March Hare 4th Mar 2007
Report by Ben Falconer
THERE'S not a lot to fault the March Hare LDT – sensible sections are set between endless private tracks and some rights of way, and road work is kept shortest of any LDT around. And for me, it's in the perfect place, less than ten minutes from home.
But Golden Valley Classic made a cock-up this time – they couldn't sort the weather! Torrential rain the week beforehand, followed by a continuous downpour on the day made it pretty tricky for most of the entry. It seemed most of the 31 sections had not been eased but that didn't stop Dougie Nolan going round for 16.
To put that in perspective, last year I lost about 3, due to the dry weather.
This year, the results reckoned my total was 72! I counted 56 but it didn't make a right lot of difference, as Mike Husband comfortably beat me to the class win in the over 250 trail class, on 40 - and he rode the hard route. He's clearly limbering up for the Wyegate, as are easy trail winner Dave Eeles (25) and Keith Wells (42 on the hard route).
On the whole, West Glos members were at the right end of the results.
Goff Hannam came third in class 5 (twin shock, pre 70?) on 70. In the 250 trail class Roy Breakwell lost 57 and Stan Howitt 67 to make the top ten, with Jim Delahay not far behind on 74, Dave Harris on 82 and Colin Davis on 98.
This was a day when a score under 50 was pretty fine, and under 100 very respectable.
There were more than 50 retirements out of around 160 starters though and one was Falconer senior, making a comeback after a year's enforced lay-off, following his off in the Wyegate last year.
Sensibly he jacked it in at section nine and quit while he was ahead. Both the Hannam outfits called it a day at section 13, when only three outfits finished. Darren Thomas also made for the finish after section 21.
The tracks between the sections are what make this event, wending their way round Wotton-under-Edge, Dursley and Nailsworth, for mile after mile. Even the bad weather couldn't spoil it, in fact it just made the tracks a bit more interesting because you could just keep the throttle open and let the back wheel steer.
Personally, I had a proper laugh, especially after the excellent cake stop at competitor Mike Griffiths' farm. I caught up Andrew Weddle and Duncan Shaw's bunch of Honda 185 variants (funny, most had stickers on saying they were 125s!), and the ride round quickly descended in to a little bit of childish roosting in the mud.
Finishing up at the Hunters Hall inn after 6 hours out, it seemed like we'd only been out a few hours. We must have enjoyed ourselves. I even managed a bit of green laning on the way home. Many thanks to the organisers for a great trial in very trying conditions. Fingers crossed for better weather next year.