Up until Friday afternoon I was still unsure as whether to ride or not in this the first of the Dark and White Winter
series. Following the discovery of my large bruise I have been struggling with knee pain, particularly where I had Osgood-Schlatter disease as a teenager. I think all the problems I have had, including the ripped muscle have been caused by the impact injury I sustained a month ago whilst running which perhaps I should have rested more before recommencing riding.
Anyway back to the event. Hayfield is one of those villages in The Peaks where the mountains rise on all sides, steeply 
to open moorland. Starts were early because of Remembrance Parades and we arrived in plenty of time. After chatting to a few people I realised that a good league score was not on the cards as local and national legend Nick Craig had decided to ride. I have only ridden the area around New Mills and Hayfeild once several years ago, but the riding is stunning and several tracks brought a smile to my face (well the ones that used gravity to my advantage did). I started off scrappily picking up the two controls to the east, but this was a mistake as it involved a lot of climb for so few points. I then didn’t spot a high pass near #5 which would have saved me another climb. My route to the 25 pointer #8 was a lucky pick though as the decent to #10 was a foul muddy track where I passed lots of people struggling upwards. The rest of the ride was fairly straight forward but towards the end I decided not to push my luck, particularly as I was tiring and didn’t want to get another niggly injury. Rather that coming in via #4 and perhaps being a couple of mins late I opted for the fast route down the main road. The decent was amazing, with the GPS showing I hit 41 mph at one point. I think the sporty Volvo hatchback that exiting the junction at the top of the pass in front of me had a shock through the bends with chasing him down in his rear mirror !
Another great event from Dark and White ( I only needed to get the descriptions out once) which I thoroughly enjoyed. Although I only got 11th which would normally be disappointing, the quality of the field was very high and with the injury niggles I have had over the last month I feel quite pleased.
Results available here http://www.darkandwhite.co.uk/results/D&W%20Winter%20League%200910%20-%20Round%201%20-%20short.html