- Monday 23 September 2024
The fifth and final race of our 2024 Summer Series took place from Stroud in the Cotswolds and what a glorious day it was! Having had a real pick and mix of weather at our Series so far it was nice to finally have perfect adventure racing conditions for a change – blue skies, sunshine and not a breath of wind in sight.
Stroud is in the heart of the Five Valleys and Race HQ was located at Archway School which provided a brilliant setting with views up into the hills which would provide the playground for much of the day. This was our first time to this area and, with so much beautiful terrain about, it was difficult to choose which to use and which to leave out, which resulted in a big course with plenty of route options.
The course was challenging and one of the hilliest we’ve ever done.
The run course had some slightly flatter terrain near the race HQ before the hills really kicked in and with a total course elevation of nearly 750m it was always going to be a tough ask to clear it but two teams managed to do just that with Tom Hards fastest in 2:23:46 followed by Team Doctoring Results (Simon Jennison, Graham King) in 2:51:04.
The hills continued long into the mountain bike as well with over 1,500m of glorious ascent in total, it was described by Matthew Saunders, one of our regular racers, as being the only time where the top of a hill presented not a down but another hill! It was no surprise then that no team was able to clear the course with Team Mongaru (Nick Gracie, Katherina Pedersen) coming closest by collecting 400 of the 450 points on offer in 2:46:32.
At least the kayak was flat and the beautiful paddle along a restored section of the Stroud Valleys Canal provided a welcome respite from the surrounding hills. In total, 28 Masters teams and five Novice teams completed the whole kayak (our best completion rate in recent memory) with Team Airbus 1 (Robert Mills, Jamie Boxshall) fastest in a brilliant time of 45:35. There was also not a single penalty point picked up on the kayak with all teams back within the allotted one-hour time limit – a great achievement all round!
The kayak leg was the most profitable with teams able to pick up on average 2.5 points per minute compared to 1.2 points per minute on the bike and 1.6 points per minute on the run.
There was a great showing of new adventure racers with the majority of them jumping into our five-hour Novice event. We hope you all enjoyed the event as much as we enjoyed putting it on and hope that you have been hooked and will be seeing you again soon at another upcoming event. We had solo racers, couples, friends, parents and children, the lot! There were also lots of new faces on the podium mixing in with familiar faces from past events.
All in all, it was another amazing day of racing and the perfect end to our Summer Series. Thank you to everyone who came out and made our first trip to Stroud so memorable, with so much brilliant terrain around we will definitely be back!
For us, our attention now turns to our Winter Series which kicks off in Berkshire on 9 November before taking us to the Cotswolds on 7 December, the New Forest on 11 January before finishing in the Forest of Dean on 15 February.
We look forward to seeing you all soon.
A summary of the results follows:
Run-only (2 hours)
In the run-only category, Oscar Sly and Rich Bennett won the day with a brilliant score of 249 points whilst behind them it was a really tight battle for the remaining podium places with just nine points separating second and fifth. Muddy by name filthy by nature (Matthew and Jessica Hartwell) came second with 198 points ahead of Team Xtreme (Thomas Hill, Tom Gully) on 195 points with Solo Slowpoke Shellie (Rochelle Jones) finishing just three points further back on 192 points and Lost and Swinging (Tory Alexander, Susie Morton, Josh McAneny, Emila Higgins) three more points back in fifth on 189 points.
Duo (Run & Bike 5 hours)
In the Duo category, Defence Academy (Simon Phillips) came first with an incredible score of 615 points ahead of Coniston Crawlers (Davide Cerrato, Nicola Massey) on 405 points and KP NUTS (Chris Thorne) on 402 points.
Trio Novice (Run, Bike & Kayak 5 hours)
In the Female solo category, Hannah Sellers topped the podium with 420 points ahead of Sophie Preece on 376 points. Sophie had picked up a brilliant 470 points on course but penalties pushed her down into second.
In the Female Team category, Queen Bees (Julia and June Kingsbury) had a superb race to win with a score of 553. Julia is one of our regular racers but this was her first time racing with her mum who was competing in her first ever adventure race! Team Witardos (Tamzin Furtado, Joanna Furtado, Robyn Furtado) came second with 493 points with I’m Massive (Imogen Preddy, Polly Ainsley) completing the podium with 414 points.
In the Mixed Team category, returning racers Faster than Badger (Will Garrett, Sophie Garrett) continued their excellent form from our Mendips race to finish first on 561 points ahead of Unrealistic Expectations (Joshua Bleakley, Angharad Jenkins) on 524 points and Great Balls of Power (James Dalrymple-Smith, Louise Neale) on 452 points.
In the Open Solo category, Graeme Blair continued his impressive form from the Mendips race to win with a score of 522 points ahead of Mark Ward on 345 points and Sam Eccles on 235 points.
In the Open Team category, Fusion Adventure Racing Team (Graeme Williams, Aidan Williams) continued where they left off in the Mendips to top the podium with 608 points ahead of the Fulton Brothers (Luke and Erik Fulton) on 532 points and Gentlemen Spoofers Team 2 (Tom Fuller, Mike Hemsley, Alex Sutton) on 487 points.
Trio Masters (Run, Bike & Kayak 6 hours)
In the Mixed Teams category, Team Mongaru (Nick Gracie, Katherina Pedersen) had a superb race to win with a score of 871 points ahead of Team Gill (Richard Gill, Emma Gill) on 710 points and Team Volare Odessy (Daisy Lucker, Lia Evans, Charles Nell) on 675 points.
In the Female Teams category, Spa Day Fail (Heather Kieniewicz, Anna Bramall) put in a brilliant performance to win with 620 points ahead of Fuelledbychips (Emma Hill, Caroline Gillespie) on 545 points and Mad Old Tarts (Maggie Salter, Liz Jones) on 425 points.
In the Open Teams category, Team Endurancelife (Tom Davies, Gary Davies) beat the Bath Old Boys (Daniel Thorby, Simon Tang) by 12 points to win with a score of 862 versus 850 with Doctoring Results (Simon Jennison, Graham King) finishing in third place on 785 points.
In the Open Solo category, Tom Hards raced brilliantly to win with a score of 936 points ahead of Iain Porter on 885 points and Eddie Winthorpe on 812 points.
In the Female Solo category, Helen Chapman had a brilliant race to win against a very strong field with 785 points ahead of Isabel Boyd on 699 points and Iwona Szmyd on 672 points.
In the Vets Open category, Nick Gracie won with an adjusted score of 910 points ahead of Eddie Winthorpe on 824 points and Steve Burnham on 810 points.
In the Vets Female category, Ella Pyman won with an adjusted score of 732 points ahead of Wendy Davies on 633 points and Julie Banton on 612 points.
The 2024 Questars Winter Series
Our Winter Series kicks off on Saturday 9 November from the Berkshire Downs. There are four races in the Series with events with events taking us to the Cotswolds, the New Forest and the Forest of Dean.
Anyone entering into any of our adventure races will be automatically entered into our Series Championship with each individual’s top three one-day results counting towards the final Championship position. Full details can be found on our Series Championship page.
