Primal Quest

Good News and Bad News on Day One

Rob / 08.07.2002

Day one of Primal Quest and it’s going as expected for the race organisers, OK for Bridgedale Ireland, badly for Pete James and Anna McCormack in Team EcoInternet/Golite, and slowly for Kinetic Energy.

As expected the high altitude is taking it’s toll with teams climbing straight up to nearly 13,000 feet from the start at Telluride mountain village and feeling the effects. The leading teams are the one’s you might expect, with the tactics you might expect too, Montrail and SoBe/Smartwool are lead by the formidable Rebecca Rusch and NZ legend Steve Gurney, and it’s these two teams out front after the first 24 hours. Montrail are in for a shock though as they rode on out of bounds trail and have a 10 hour penalty waiting for them. The Spaniards of Team Buff are hot on their heels Nokia Adventure and Ian Adamson’s Team Golite have made their usual steady starts.

But the other Golite team, EcoInternet/Golite are not up the front with them. James and McCormack were no doubt looking forward to racing with another AR legend, Robert Nagle, but he had to cancel just 4 days before the race – a nightmare scenario for a team already in Colorado with their 2 British support crew, Julia Panter and Philip Brown. Julia was probably there as a potential reserve but after some endurance phone calling they got Jason Petervay to fly from Jackson, Wyoming to complete the team with Matt Siegel.

So they made it over the start line but after the first day of racing they were reported as having an injured team member and were back in 37th place – well behind where they would expect to be. An experienced mountaineer, McCormack feared their lack of acclimatisation before the start, and when the news came through from CP6 it was Anna who had withdrawn, though we don’t know the reason yet. The other team members are continuing unranked.

Kinetic Energy had similar pre-race problems. They too were looking for new team member in the week before the start and managed to find Adrian Keough to join team regulars Val Chapa, Warrick Taylor and Dani Hulyer. Not only that they needed a support crew too! And found one. After the first 24 hours they’d not yet completed the first mountain trek to CP4 and were lying 58th from 60. That’s an improvement from CP1 though where they were last. With storms and lightning on the mountain they will have had a long and difficult night.

By contrast Bridgedale Ireland set out with the team they intended to,: Noel Hanna, ‘Mighty’Mo Monaghan, Gary Robertson and Dale Blankenship. Their first day saw them in am impressive 12th place at CP8, having completed the trekking stage and moved onto stage 2, the first Mtb ride – a mere 103 miles, 25 of those single track, and with 17,000 feet of climbing. With a long way to go they could well move in amongst the international pack nearer the front.

[You can read all the latest reports, and follow the teams on the GPS tracking system on the official race website.]