The Rally.
The simple premise of the Great Malle Rally is to ride from the tip of Cornwall through England, Wales and Scotland. You Complete the tour in the north of the Highlands after five stages. Sounds easy, but the organisers plan the Rally to avoid main roads and seek out the most scenic routes.
On the Sunday before the first stage in Cornwall, all entrants gathered at the basecamp for registration. Here you get your Rally Number to attach to your motorcycle, and you get your all-important log book. You also get allocated your tent and meet with the person you are sharing accommodation with. During the evening meal, how to complete the stage is explained, and you are issued your riding companions to form a team of similar style bikes. As I was on a Harley-Davidson Street Glide Special, I was placed with three other Harley owners.
The First Stage started at the Lizzard in Cornwall and saw us hammered by winds and rain all day. Progress was slow due to conditions, and by the time we entered the Cheddar Gorge, my group had been riding for about eight hours. We did have a couple of breaks along the way at scheduled locations. When you reach the break location, one rider from the group takes the Rally Log Books from all members and gets them time-stamped. All the Rally is not a race; it features a degree of timing to get participants focused on riding to a schedule. We finally finished at a beautiful campsite after riding the last leg of day one through the scenic Gorge. Here are tents were erected and bedding laid out, and our Malle race bags ready to collect.
The excellent support crew carry the Malle bags for each rider in vans, so riders don't have to put the kit on their bikes each day. There is a whole host of the crew, from tent and bag organisers to fully trained Mechanics. In the unfortunate event of a breakdown, the Mechanics can assist and get you going or even transport the bike to the next campsite to work on it there.
