- Thursday 13 November 2025
We kicked off our Winter Series in style from Avon Tyrrell (a calendar house!) on the edge of the New Forest and what a terrific day of adventure racing it was – cool early morning temperatures quickly made way for sunshine, blue skies and shorts and t-shirt weather!
We had a great mix of adventure racing newbies, regulars and Hall of Famers and everyone seemed to really enjoy the area. It was one of our flattest events leading to slightly longer courses and the gravel tracks used on the bike section generally proved easier to navigate than normal.
As is often the case, the majority started on foot with 75% of competitors donning their trail shoes first. Out on course, at around 25km, the run course was a biggie. Despite this, four teams managed to clear it with Daniel Thorby fastest in a brilliant time of 2:10, followed by Tom Davies (2:11), Campbell Walsh (2:15) and The Dirty Cheetahs (Yasmina Khadhraoui and Rory Henson – 2:40). In the Taster Category Team Stok Kangri (Danielle Cook and Gemma Cathcart) picked up the most points on the run collecting 190 points in 2:03 followed by Miranda Naish (185 points in 2:05) and Team Margarita (Richard Jeffrey & Cara Smith – 170 points in 1:40). Having cleared the course, it was no surprise that Dan Thorby had the most profitable run, picking up 2.68 points per minute, followed by Tom Davies (2.67) and Campbell Walsh (2.59). In the Female category, Helen Chapman had the most profitable run picking up 2.15 points per minute, followed by Issy Boyd (2.04) and In Search of Control (Pollie Boyle and Tamara Curnow – 1.89).
At over 56km the bike route was another big one, despite this an impressive twelve teams managed to clear it with Simon Jennison fastest in 2:35 followed by Andy Prince (2:45) and David Carr (2:53). Bonnie Van Wilgenburg (3:12) and Julie Banton (3:45) were the only competitors in the Female category to do so with Nicky Griffin (2:58) the only competitor in the Taster category to complete. Jon Heissig (2:55), Eddie Winthorpe (2:58), Robert Sharman (3:01),Phil Haycock (3:16), Andy Wayland (3:23) and Eugene Xxxx (3:46) were the others to all complete it. Carl Silver had the most profitable bike leg picking up 2.93 points per minute, followed by Simon Jennison (2.89) and Andy Prince (2.72). In the female category, Helen Chapman had the most profitable bike picking up 2.68 points per minute, followed by Ella Pyman (2.40) and Bonnie Van Wilgenburg (2.34). In the Taster category, father and son team Young & Old (Mark & Harvey Humphrey) had the most profitable bike picking up 2.66 points per minute.
The bike leg proved to be the most profitable with teams picking up an average of 2.01 points per minute compared to 1.75 points per minute on the run.
We felt it was a clearable course and so it would have been had it not been for an incredible amount of punctures picked up on the bike leg! We heard stories of Tom Davies having to detour to buy extra tubes, Nick Gracie having to return to the event base to swap wheels (which also failed!) and Dan Thorby, Campbell Walsh and Bonnie van Wilgenburg amongst others all returning with tales of flat-tyre woe.
A mix of lovely weather and bike woes meant that penalties far outweighed rewards on the day and there were some brilliant penalty performances with Dan Whittaker picking up an impressive 195 points, Nick Gracie picking up 115 and Steve Trickey picking up 56 by being back 28 minutes late on the two-hour run.
As ever, we had brilliant stories of teams racing in the proper adventure racing spirit with the likes of Emily Hartley lending out her pump to allow another team to complete their race – thank you Emily!
We also had some incredible shows of dedication with Mike Stevenson waking up at 2am to make the start from Wigan and Nick Gracie starting at 5am so he could get back in time to watch his son’s rugby match (also to Katherina for waking up to drop him to the start!). Incredible effort guys!
Dan Thorby took the overall win in the open category with Helen Chapman returning to the top of the podium in the female category. They are both previous Series winners and now have nice targets on their backs for the rest of the Series!
