I made a start on the risk assessment document for the next Hit the North race yesterday. Despite my experiences with the RA for the last race, I naively thought that this one would take a couple of hours.Obviously I was wrong. It’s shorter course though so I’ve done about half of it, including the (on reflection) really rather risk-laden bit where there’s a narrow trail that follows the countour of a hill – you’ve got the hill on one side of the trail and a 20 foot drop on the other. We’ll just load it up with marshalls or something. Perhaps a mandatory dismount, but then that would be shit.

I had an early morning long ride today, the first one for ages really. It was wet, cold and windy but ace. I did my “usual” route on the ‘cross bike from the house to the Peaks via Oldham and Glossop, finishing at my brother-in-law’s place for a bacon barm. There were loads of cyclists out this morning, including one friendly “good morning” group that I dropped on the big climb out of Stalybrige. Perhaps they weren’t really trying though. I had intended to extend the ride by including a run up and ride down Lantern Pike but decided not to in the end. I should have ridden the road bike instead.