2006 Report - Race 3 - Isle of Purbeck, 8th July

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2006 Series Overall Leaderboard Table top 25 as at July.xls

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QUESTARS 8th JULY 2006 : RACE REPORT - Isele of Purbeck, Dorset

As adventure racers from across the UK converged upon the historic walled town of Wareham in Dorset last Saturday racing conditions were near perfect. The hot and humid temperatures of recent days had given way to more pleasant temperatures with warm sunshine and clear views.

David Hunt, Questars organiser, welcomed teams at the modern sports centre that doubled for the day as the event centre, saying that racers were in for a real treat. He encouraged everyone to enjoy the magnificent scenery and fine views afforded by careful placement of the checkpoints in some of the best viewing places in Purbeck.

It has long been his aim to hold an adventure race in the Isle of Purbeck and from the reaction of teams upon completing their chosen courses it has now also become a firm favourite with many who had not visited the area before.

The format of this Questars varied a little from normal as there was just one single Transition Point between all stages - located a couple of miles from the Start and Finish point. This enabled teams to enjoy a longer kayaking stage and also enabled some of the best off road mountain biking to be included in the course.

The kayaking stage took place on the tidal River Frome just downstream from Wareham. The wide river which meanders through reed beds on its way into Poole Harbour provided some great paddling. With checkpoints to visit both upstream and downstream teams had to decide which way to turn out of the wharf and whether they could manage to visit all the six checkpoints and earn a valuable maximum score of 200 points on this stage. A record number of thirteen teams managed to do exactly that and everyone else also seemed to thoroughly enjoy paddling on the cool water.

As racers emerged off the water cramped legs made it hard to scramble up the slipway to the bike transition area. However after a drink and a stretch teams were soon away either on the extensive off road mountain biking routes or to do their trail running stage.

Stage strategy and route choice are major factors in adventure racing. Playing to a team's strength and also balancing the amount of checkpoints visited over all three stages of the Questars Trio are amongst the keys to success. Whilst it's often tempting to try and clear the whole of the running or biking stage this can lead strong teams to leave themselves too little time to gain a good score in the next stage. So alot of thinking as well as physical activity was going on amongst the leading pack.

For others, especially the Novice teams they were just enjoying being out in some great terrain. The biking stage explored the heaths and forest to the south of Poole Harbour. There were fascinating glimpses of the area’s industrial past as many of the routes exploited old tramways used to extract china and ball clay. Now tucked deep away in the forest is the largest set of on shore oil wells in the UK. It was the checkpoints atop the open chalk ridges of the Purbeck Hills that left the greatest memories. These afforded great views across the whole of Poole Harbour, and even as far as the Isle of Wight. The extensive biking course also circumnavigated the dramatic ruins of Corfe Castle. Whilst the village of Corfe itself was out of bounds there were checkpoints close to the castle linked by bridleways across Corfe Common were quite a few teams found they were navigationally challenged!

The trail running stage also enjoyed very varied terrain and a great stretch along the top of the Purbeck Hills as well as the heathland and woodlands closer to Wareham. A final run back to the Finish was rewarded with the tempting sight of ice cold drinks, and the enticing smell of sizzling sausages and barbqued burgers provided especially right next to the giant Finish arch.

Teams sat outside in the sun to recover, eat, drink and compare routes with each other until all the teams had returned and the results were announced and prizes distributed. Some very strong perfomances and close competition were seen acoss all categories.

Deserving of particular mention was the Novice Veterans class from which the winners of the overall Novice category were drawn. Nick Howle and George Ashford ( HAVA A Team) who sent their young sons up to collect there well earned prizes, had not only beaten their arch rivals and past winners HAVA B Team, they also managed in 5 hours to collect 586 points only 4 points shy of the Masters Veterans winners 'The Less Likelies' that had a full hour longer in which to collect points!

Top honours this time went to Carl Silver who narrowly beat Matt Leathwood and Daniel Carrivick into second and third positions in a very close contest for overall podium positions in the Questars Trio Masters category. Full results are available via the link above and the top three positons in each class are listed below. Congratulations to all.

The last event of the 2006 Questars series will be held on Saturday 16 September. It's located in the beautiful Vale of Pewsey and Wiltshire Downs based from a new venue in Devizes and utilising a new part of the Kennet and Avon canal for the kayaking stage. This event will decide the winner of the overall Questars series with the best three scores in the series counting towards the cumulative total of points. Check out the Series Leaderboard for the current positions after three events.

Also teams will wish to view the excellent photos taken by Jon Brooke at the Purbeck Questars. These can be viewed and purchased via the photoshop within the Sleepmonsters website.

Results

Questars Duo:

• 1st David Canavan = 395 points
• 2nd Nicola & Jonathan Bird - Mad Bustards = 380 in a time of 04:55:45
• 3rd Dudley Manning, Paul Storey - Bushwackers = 380 in a time of 04:59:24

Questars Trio Masters Mens Solo and overall event winners :

• 1st Carl Silver - Downwind = 810 points
• 2nd Matt Leathwood = 805 in a time of 05:56:18
• 3rd Daniel Carrivick - Imperial College Union = 805 in 05:58:32