- Friday 19 September 2025
From the picturesque little village of Hambleden in the Chilterns, we held the fifth and final event of our Questars 2025 Summer Series. And what a day it was!
We had a mix of rain and sun all Friday when we were setting up and putting out the course, but the start line saw sunshine and dry conditions. With the sunshine came racers from all over the UK and even a few from abroad and soon the race base was abuzz with racers, bikes and lots of route plotting!
Thank you to everyone who came out to race and support at our event and helped to make it a brilliant end to the Series. A special thanks to regular racer Oscar Sly who first recommended the area to us, a lovely mix of trails made it perfect adventure racing terrain!
Briefings were brief but cozy in the marquee and, based on the show of hands, we had a great mix of adventure racing newbies, regulars and Hall of Famers! We had the pleasure of welcoming a new member to the Hall of Fame in Phil Pattullo, congratulations on accumulating over 10,000 points, Phil!
We had a number of family groups racing with us, including Helen and Alistair Ross who have raced with us a number of times previously and this time returned accompanied by Emily, their 11-year-old daughter, who managed to drag them round to a very respectable finish in the Masters Mixed Teams category.
Out on course, at around 23km and with over 450m of climbing, the run course was a toughie. Despite this, eight teams managed to clear it with Daniel Thorby fastest in a brilliant time of 2:08, followed by Ben Hawkins (2:09) and Campbell Walsh (2:12). In search of Control (Tamara Curnow & Pollie Boyle) were the only female team to clear the run in a time of 3:02 with Team Macvin (Romain Jacquet, Justine Brocard – 2:42) and Team Slug (Calvin Coe, Emily Wallace – 2:59) the only mixed teams to clear it (Kevin Stephens (2:25) and Steve Burnham (2:30) the other two to complete). Graeme Blair and Team The Triple A Wholes (Adam Geernaert, Anthony Ling, Adrian Morris) had the most profitable run picking up a very rapid 3.61 points per minute and Emma Hill & Caroline Gillespie had the most profitable run in the female category picking up 1.75 points per minute.
At over 55km and over 1,100m of climbing the bike route was another beast of a course and it took a brilliant effort to clear it with only Team Leaping Fish (Tom Davies & Nick Gracie) doing so in an impressive time of 3:26 (which included time going to/from the kayak). A few others gave it a really good go with Steph Gibbins (4:13 – including to/from the kayak), Campbell Walsh (2:54) and Daniel Thorby (2:59) dropping just one checkpoint. Campbell Walsh had the most profitable bike leg picking up 2.53 points per minute followed by Gary Davies and Daniel Thorby (both 2.45 points). In the female category, Issy Boyd had the most profitable bike picking up 2.2 points per minute followed by Ella Pyman (2.05 points per minute).
The kayak was just under 6km which made it one of our shorter ones but what it lacked in length it made up for in wind (and, for a brief 10-minute spell, incredible rain!). An impressive 35 teams managed to clear the course including three teams in the shorter Novice category. Team Leaping Fish (Tom Davies & Nick Gracie) were fastest in a brilliant time of 49:23 followed by Campbell Walsh in 51:20 with Team Gauteng Cruisers (Shelly Huffner and James Lea-Cox) just behind in 51:38 – unsurprisingly those teams had the most profitable kayak legs picking up 2.63, 2.53 and 2.52 points per minute respectively. In the Novice category, The Queen Bees (June & Julia Kingsbury) were fastest in a time of 52:50 – particularly impressive given the conditions were tougher for the Novice teams. We had six teams enjoying the kayaking just that little too much and spending more than the 60-minutes allowed, Eddie Winthorpe was probably unluckiest of all – just 28 seconds over time for an expensive 50-point penalty!
With three tough legs we felt it was to be a course that would prove to be too big to clear, we were proven correct but only just! Both Campbell Walsh and Daniel Thorby dropped only one checkpoint which is just incredible. When setting the course, we always guess as to what score will win it and, given the size, felt that a score of around 940 (dropping three checkpoints) would take the win – how wrong we were!
The bike leg proved to be the toughest with teams picking up an average of 1.54 points per minute compared to 2.15 points per minute on both the run and the kayak.
Rewards just about outweighed penalties on the day – by just 39 points, the first time we can remember this happening (albeit we do have rather short memories!). The Duo participants once again earn the praise of the race directors with every single competitor coming back within the five-hour time limit. Elsewhere there were some brilliant penalty performances with The Dirty Ditches (Ellie Caple, Serena Howell) duking it out with Moob Raker (Shirley Jackson, Wilsey Mockett) for the most penalty points of the day – Moob Raker took it by an agonising four seconds for 200 penalty points to 195!
As ever, we had brilliant stories of teams racing in the proper adventure racing spirit with the likes of Rob Carter and Ben Turner both lending out bike tools to allow other teams to complete there races – thank you guys!
All in all, it was another amazing day of racing, we really like the area and will definitely be back!
