- Thursday 11 December 2025
We can safely say that winter has arrived and Saturday felt like the proper start of our 2025 ‘Winter’ Series in the Cotswolds hosted by Cleeve School – a lovely venue with brilliant terrain on the doorstep. This was our last event of 2025 and, with it, our last chance to remove ourselves from people’s Christmas card lists by putting on a beast of a course. I think we just about managed it!
While the sunny climes of our first event down in the New Forest were a very distant memory, what the second event of our Winter Series lacked in sunshine and flat, it more than made up for with mud, hills and wind (very déjà vu to our December 2024 event from the Cotswolds)! With festive cheer, decorations, and a cheeky mince pie and mulled non-wine to greet people at the finish, it was a great way to round off our year of races.
We started off with welcoming a new member to our Hall of Fame, Robert Griffiths, famous for his outings out with his daughter Charlotte and ever conspicuous in their ever-increasing collection of bucket hats! Congratulations Robert!
The sun rose in plenty of time to see the start line and we saw a flurry of racers set off straight up into the hills that surrounded us at HQ. As racers transitioned throughout the day, there were cries of delight (and pain) as talk of pushing bikes up and down hills, comments on the bonus special stage of mud skiing/skating and curses to the wind as it howled all day. But smiles on every face, as we adventure racers know, the tougher the conditions…the prouder the achievement at the end of the day!
As is often the case, the majority set out on foot first with 66% of racers opting for foot over bike to start the day. Out on course, at around 23km and with over 700m of climbing the run course was a tough one. Despite this, both Daniel Thorby (2:18) and Ben Hawkins (2:25) managed to clear it. Iain Porter had the most profitable run, picking up 2.64 points per minute, followed by Campbell Walsh (2.61), Daniel Thorby (2.46), Ben Hawkins (2.33) and Team Clare & Mark (Clare Dallimore and Mark Ponsford – 2.31). In the Female category, Team In search of control (Tamara Curnow, Pollie Boyle and Julia Robson) had the most profitable run, picking up 2.16 points per minute, followed by Jennifer Hunt and Helen Chapman (both 2.11) and The Queen Bees (June & Julia Kingsbury – 2.02). In the Taster category, Team Riley (Peter & Tom Riley) had the most profitable run picking up an excellent 2.32 points per minute.
At just over 43km, the bike course was on the shorter side but what it lacked in distance it more than made up for with elevation with around 1,350 in total – it was probably (and rather proudly) our evilest course yet! As a demonstration of its bite, all but one team on the bike-only course came back late – an average of 31 minutes on an already extended three-hour event! The course was not meant to be cleared but a few teams gave it a really impressive go with Eddie Winthorpe (4:06), Nicky Griffin (4:27) and Andy Wayland (5:17) all only dropping only one checkpoint and probably still cursing us now! Daniel Thorby had the most profitable bike, picking up 2.45 points per minute, followed by Campbell Walsh and Carl Silver (both 2.36), Team Clare & Mark (Clare Dallimore and Mark Ponsford – 2.32) and Ben Hawkins (2.23). In the Female category, Helen Chapman had the most profitable bike, picking up 1.96 points per minute followed by In search of control (Tamara Curnow, Pollie Boyle and Julia Robson – 1.79), Nicky Griffin (1.68) and Wally’s & Proud (Jodie Brinson and Caroline Howe – 1.60). In the Taster category, David Rumney had the most profitable bike picking up 1.46 points per minute.
It was a course that we never planned on anyone clearing and so it proved with Campbell Walsh and Daniel Thorby getting closest dropping five checkpoints along the way. The run leg proved most profitable with teams picking up an average of 1.66 points per minute compared to 1.52 on the bike – this was closer than we thought it would be given the rain making for some tougher biking conditions.
Campbell Walsh took the overall win in the Open category; Helen Chapman took the overall win in the Female category and Team Clare & Mark (Clare Dallimore and Mark Ponsford) took the overall win in the Mixed Category. Full results are below.