Our Winter Series saw the return of our special checkpoints which we reintroduced with riddles to solve to find them (thank you to Andrew Ryan here for the suggestion). The checkpoints carried no point value but entered finders into a spot-prize draw. By either luck or judgement, around a quarter of teams managed to find one of the special checkpoints with Sarah Preston being the lucky winner of an entry into a future event.
Thank you to everyone who came out to take part and support at our event and helped to make it a great start to the Series. A special thank you to regular racer Andy Prince who recommended the venue and area to us, he has already recommended another one so, who knows, we could be back soon!
For us, our attention now turns to our next Winter Series event which takes place from Bishop’s Cleeve in the Cotswolds on 6 December – expect a few more hills next time around!
Full results can be found here and pictures here (where you can search using a selfie and download high-res images for free).
A summary of the results follows:
Run-only (2 hours)
In the run-only Open category, Team MandM (Mike & Amanda Yorwerth) had a terrific run to win with a score of 295 followed by the Glass Ninjas (Jade Smith & Ivor Crooks) on 180 points and Lee Ciancamerla on 174 points.
It was really close in the Female category, with Pip & Poppy (Poppy Langdon-Down and Pippa Alford) just pipping Bernie Newitt to top spot with 227 points to 225. Team Can’t Bike, Won’t Bike (Ruth Brownlee and Rochelle Jones) completed the podium after another great run out with us to finish on 202 points.
Taster (Run & Bike 3 hours)
In the Taster category, Nicky Griffin had the best score of the day, finishing on 451 points. She topped the Female podium with Veronica Barette second on 382 points and Mandy Hibberd third on 327 points.
In the Open category, Team Young & Old (Mark & Harvey Humphrey) topped the podium with 440 points, dropping just one checkpoint on the bike. They finished ahead of Ben Dawkins on 342 points with Nigel Peterson completing the podium on 295 points.
In the Mixed Teams category, the Stocton Roadies (Andy & Karen Jones) returned from injury to take the win a very close battle with 308 points. Just eight points further back were Team Lewis (Emma & Richard Lewis) on 300 points and just two back from that were Team Margarita (Richard Jeffery and Cara Smith) who finished on 298 points.
Full (Run & Bike 5 hours)
In the Female Solo category, Helen Chapman had a terrific race to win with 725 points ahead of Bonnie van Wilgenburg on 621 points and Ella Pyman on 610 points.
In the Female Team category, In Search of Control (Pollie Boyle, Tamara Curnow) had yet another great race to top of the podium with 566 points ahead of Team Kick on (Ellie Caple, Katherine Hands) on 505 points and Mad Old Tarts (Maggie Salter, Liz Jones) on 473 points.
In the Mixed Team category, Tideswell United (Matthew Brearley, Anna Thorby) won with a terrific score of 665 points ahead of the Mile Hunters (Jennifer Hunt, Nick Mileham) on 630 points and the Dirty Cheetahs (Rory Henson, Yasmina Khadhraoui) on 609 points.
In the Open Solo category, Dan Thorby topped the podium with 780 points (the best score of the day) just two ahead of Carl Silver on 778 points with Campbell Walsh completing the podium with 760 points.
In the Open Team category Fusion Adventure Racing Team (Graeme & Aidan Williams) won with 623 points just three points ahead of Need for Speed (Andrew & Alex Cawthorne) with 620 points in second place with On Yer Bike (Robert Carter, Ed Gurney) completing the podium with 600 points.
Vets
In the Vets Open category, Carl Silver had a great day out winning with an adjusted score of 790 points ahead of Matthew Brearley on 765 points and Dave Salter on 729 points.
In the Vets Female category, Ella Pyman won with a brilliant adjusted score of 692 points, ahead of Juliet Vickery on 584 points with Tamara Curnow & Pollie Boyle just one point behind on 583 points.
