Lythgoes Adrenalin Rush

Tales from PC13

Rob / 31.05.2002

Jan Robinson has just returned to HQ from PC13, the transition from trekking to mountain biking. This was 2 tents and a car set up beside a country road on a forest edge, which Jan says was “muddy and midgey’, but everyone was having the best time�. (Midges are small biting insects which have plagued the competitors, but more especially the marshals who have to stay in one place and get eaten alive for long periods.) She’d been told she’d be there for a day but “knew from past experience it was going to be much longer�.

She was there for 2 nights and 2 days, but unlike the mountain PC’s she wasn’t isolated. She was with another volunteer, Mick Gallagher, who has competed before now, and for much of the time the race doctor Eithhna Synnott was with them as well. One of the race trucks was bringing bikes up from time to time, and before one trip he radioed through and asked if anyone wanted roast dinners. Stupid question! The helicopter dropped by several times so Brian Elliot could check how everyone was doing and course planner Derek King came to talk with a slightly aggrieved local – he was trying to sell his house and wasn’t too impressed that when people were coming to see it a bunch of very dirty adventure racers were camped outside!�

There were other visitors too, photographers following the race, supporters and a paramedic, Angie Wakefield, who was helping out with the race and supporting her husband, Mark, who is on Team OBX. Also, there looking out for her husband was Vanessa Ziade, whose husband is with the remaining members of Outward Bound. She was lured away though, by the offer of a ride in the race helicopter and left him a note! – She did wait for him at PC14!

After the leaders passed through there was a long wait for the slower teams on the course, in fact they got a full nights sleep, though it’s a worrying business waiting. Where are they? Are they all right? When will they arrive? With team’s slowing up, and sometimes stopping to sleep, it’s almost impossible to know when to expect teams to come through.�

One team not easily missed is the tail-end ‘Superteam’ - a combination of partial teams. First there was USUK, a combination of 3 of team Outward Bound and 3 of NY911, who were later joined by 2 of Ukatak, and 2 of Putney Speedos, and for a while were re-christened the 10 Commandments. The Ukatak two then left and they are now known, as USUK-Speedo. “They were all in such high spirits,� said Jan. “They were laughing and joking, especially the Americans, who are having a great time. They were asking after their captain, Chris, and I told them he was looking a bit cold when he was here.�

He had gone on ahead in another composite team, ‘Carnivores’, when the rest of his team wanted to stop at PC5. But they set off again after a rest with USUK and caught up with their captain by PC14. The two Canadian teams were “quieter but in good spirits� and the Italian racer who joined Ukatak at the last moment, Marco Pautini, has been smiling and bounding about everywhere he goes. He may be near the back of the field but he’s the most enthusiastic competitor on the course.

The area was also something of a bike workshop - by this time the bikes were in a very bad state. This was not a very bike friendly race! The main problem was brake blocks which were worn through to the rim and ‘Fourplay’ didn’t have enough spares so they had to divide up what spares they did have and set off using one brake each!

Once everyone was through Jan came back to base, where she is now helping to update the web site.