Last Saturday saw over a thousand road riders enjoying the sunshine and warm evening riding the National Rally. For the uninitiated this is a yearly competition with riders competing for Bronze. Silver or Gold awards by collecting points gained by visiting as many checkpoints around the country as possible, with the distance covered depending on the type of award the rider is competing for. We agreed to run one of these checkpoints and decided to use the car park at the top of Reigate Hill. Our checkpoint being on the outer edges of the area covered by the Rally was to be open from 2pm until 10pm, with the inner checkpoints being open until 9.30am Sunday morning. We had around 45 riders starting from our spot and once their cards had been stamped we waved them off at 2pm promptly.

Saturday proved to be a gorgeous day and we enjoyed sitting in the sun admiring the view and chatting waiting for riders to clock in. Several complimented us on our choice of checkpoint because of the views. A further 50 riders came through our checkpoint during the day with the last one at around 9.15, the latest time they could make the next checkpoint before the outer ones closed for the night. After 10pm only the inner checkpoints remain open with the final one in Warwick. For some riders this means a distance of 540 miles for a gold award. The shortest distance which can be covered to gain a bronze award is around 100 miles so all sizes of bikes and abilities are catered for. We had a 110cc moped and a 50cc 3 wheel van through, both competing for the bronze award.

Thanks to Derek Tickner-Wand and Antony Read for coming along to help. Perhaps we will see some of our own road riders competing next year.

Margaret