We also crowned our Series Winners at our Chilterns event and will be publishing a separate post looking at this. Winner of the Open Category was Gary Davies, who claims it only took him 20 years! The Female win went to Katherina Pedersen, for the second year running! In the Female Vets Category, Maggie Salter and Liz Jones took home a well-earned win. Nick Gracie took the Open Vets win after another brilliant series.
For us, our attention now turns to our Winter Series which kicks off in the New Forest on 8 November – entries will be opened online shortly (we’ll send an email out to those signed up to our newsletter when open). We will also be returning to the area in nearby Sonning Common on 14 February so if you enjoyed the terrain but feel it could be improved by mud then we look forward to seeing you then!
Full results can be found here and pictures here (where you can search using either a selfie or your bib number and download high-res images for free).
A summary of the results follows:
Run-only (2 hours)
In the run-only category, Poppy Hawkins put in a terrific performance to win a very closely contested female category with 214 points, just six points ahead of Sam Hurst (208 points) and the Lady from Lady and the Tramp (Jessica Collins) on 197 points.
In the open category, Oscar Sly won with 330 points (the best score of the day) ahead of Ballinger Strollers (Paul Guerrieria, Pete Jenkins, Pete Walsh) on 270 points and Martin Wilson on 242 points.
Duo (Run & Bike 5 hours)
In the Duo category, Robert Carter (On Yer Bike) topped the podium with 600 points with Sid Hardy (Freerange MTB) in second on 592 points with David Carr (Rotor race team) in third with 545 points.
In the Female category, Emily Thorne (from team Sam & Ems) won with a score of 486, followed by Emily Hartley with 423 points, and Beverley Hawkins completing the podium with 335 points.
Trio Novice (Run, Bike & Kayak 5 hours)
In the Female Solo category, Kathryn Heppinstall won with a tied score (360 points) with Emma Winter (360 points) but just inching her to the first spot on the podium by finishing faster. In third we had Joanna Burton just 9 points behind (351 points).
In the Female Team category, The Queen Bees (June & Julia Kingsbury) had yet another brilliant race to top of the podium with 434 points (even with having to replace a broken bike) ahead of Test tubes and trail shoes (Rebecca Robinson, Meg Cousins) on 404 points and Hot Mess Express (Kat Harris, George Kearney-Bambridge) on 383 points.
In the Mixed Team category, The Gs (George Cairns, Grace Rawlins) won with a terrific score of 535 points ahead of the Fearsome foursome (Lucy Harris, Tom Harris, Lucy Clark, Simon Clark) on 482 points and Lets give it a go (Kathryn Burns, Michael Burns) on 473 points.
In the Open Solo category, Dan Whittaker topped the podium with 585 points (the best score of the day) ahead of Tim Elson on 544 points and Chris Runcie on 470 points.
In the Open Team category Shizzle My Drizzle (Matt Ward, Phil Bolton) won with 536 points ahead of Frozen Desert Gophers (Ian Price, Andrew Macdonald) on 506 points. And to complete the podium, Spiersy and the Weasels (Lewis Spiers, Chris Lloyd, Matt Rollins, Joseph Chapman) with a score of 498.
Trio Masters (Run, Bike & Kayak 6 hours)
In the Mixed Teams category, Team Gauteng Cruisers (James Lea-Cox, Shelly Hufner) won with a brilliant score of 726 points, getting 6 bonus points for getting back early after a mandatory team pub stop! Team Procrastinate (Elaine Bettaney, Charles Murray) were not far behind with 705 points and all the way from France, team Macvin (Romain Jacquet, Justine Brocard) came third on 694 points.
In the female team category, In Search of Control (Tamara Curnow, Pollie Boyle) had a fantastic race to win with a score of 758 points ahead of Escaping the kids (Charlotte Duncan, Rebecca Galea, Belinda Robbie) with 630 points and the Mad Old Tarts (Maggie Salter, Liz Jones) on 625 points.
In the Female Solo category, Isabel Boyd had a brilliant race to top the podium with 736 points, ahead of Ella Pyman on 695 points and Stephanie Gibbins on 679 points.
In the Open Teams category, Team Leaping Fish (Tom Davies, Nick Gracie) won with a terrific score of 871 points ahead of Fusion Adventure Racing Team (Graeme & Aidan Williams) on 727 points and Tea & Torq (Alex Winship, Stuart Colvin) with a score of 725 points – just two points behind!
In the Open Solo category, Campbell Walsh stormed ahead to win with a massive score of 981 points just ahead of Dan Thorby on 940 points and Gary Davies with 902 points.
Vets
In the Vets Open category, Kev Stephens had a great day out winning with an adjusted score of 936 points ahead of Nick Gracie on 923 points and Steve Burnham on 894 points.
In the Vets Female category, Ella Pyman won a very close contest with an adjusted score of 789 points, just eight points ahead of Tamara Curnow, Pollie Boyle with 781 points and Maggie Salter & Liz Jones on 766 points.
