I'm bored now!

Needless to say, rally action has been curtailed for the moment; my knee injury was confirmed by the MRI scan as a torn Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) that has partially separated from the Tibia as well as severe bruising to the Femur and Tibia. As I write I’m awaiting physiotherapy which whilst it can’t reattach the ACL, will strengthen what remains. In October I’m going back to the Orthopaedic and Trauma Clinic for an assessment where they may decide to operate to reattach the ligament properly. So at present I just have to wait.... and yes it's boring!

So my rally related exploits have been restricted to planning, firstly a road book training day in November in Hertfordshire for Rallymoto, running from the KTM Centre in Hemel Hempstead. I have created a 170 km route, mapped it online and created a road book via Rally Navigator Pro. Now I’m just hoping I’ll be fit in time to do final checking on the bike before November.

My second project is a GPS route covering every green road that is a through route in Hertfordshire, of which there are 110 separate routes. 

This came about last year when a fellow TRF member Mark Harvey, came up with the idea of a moped marathon around all the green roads in Hertfordshire to raise some money for Marie Curie Cancer Care and asked for help. 

I obliged and plotted a route including every green road including all the dead ends. In July I then came up with the idea of trying the route (but omitting the dead ends) on our normal trail/enduro bikes, just to see what a mammoth task it was likely to be.

A route was duly plotted and I then I injured my knee, which put me out of contention to actually ride the route. However a post on the Hertfordshire TRF Facebook Group got over twenty riders interested in riding it. A GPX file of the route was duly created and a small recce group came together to trial the 480km route!!! 

Two friends Andrew Dalton and Andrew Prendergast attempted the ride on the August Bank Holiday weekend. Starting at the Valiant Trooper pub in Aldbury, near Tring (where the TRF was originally formed in 1970) they set a fast pace and managed to get approximately half way round in six hours when on a byway near Bishops Stortford, Mr Dalton parked his Husqvarna 701 upside down in a ditch!!!

A broken collarbone was the result…. But thankfully the bike was OK!

So the route remains to be ridden in full but will obviously take at least 12 hours to complete, so I’m now hoping I’ll be fit enough to attempt it myself before the lack of daylight and two seasonal traffic regulation orders mean the route in full can’t be ridden until the Spring…. Fingers crossed!