The Race | Rules

We only have a few rules which are in place primarily for your safety and secondly to create a fair event.

We would appreciate if you would abide by these and the spirit in which they are written. Deliberate infringement will not result in any loss of time, just disqualification.

Remember that access rights are different in England than they are in Scotland. Mountain Bikes can only be ridden on Bridleways and roads unless we have permission to do otherwise (yes we do know its different in Scotland).

1. Don't take (ride or carry) your mountain bike on a footpath

2. Only use public rights of way or permissive tracks as indicated on the map. E.g. Forestry roads.

3. Close gates even if someone is behind you or they were open when you arrived

4. Teams to stay together (you should be able to talk to each other)

5. If you retire, you must report to the event staff and hand in your timing chip / tracker

6. GPS units are not referred to during an event (e.g. no wrist or handlebar mounts). They can be used for route logging if desired

7. Competitors are not allowed to accept or use external assistance

8. No food or kit drops are allowed

9. This event is a one bike / one boat type of event so you can not swap to a mountain bike then to a road bike for different sections

10. Bibs MUST be worn on top of all clothing - including bouyancy aids and waterproof jackets. Sponsors logos should not be covered in any way

11. Teams who forget their tracker on a stage OR carry their tracker in a location where it can not work (e.g. at bottom of rucksack) will have 20% of their stage time added as a penalty

12. Teams who miss a mandatory checkpoint or ignore route descriptions will be subject to a time penalty that is 3x times the time gained as an advantage. We may occasions disqualify a team, if a team traspasses on private land.

13. Time penalties or disqualification will result for teams not carrying mandatory kit

14. Spirit of the event - if deemed that competitors transgress the spirt of the event then a time penalty maybe applied. Competitors should be aware that these events use public rights of way (e.g. roads, bridleways, footpaths) which have other users. Competitors do not have exclusive use.

Retirement

If one or more members of your team retires from the race then you must inform race control as soon as possible. We don't want to be waiting for you at transition or sending out a search party. After notifying race control you will need to transport yourselves back to Settle. We will get retirees kit back to Settle as soon as we can. This may take some time as we won't be able to unload a whole van full of kit to do this and we have limited means to transport small amounts of kit around the course.

Please do not ask friends who are volunteering to stop what they are doing to take you back to the event centre. This can (and has) caused problems for the management of the event which is still running. Please refer to event management staff.