The Wilderness ARC
The Unluckiest Team
Rob Howard / 31.05.2006
That’s how Dynamic Adventure Racing were feeling this afternoon in Transition 5. They had arrived shortly after North Downs Mountain Rescue and Cotswoldoutdoor.com after Jonathan Mayne completed 70km of the ride on one gear. “Early on the ride I had a problem with my front mech, which snagged and broke the chain. We fixed it, but it broke again and I had to ride in one gear nearly all the way. We averaged 7km/hour on the ride and were passed by lots of teams. We spent over 2 hours trying to fix the problem too!�
“And as a result we’ve arrived just as the tide and the wind are against us on the next paddle.� Added Piers Constable. “It’s going to be an 8 hour paddle I think.�
As they packed their dry bags onto the sit-on-top kayaks Cotswoldoutdoor.com were getting ready to leave as well and Ian McNab was placing the fittings for his Spirit sails.
“You’ll be lucky to use those in this head wind,� said Constable.
“We’re planning ahead as we think the wind will be right to use them at the end of the paddle tomorrow morning.� Came the reply.
“I hope it does not take that long! I want to finish it today.� Said a worried ooking Constable. (It was around 16.00 at the time.)
First both the teams had to get their boats and gear across 200m of marshy foreshore covered in a spongy mat of seaweed. Tired as they are, it was hard to for the teams to carry the heavy boats and gear and they needed frequent stops. Dynamic carried the boats with the gear on them but Cotswold had Fred Yong carrying the paddles and Ian McNab carrying a huge pile of gear bags on his back. See All Event Posts
