Grassington, Yorkshire Dales
30th September, 2007
The fourth event of the Mountain Hardwear Open5 series is at Grassington in the Yorkshire Dales. Open24 competitors from last year might recall Grassington as the market town they sped past on the way to the big abseil at Kilnsey Crag. As ever the Yorkshire Dales puts on a pretty special event for those who can find their way out of bed on this September morning.
Registration is at Upper Wharfedale School in Threshfield just to the west of Grassington. Parking will be on the lane leading to the rugby club and in the grounds of the school - we will have marshals around to point you in the right direction. You can click here for a map of the local area. Check back here near the day for up to date information on this event.
entry list click here [18.00 Friday 28th Sept]
weather forecast click here
accommodation line 0870 2250 613
www.yorkshirevisitor.com
local youth hostel small hostel at Kettlewell 9km north or you could try Malham 15km west
bike hire call Dales Mountain Biking on 01748 884356
[27/09 update]
The entry list has now been posted click on the link to the right of the picture above. We will update this list on Friday afternoon once online entries have closed.
Having spent the last couple of days in the area, please be assured that you are in for a real treat with some spectacular countryside to distract you from your navigation. The weather forecast is typically mixed with the clouds and the sun fighting for space in the sky. We won't make a call on if you need to carry a waterproof as mandatory kit until Sunday morning.
In terms of the terrain, the MTBing is a mixture of fast singletrack, farm tracks and minor roads with the odd short sticky section of mud pending on your route for the day. The running is all on local footpaths and where you make the choice on the occasional lane.
Parking is using the two school car parks which is a little tight. Please park sensibly, once these are full the plan is the use the lane that continues past the school.
Please check back nearer the weekend for any updates.
[24/09 update]
A number of competitors have contacted us in light of the 3 peaks cyclo cross race being cancelled in the Yorkshire Dales due to foot and mouth which was also planned for the 30th September.
At the moment there is no plan to cancel the Open5 event planned for Grassington, clearly if the Yorkshire Dales National Park, who we are in contact with advise that the event should be cancelled we will oblige. For the moment all public rights of way in the national park (in fact all national parks) are open.
Unlike previous advice the start / finish and transition will be at the School so you will not have to carry any running kit on your bike to a remote location.
Access - just to be clear, for the foot section on this event we do not have any rights to cross open land even if it is indicated as being open access (light brown shading). On the foot stage you can only use public rights of way, footpaths, roads, bridleways etc. Without sounding too much like your mum, if you get caught or we discover on post race analysis that you have taken shortcuts across private farm land we will ask you not to attend future events.
For MTBing - again we are restricted to bridleways and roads, this is different for those that reside north of the border where cycling on almost any track is OK - unfortunately you can't do that here. Footpaths are also out of bounds.
OK - mum bit over with now.
For this particular event we are a little short of volunteers to help out on the day, if your partner or friend coming up with you or you are a little unsure about competing and fancy finding out what happens please wing us an email or use the contact form here.
Over 200 competitors so far, will post an entry list on Thursday.