Hit the North

Dave H looking relaxed before the off - thanks to Sportsunday Photography

A lot has already been written about Hit the North in the week since the race but I thought I would add my ramblings to the collections. Like many I love this race, how can you love something that you know is going to hurt? Well if you are the type to pin a number on your shirt you probably have done all the thinking behind that already and the answer is..............? for me its the fact that I still can, I may not be pushing for a podium but I still ride as hard as I can and a race is where you can only really push yourself beyond your normal training sessions.
This is the fourth year I have done HtN and I have always ridden my cx bike but wondered what it would be like to ride my MTB so this year my plan was to ride my old Spesh Rockhopper for the first hour then swap onto my Spesh Crux. The Rockhopper is at least 12 years old and in no way light but I had a huge grin riding the course on it, berms, jumps, gnarly descents all just made my smile grow. I knew it was too heavy & I wasn't riding as quick as I could but to be honest I was having too much fun and contemplated doing the full race on it. Swapping onto the cx bike I decided to see how hard I could ride and the recent training I had put in came into play as I passed numerous riders. The Crux coped well with all the course could throw at it and it was only my misjuded line that nearly had me on the deck just as Dave H came to lap me - he promised not to tell anyone ;-)
So which bike to ride? well for me the cx bike was faster but if I had a lighter MTB then maybe I would have a different view. the MTB produced heaps of grin factor so I think if you can try riding both and make your own mind up.
All too soon the bell tolled for the last lap and it was head down and push hard through the pedals.
76th in the end which I was pleased with after three weeks of training and some quality riders in attendance.
Big thanks to Jason & Andrew for sticking with it and putting on a great event, marshall's for giving their time and shouts of encouragement / friendly banter, Alan for pit duties, the CSP guys n girls for the shouts, everybody else for the shouts and Dave & Laura from Sportsunday for the images and encouragement on the day
Roll on next year