The winning female pair. Photo: James Kirby www.mountain-bike-cumbria.co.uk |
Ever fancy putting your mountain bike skills to good use and trying something new? Adventure racing is a great way of testing yourself physically and mentally whilst learning new skills and getting to race your mountain bike too.
Over 100 people spent their Saturday night mountain biking, running and caving deep in the Yorkshire Dales, as they took part in this year's Open 24 - 31st July 2006. This was the first 24-hour Adventure Race ever to take place in the Yorkshire Dales. It attracted 56 pairs of competitors who spent a full day racing across the Dales on foot and mountain bike. The pairs left Bolton Abbey on the Saturday lunchtime, and returned at the same time 24 hours later, having navigated their way across rivers, mountains and through caves.
Adventure Racing is becoming increasingly popular across the UK and Open Adventure has run several events before, but never in Yorkshire. Organiser, James Thurlow comments “The Yorkshire Dales provided us with a great place to run an event. There were so many opportunities for memorable special stages; from abseiling to caving and white water kayaking. Many of the competitors said Kilnsey Crag was the best abseil they had done anywhere in the UK”
Photo: Rob Howard www.sleepmonsters.co.uk
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Female winners were Nicola England and Louise Allen of team 'Ewok' from Newcastle. Louise won the event in 2005, but Nicola is new to adventure racing this year. The last pair to return home; Nicola and Louise were determined to complete the course and maximise their point score.
Winners of the mixed pairs were Ali Northcott and Mark Chryssanthou; the Barclays/North Face 2 team from Leeds. Whilst Ali is new to adventure racing, Mark has a reputation for pushing himself throughout the race. He is also a top mountain biker.
The winners all received Mountain Hardware kit, Merrell shoes, Anquet Maps route planning software and experience vouchers from Total Adventure, for the opportunity to try a different sport - just in case they have any energy left! And, to give them that energy boost, EAS were on hand with carbohydrate bars, drinks and gels to rehydrate all the racers as they crossed the finish line.
Open Adventure returns to Yorkshire in October and November with their Open 5 adventure racing series. To take part and for further details visit www.openadventure.com
Toby Jenkins
