- Wednesday 16 April 2025
The first race of our 2025 Summer Series took place from Upper Woolhampton in Berkshire and what a brilliant day it was! Blue skies and sunshine greeted our racers on their arrival and conditions remained pretty much perfect for the whole day.
The race venue was split between Elstree School and Douai Park Recreation Ground pavilion, which provided the perfect backdrop to our start and finish line.
Recent sunny weather had dried the course out nicely although the mud-lovers amongst our racers were still able to wallow at various parts of the course.
Although the area was without any truly ‘killer’ hills, the rolling terrain certainly added up with over 1,000m of accumulative elevation gain spread throughout the course – including 3 meters on the kayak, which doesn’t sound like a lot until you’re battling against in on your way back to transition racing against a 50-point penalty!
The run course was a big one at over 26km with more than 400m of elevation gain. Despite that, four teams managed to clear the course with Simon Phillips fastest in 2:16 ahead of Ben Hawkins (2:23 – on a slightly longer route including the kayak transition), Adam Brown (2:46 – like Ben, on a slightly longer route) and Jeremy Wormington (2:39).
The bike course was another big one at around 50km with 700m of ascent. Despite that, nine teams went big to clear it with Team Leaping Fish (Nick Gracie and Mark Chryssanthou) fastest in a time of 2:38 followed by Tom Hards (2:54), Stuart Colvin (2:59), Andy Prince (3:01), Nicky Griffin (3:09), Stephanie Gibbins (3:30), Team Wait for me Missus (Carol & Andy Yarrow – 3:31), Andrew Woodhouse (3:31) and Andy Wayland (3:33).
To compensate for the flow on the canalised section of the river Kennet, the kayak course was slightly shorter than normal at just under 6km allowing 22 Masters teams and two Novice teams to clear the course with Team LETS (Lizzie Broughton, Sam Lee-Gill, Tom Walker, Elly O’Connell) fastest in a time of 46:37 ahead of Team Leaping Fish (Nick Gracie and Mark Chryssanthou) in 48:40 and Team Faster than Badger (Will & Sophie Garrett) in 50:32. It’s always a bit tougher as a solo on the kayak course and James Hornby was the fastest solo to complete the course in 52:01 ahead of Adam Brown (53:05) and Steve Burnham and Jon Heissig (both in 53:11).
The kayak course is always fraught with jeopardy given the 50-point penalty for being even a second over the maximum one-hour time limit and there were three teams who fell agonisingly on the wrong side with Jonathan Ward unluckiest finishing just 48 seconds over alongside Jeremy Waite (1:47 over) and Daniel Whittaker (6:26 over).
The kayak leg was the most profitable with teams able to pick up on average 2.95 points per minute compared to 1.71 points per minute on the bike and 1.86 points per minute on the run.
Overall, penalties for being late slightly outweighed rewards for being early. The bike-only course were the biggest culprits for penalties amassing over 100 penalty points between them! There were also some impressive individual penalty performances with Romualdas Stupelis managing to amass 130 points by finishing 26 minutes late. In terms of perfectly times races, it doesn’t come much better than Team Nav 4: Inferno (Matthew Saunders, Susie Peart) who finished just 11 seconds within the six-hour time-limit, no doubt after some frantic peddling to the finish!
Our finish line was abuzz with stories of adventure and misadventure and many tales of our racers helping their fellow competitors out. Kudos to the likes of Andrew Woodhouse and Andy Wayland (we know there were others – we just don’t know who!) who stopped their own races to help out with bike mechanicals they came across on course, and another team who, post-race, bought a fellow racer their hard-earned chilli nachos, truly demonstrating the Questars adventure racing spirit. Thank you!
All in all, it was another amazing day of racing and the perfect start to our Summer Series. Thank you to everyone who came out and made our event so memorable, we really like the area and venue and we will definitely be back!
For us, our attention now turns to our next event in the Surrey Hills on 10 May before trips to Dorset (14 June), the Peak District (12 & 13 July) and the Chilterns (13 September).
We look forward to seeing you all soon.
Full results can be found here and pictures here (you can also download high-res images for free here).
