I got an entry for this race two days before and knew I'd be rubbish at it but thought it would be a good training day out. I decided as a bit of an experiment to carry on up the track and then loop round. I was 15 seconds behind Simon Bailey at the point he turned to go up. At the top stile I was about 70 seconds behind.
If you look at the film at just before 8 minutes you'll see me way on up the track but at the stile I was in about 19th place. I went a lot further around than both the Calder lads but arrived at the stile in front of them. They were doing ok but started to doubt themselves and so slowed down. They should have stuck to it and they would have been in contention.
It's difficult to say how much difference it would have made if I'd gone the short steeper way. Maybe 30 seconds or so.