Our Special Checkpoints made a reappearance, they carried no point value but entered finders into a spot-prize draw with the following riddle leading racers to their location: A shameless pacifier closest to base, dare to go and risk a red face? The answer: the dummy checkpoint!
Thank you to everyone who came out to take part and support at our event and helped to make it a great end to our year of racing. A special thank you to Paul Taylor for collecting checkpoints at the end and Iain Porter who mopped all the mud from the showers! Thank you both!
We now look forward to seeing you all to finish off our 2025 Winter Series in the South Downs (10 January) and the Chilterns (14 February) before we head into our 2026 Summer Series. With four regular events, a two-day event and our special 25-hour 25th anniversary event, we are full of choice for your 2026 calendars!
We can only end with a massive THANK YOU to each and every one of you who have made 2025 an amazing year. And a special thank you to those of you who come out to numerous events each series, we really do appreciate seeing your smiling faces at each and every event. Thank you and we wish you all the very merriest and brightest holidays this year!
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 Jelly Legs Running Club (John Cross and Jennifer Cott) had a terrific run to win with a score of 231 points followed by the Chilton Champions (Andy Attwood and Dan Cox) on 198 points and Ed Condon on 157 points.
In the Female category, Cara Smith took top spot with an excellent 198 ahead of the Cotswold Lions (Sarah Kerswell, Maxine Emes) on 184 points and Team Snails (Anne Beastall and Jodie Mitchell) on 160 points.
Bike-only (3 hours)
Rob Smart returned from injury to top the podium with 386 points ahead of Steve Jones on 270 points and Chiltern45 (Shelly Hufner and Mark Essex) on 188 points. A special shout-out to Team Cowen (Chris & Josh Cowen) who were the only team who finished within the time limit, picking up 179 points and finishing in fourth place overall.
Taster (Run & Bike 3 hours)
In the Open category, Team Riley (Peter & Tom Riley) topped the podium with 303 points ahead of Dave Rumney on 246 points with Team Help the Aged! (Rob Hampton and Jack Prince) completing the podium on 119 points.
In the Female category, Why run when you can skip (Margaret Warlow and Sarah Currie) took the win with 212 points ahead of Haven’t a clue (Kathryn Burns and Kate Palphramand) on 170 points and just seven back from that was Tanya Rumney who finished on 163 points.
Full (Run & Bike 5 hours)
In the Female Solo category, Helen Chapman had another terrific race to win with 605 points ahead of Jennifer Hunt on 527 points and Nicky Griffin on 471 points.
In the Female Team category, In Search of Control (Pollie Boyle, Tamara Curnow and Julia Robson) had yet another great race to once again top of the podium with 555 points ahead of Wally’s & Proud (Jodie Brinson and Caroline Howe) on 445 points and Team Kick on (Ellie Caple, Katherine Hands) on 420 points.
In the Mixed Team category, Team Clare and Mark (Clare Dallimore and Mark Ponsford) won with a terrific score of 686 points ahead of Team AdventuRoss (Alistair & Helen Ross) on 505 points and Lentil Stinkhorns (Stephanie Gibbons and Mark Harris) on 490 points.
In the Open Solo category, Campbell Walsh topped the podium with 727 points (the best score of the day) ahead of Dan Thorby on 702 points and Carl Silver on 681 points. Ben Hawkins was just three points off the podium finishing on 678 points.
In the Open Team category Fusion Adventure Racing Team (Graeme & Aidan Williams) once again topped the podium with 577 points ahead of Inspheros (Thomas Farr and Paul Meekums) with 543 points in second place with O’HareyWisyDrew (Tom O’Hare, Henry Wisdom and Andrew Davies) completing the podium with 488 points.
Vets
In the Vets Open category, Carl Silver once again had a great day out winning with an adjusted score of 691 points ahead of Phil Haycock on 658 points and Kevin Stephens on 644 points.
In the Vets Female category, Tamara Curnow & Pollie Boyle won with a brilliant adjusted score of 572 points, ahead of Nicky Griffin on 549 points and Sarah Russell on 487 points.
