Open Adventure - Open5 Series (South Lakes)

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Across the Water and Over the Hills

Russ Ladkin / 25.05.2005

Around 90 competitors turned out to the South Lakes for the second of the Open 5 series to compete as solos and pairs in a 5-hour score format on foot and mountain bikes. Registration was sensibly in the boatshed of Windermere Canoe and Cycle providing shelter from the last few showers of the morning.

Before the start, we received the A4 double-sided, laminated map, pre-printed with control locations - one side for the run stage and the other for the MTB stage. James Thurlow was happily answering all sorts of questions but it was the pair of girls asking him to confirm that towing was allowed that caught my eye - as they were towed across the floor by their enthusiastic dog!

In the spirit of adventure racing, everyone had to cross Lake Windermere on the ferry to reach the start/transition on the west shore. We should probably be glad we didn't have to swim or paddle it.

Jeff PD and myself were racing as a pair, in this our first year of AR. The first Open 5 event, based at Reeth, was our first event and my first time on a mountain bike. So we were somewhat surprised to take first place at that event, attributed more to our perseverance in pushing bikes through the snowdrifts than our MTB skills.

So we were here to defend our position and worried by tales we had heard about Grizedale forest cycling. We asked experienced racer Mick Kenyon what it was like on the ferry across. "I've raced here twice now, but don't expect I'll recognise anything as it's always been at night!"See All Event Posts