Bikedock Belles

Having actually made it on time to event HQ at Lady Dixon park, Taryn even had time for a quick nap on her handlebars before the Bikedock Belles 10:57am start time and the 3 and ½ hours time slot allowed to collect as many markers as possible. The Belles’ intention was to get a good start, spurred on by fierce competition with A Has Been and A Never Was, who were starting just one minute later at 10:58am.

Unfortunately intention never counts for anything! Actions, not words, count!

Having studied the map for 5 minutes and decided a route, the Belles then realised they hadn’t pinpointed Lady Dixon correctly on the map and were staging their attack from completely the wrong road! Oops, back to the drawing board!

To be honest, the girls should have stayed at the drawing board – or at least just moved slightly downstream for coffee and cake! The first marker took nearly half an hour to find and after much scurrying around in the undergrowth the girls came across another male pair, who promptly found the marker - where Taryn and Andrea had already looked! The kind boys even shouted the answer to the Belles so that the girls didn’t have to climb behind a tree.

This first marker was at the towpath end of Mary Peters track and the Belles then proceeded through trails to the north of the track and then on up to Belvoir Park. There was a lot of pfaffing around to find markers in this area, with the added distraction of Lock Keepers Inn being right there!

From Belvoir the route swept through Edenderry and the Giants Ring, with continued difficulty in locating markers – so the girls decided to take photographic evidence of where they had been! In the end, having messed about so much, there was insufficient time to go to markers on the Dunmurry side of Lady Dixon….and anyway coffee was definitely calling by the 2:27pm cut off time. 

All riders got soup & rolls and hot coffee in The Stables after the event. The Belles also had a variety of squashed chocolate bars from Taryn’s pocket for dessert – bars that have been trawled around a number of events and never actually eaten! A couple of them, miserable looking as they were, were finally handed out….if only for Taryn to show off her highly polished nails!

The next Trailquest is this Sunday at Daft Eddies and details are at www.dromaracc.co.uk – so c’mon girls, give them a go! Not only are they great fun and get you out in the Baltic air for a few hours, but all proceeds help raise funds for the Children's Cancer Care home located in Shimna Valley.

Results have just been published for the Lady Dixon Trailquest, with the Belles ranking higher than they deserved! 34 teams entered and the Belles came 15th. . . not a bad starting point considering! Many thanks to Trevor of Dromara CC for his singlehanded planning of the event.

Ding Dong !

ps click the thumbnail image to enlarge and use the arrows to scroll through them

Andrea