With nearly a year passed since the All Points North Race in 2019 and with the news that this years race has been postponed, I thought it was a good time to try and recollect the crazy 50 or so hours I spent on the saddle during the race. Plus some before and after snapshots which made this race one of the most memorable events I have ever taken part in, proving you don’t have to travel far from home to find adventure. Those signed up for the 2020 event, its well worth the wait!
Knowing these types of events always sound much more appealing in hindsight, especially after nearly a year to forget the tough parts, the following will, I imagine, be slightly rose tinted. Well as rose tinted as sleeping in a toilet block eating cold pizza can be.
All Points North 2019 was the first running of the race and from allpointsnorth.cc is an
‘unsupported journey through the North of England by bicycle… The control points will be scattered across the north of England in a roughly circular distribution but with a couple of wildcards thrown in the centre.‘
You could choose your own route between all of the control points, starting and finishing in Sheffield.
Many hours of planning went into coming up with the route. I wanted to enjoy the race as well as getting round as quickly as I could, so I spent a lot of time making sure I wouldn’t ride on any major roads, even if that meant I would have much more climbing, I would rather be riding on quiet roads. I had come up with a predicted, well idealistic, timing for the race which if everything went to plan I wanted to try and follow…
With the race starting at 8pm on the Friday evening, I caught the train from Durham to Sheffield around midday on the Friday. After an ‘interesting’ chat with a Mormon who was sitting next to me on the jouney, I arrived and pedalled to the HQ at the Heeley Institute.
Signing on, getting the cap and brevet card alongside a very useful high vis harness, I got my bike safety checked over and had a few hours to spare. I caught up with a few familiar faces from previous races and tried to fill my face with as much food as I could find, while attempting to catch a bit of sleep before the long night ahead of me. All attempts of sleep were unsuccessful, so after a couple of hours of bike and kit faffing, the clock turned to 8pm and we were off.
Jordan Matthews 