A summary of the results follows:
Bike-only (2 hours)
In the bike-only category, Amy Worden had a terrific first race with us to win with a score of 155 points (we’re sure to see her again as she looks to join us for the full 6-hr course next time!) ahead of Team Family Force (Rich and Jake Bennett) in 139 points with Rachael Foy completing the podium with 123 points. Jake was once again our youngest competitor on the day and had a brilliant race.
Run-only (2 hours)
In the run-only category, Ryan Sutton won the day with a brilliant score of 320 points ahead of Daniel Barnhouse on 286 points. Eleanor Broughton won the female category with a terrific score of 277 points ahead of Abi Pack (254 points) and Team Lost: The Sequel (Rachel Cooksey, Montana Sheikh, Ami Taylor) in 209 points. Team Brigstocke (Gavin & Lisa Brigstocke) won the mixed category with a score of 268 points ahead of Rebutween (Richard & Emma Butler) in 268 points with The Misfits (Caroline Roberts & Jay Allen) completing the podium with 220 points.
Duo (Run & Bike 5 hours)
In the Duo category, Simon Phillips topped the podium with an incredible score of 739 points ahead of Jeremy Wormington on 650 points with Sid Hardy just ten points behind on 640 points.
Trio Novice (Run, Bike & Kayak 5 hours)
In the Female category, Team Whitchurch Warriors (Victoria Rampton, Athena Webb) overcame an early bike mechanical to have a brilliant race to top the podium with 471 points ahead of Emma Winter on 429 points and Emma White on 400 points.
In the Mixed Team category, returning racers Faster than Badger (Will & Sophie Garrett) continued their excellent run of form to finish first on 595 points ahead of Escape the kids (Harry & Annie Griffin) on 578 points and Bikes, Bikes, Bikes (Joanne Clapp, Matt P) on 557 points.
In the Open category, Runaway Dads (Chris West, Tom Saggers) topped the podium with an excellent 705 points ahead of Borussia teeth (James Mead) on 625 points and Bridgerunner and Sons (Adrian, Ben & Matthew St.John) on 620 points.
Trio Masters (Run, Bike & Kayak 6 hours)
In the Mixed Teams category, Team Gill (Richard & Emma Gill) continued their fine form to win with a terrific score of 822 points ahead of Mile Hunters (Jennifer Hunt, Nick Mileham) on 770 points and Team MandM (Mike & Amanda Yorwerth) on 741 points. Atlas Fitness Southampton (Stephen Cox & Jenny Symons) just missed out finishing an agonising four points off the podium with 737 points.
It was incredibly close at the top of the podium in the female team category with Team In Search of Control (Pollie Boyle & Tamara Curnow) just piping the Dirty Ditches (Ellie Caple & Serena Howell) by four points to win with 715 versus 711 points with Waspy’s Wonders (Nina Ingham & Isla Reynolds) just a further 12 points back to complete the podium with 699 points.
In the Open Teams category, Team Cross Contour (James Lea-Cox, John Pattinson) raced brilliantly to win with a score of 940 points (the best of the day) ahead of Team Leaping Fish (Nick Gracie, Mark Chryssanthou) on 910 points and Fuzion Adventure Racing Team (Phil Haycock, Scott Richardson) completing the podium with 777 points.
In the Open Solo category, Tom Hards won with an excellent score of 925 points ahead of Steve Burnham on 900 points and Robert Sharman on 858 points.
In the Female Solo category, Steph Gibbins had a terrific race to win against a very strong field with 787 points ahead of Bonnie van Wilgenburg on 763 points and Nicky Griffin on 695 points.
In the Vets Open category, David Salter had a terrific race to win with an adjusted score of 972 points ahead of Nick Gracie on 965 points and Steve Burnham on 927 points.
In the Vets Female category, Amanda Yorwerth won with an adjusted score of 830 points ahead of Nicky Griffin on 810 points and Maggie Salter & Liz Jones on 778 points.
The 2025 Questars Summer Series
The next stop for our Summer Series takes us to the Surrey Hills on Saturday 10 May before trips to Dorset (10 June), the Peak District (12 & 13 July) and the Chilterns (12 September).
Anyone entering into any of our adventure races will be automatically entered into our Series Championship with each individual’s top four one-day results (or equivalent) counting towards the final Championship position. Full details can be found on our Series Championship page.
