I'm riding the Autumn event solo and hope to have a good ride rather than thinking I have a chance to win anything but I am still not clear on the category classification.
From what I can make out solo competitors are just lumped into the relevant age category and have to compete against the two man (or two woman, one man & one woman, one man and his kid etc. etc....) teams. I also believe there is a rule that a category must have a minimum of six entries to be counted.
I've noticed that on the latest entry list (26th September) there are seven in my "category" (Solo Vet Men) Shouldn't this work the other way and a category be created? I'm not even suggesting a prize, although something for the winner might be nice (highly unlikely to be me) just a separate listing in the results perhaps. And yes I know that I can work out my position amongst solo competitors in my overall category myself, but it's not quite the same.
After all solos are at a disadvantage as we cannot share the team kit (i've always split the tent, cook gear and tool kit for instance, this makes for a potentially larger rucsac (in itself heavier), have only one brain to do the navigating (but I suppose no arguments either) and of course we run a greater risk in the event of a crash, breakdown or exhaustion.
I'm not trying to make a big issue out of this but I am interested in what others think
PS: Hi to Paul, Christopher, Nick, Stewart, Alan and Andrew, see you there!