Legs were going like the clappers, and I even did reasonably well with route choice out of and back into the forest, but sadly about 4 mistakes lost me 10-15 minutes...
- Cockup 1 - Getting from 18-19, I went through Clipstone. I should have picked up 17 & 20 en route to 19. I just didn't see this (I didn't really concentrate on the 1:50k map, just the 1:15k at the start line.
- Cockup 2 - Getting from 14-24, I went back down to the main road, along the A road, then up the Bway and down the B6407. Nightmare. I really didn't see the route through Market Warsop.
- Cockup 3 - 25 to 26, I couldn't find 25 anyway, but when I did, I didn't notice the Bridleway about 500m to the west which went due north straight to 26.
- Cockup 4 - wrong way to 21. Concentrating too hard on getting my foot down and not looking at the map enough !
Oh well, it was a brilliant 3 hours despite severe winds from the west. Cycling uphill through sand into a headwind at one point really was as tough as anyone would ever want it !
The Pines looked fantastic with the low sun and very dry trails. It would have been great to just poodle around in there.
Thanks to Dave for helping out with Lewis and of course for rescuing Teresa ! She'd had bad luck on the section marked 'severe thorns, do not ride' and got two punctures plus a broken QR lever. Lewis delighted in telling me "Daddy, you'll never guess what, we had to rescue mummy !" He was just soooo excited. No change there then !