Tour of the Cornfields – Times now in!

COMING SOON – TOUR OF THE CORNFIELDS 2018 – COMING SOON!

We had a wonderful day of good weather and riders seemed to like the course. The new course marking scheme meant we had far fewer comments from riders who’d got lost and those guided by GPS were very happy.

There were a couple of noted problems;-

Some thorny hedge trimmings as farmers tidied up after harvest. Not a lot we could do about that and the worst section had been ridden at 3pm on the day before with no hedge cutting apparent.

The householder by the very end of the very last off-road section who cut the grass – complete with our sprayed-on course marking there. We got this sprayed back in within about 30 minutes but sorry if you came back in to Wimpole by the car park entry and not the Arrington gate.

There were many successes;-

We only had eight bananas and a small amount of cake left (oddly, the chocolate cake had all gone).

One upset rider was rescued and brought back safely with only a slightly broken bike. Not bad for an unsupported event and it was greatly helped by detailed course knowledge; ‘You should be standing directly under a power line’, was the line that clinched the location and instructions on getting to the nearest road for pick up.

Car parking discipline was really good, and the lack of litter has really helped our relations with the estate management – We’re welcome back. Thank you.

THE WEATHER! You may have got rained on before you got home, but you stayed dry all the way round and the course was all rideable.

THE COURSES! Everything worked. We’d re-routed the 100 away from a busy farm and we didn’t take the 50 through a fly-tipped lay-by. Trails were all rideable and most of them were great fun too. We hope you had good interactions with other trail users

THE COUNTRYSIDE! There are some wonderful views and places to pass through. Many trails are just a pleasure to ride (..not all of them, we know) and it’s great to have the whole route just daisy-chained together for a constant ride at your own speed.

There are many more opportunities;-

We aim to keep on improving the routes. It’s a tough task after this year, but we have some ideas from our recces and we’re always trying to reduce the amount on-road. If you’re local and can suggest something, we’ll happily consider. We won’t go on private land or along footpaths.

We could turn ToC into something really massive  –  but we’re not going to.

We could change the event format from non-competitive ride – but we’re not going to.

We could change the refreshment stop location – but that’s very unlikely as it’s ideal for you and our helpers.

We can continue to support coaching and other initiatives in cyclocross.

And here are the results

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