Experience Counts in New QuestARS Format

Rob / 20.05.2002

The veteran team of Norman Carter and Gareth Buffett came out winners after QuestARS introduced a new format for no. 3 in the series, held in the Brecon Beacons.

Yet another race achieved increased entry figures, so there were 77 starters from the venue at Talybont on Usk, in a combination of pairs and teams of 3 or 4. You can’t accuse QuestARS of limiting choice! That applied to the course as well, as instead of fixed stages for run, bike and paddle they simply gave out all the controls for the day and left teams to plan for themselves.

Bike CP’s could be picked up on the way to and from the transition area 10km away at the Outward Bound centre at Dolygaer, from where teams could either canoe or run. It was hard going over a sizeable competition area in the Eastern Breacons, sodden from heavy rain on Saturday, but at least for race day it didn’t rain and visibility was good.

It was a very tactical race and there were some hefty penalty points racked up, so much so that several teams finished with minus points as their grand total. Not so the winners who kept a clean penalty points sheet to score 445 keeping them ahead of ‘Blister R Us’ – Matthew Leathwood and Gerry King, and Francesca Boylan and David Clark, racing as ‘Dave and Fran’. They won the male and mixed classes.

You can see the full result on the QuestARS site here.