpreted the sign on sheet slightly. "Luckily" Dickie didn't show and calamity and confusion was averted. Sorry Rich.
You can have 18th tho' as I wasn't very happy with it anyway 😀
Rich.

Hora, I was trying to look official (but actually looked like a burglar in a high-vis vest) handing out Uncle Joe's Mint Balls.

...and I was the one who looks like Pob in a British Army goretex jacket

- he's just left the pub, pissed as a fart and would really, really appreciate an early morning wake up call.

pubs are ace - of course rusty was completely sober all night. Apologise to Mrs Rusty from me if I was annoyingly p1ssed

The crossers may have won the race but the MTBers drank them under the table.

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absolute blinder, im back in summer to climb the board. just tell me when 🙂

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I noticed that the Manchester Mountain Bikers posed for a team photo at the end. Can somebody post it on here so that we can steal it and put it on our website?

here you go chap!

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Ta. Who is who on it?

left>right

back: Dan, Tim
Middle: Nick, Kev, Ron, George, Mike, Dean
Front: Simon, Peachey, Jen, Chris, Walc, Ste

Did Mike go round the course or under it?

[url= http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2757/4373698794_5ed71cb26b_d.jp g" target="_blank">http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2757/4373698794_5ed71cb26b_d.jp g"/> [/img][/url]

An ace event again. Just got home - 52 hours for a 2 hour bike ride 🙂

Good to put some more faces to names, and see some old faces again.

And, despite appearances on the results sheet, I wasn't last (45 minute first lap?).

Andrew, if by any chance you photoshop the picture before putting it on the site, please can you open my eyes.

Thanks,

George 🙂

We're pretty sure that this one was our best yet. We certainly enjoyed organising and 'watching it all go off' anyway.

We were discussing plans for future races over several pints last night. It's going to be ace....

This guy looks like he had a lovely time.

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Oh and I've got a couple of Mike somewhere.

That's me!
Hated Lap 1 - thoroughly enjoyed the other 6.
Cheers

More pics: http://www.flickr.com/photos/britishcycling/tags/hitthenorth2010/