Pick up the Pace in the Pyrenees
Rob / 30.12.2002
For those of you who like to travel and race there’s now a new series in Andorra called PyACha – which stands for the Pyrenean Adventure Challenge.It’s organised by Montgomery One Ltd., a company set up by Brits Ian and Katherine Montgomery to establish the series (the first in the Pyrenees) and also a training camp in Andorra. It’s an ideal spot, with good weather and winter conditions, superb mountain scenery, easy and cheap access, a strong infrastructure, and enthusiastic support from the local tourist boards and authorities. Between them they are hoping to put Andorra on the AR map.
The races are the first step, starting in May with the Spring Event, which kicks off a seasonal series of four running through to the Winter race in Jan/Feb 2004. They are weekend, supported races over 24-48 hours with a mandatory rest stop for mixed teams of 3 and Ian says the courses will be aimed at novice and intermediate racers. The cost is a very reasonable €360 (£235 approx) per team and the dates are;
- Spring (May 16th – 18th)
- Summer (July 25th – 27th)
- Autumn (October 24th – 27th)
- Winter (January 30th – February 2nd 2004)
Aside from the usual run, paddle, ride, climb disciplines he’s promising a few surprises and says he may include any of the following; snow shoeing, cross country skiing, downhill skiing, ice climbing, in-line skating, horse riding, archery, target shooting and canyoning. And maybe a few more!
All the details are on the new series website – the first of many SleepMonsters.com event sites. At the moment only the English language version is up and running, but very soon it will also be on-line in French, Spanish and Catalan. All the information for the first race is on the site now though and you can enter there and then if you want to. There’s a message board if you’ve got an questions for Ian and you can register for their newsletter to keep up-to-date with developments.
