Gary, no I’m not number 34, wish I was with times like that though!
Being more of an XC/marathon type than a sprinter, I decided to treat the whole course like a race and try to get back first. This backfired when I got overtaken by some kind of rocket-powered android half way round and then completely ran out of steam and crawled back up the last climb. I got in second but my stage times were woeful. Part of me says no big deal cos of the way I rode it, but part of me is suffering with major pride issues so I shall have to ride the course again some time, take it easy and see if I couldn’t do stages 2 and 3 a lot quicker!
I also tell myself that it’s also partly because some people cheated by cutting out the two extra loops off the red. They know who they are… and they missed possibly the best bit of the route (the rooty section on the black). That should have been prevented I think.
Otherwise it was well organised, though we did have to stop and guess which way to go at one point, and I didn’t like queueing that long to register. But it had a nice home-made feel about it which I really liked, and of course the Gorlech trail is just the best!