A Sunny Salomon X in Mid-Wales

Rob/Tim Lloyd / 06.06.2002

The second of the Salomon X-adventure one day races on June 1st had some sunny weather, a tough and varied course and a very high standard of competition. It was held in an area of mid Wales not used for AR before, with race HQ in Mynachdy, 5 miles south of Machynlleth, and though the weather conditions could not have been better the scorching sunshine made the 8 hour course all the more demanding.

Geraint ‘Gogs’ Edwards was given the leading role in course planning, with Nigel Shepherd busy working on the ropes section of Adrenalin Rush, and he deliberately made the course a tough one. “I’ve planned to allow for all abilities to stay out for the full 8 hours,” he said. “There are numerous route options and they should prove demanding even to the top teams.”

The course covered the Plynlimon range on bike, foot and canoe, and included a watery abseil and a canyoning challenge with some exciting jumps. The 30 teams of 3 set of at 9.00am across the moorlands of Plynlimon and took to the water on the Cly W Edog reservoir for the canoeing, before making their way to the finishing line West of Abersytwyth. They had up to 8 hours to complete the course, with stiff penalties for being late.

Helen Jackson of winning team Saab Salomon said, “It was brill, one of the best yet. There was a lot of biking, which only went to our advantage, but it was a shame we missed the canyoning stage as I heard it was fab.” This was the only checkpoint they missed and they would have got that too had they not gone uphill in the wrong direction for 15 minutes shortly before! (The special stages were not compulsory and didn’t have high points values so a few teams missed them out which was a bit of a shame.)

Even that navigational mishap didn’t stop the new team winning first time out. They finished in 7:46:27 but were pushed hard by Salomon X regulars Team Kona (2nd) and Wadenhoe High Five (3rd) before joining in the post race barbeque, where everyone talked about how the race had gone and enjoyed a well earned drink and a bite to eat!

The other 2 members of the winning team were Adam Haynes and Ben Bardsley, and the team is now in Sweden for the first round of the X-Adventure World Tour, so their win was a timely morale boost. “The course was really hard with some very difficult biking” Ben Bardsley said, “but we have all really enjoyed it and we worked together very well as a team. Next time we’d like a bit more running in the course, but well done to Salomon, Gogs and Nigel Shepherd for a cracking race – good job.”

[The next one day X-adventure race will be in the Peak District on June 29th and places are also available in Salomon’s 36 hour race in Scotland on 7/8th September. For details call Sheila Standen on 01256 479555.]