Questars
Questars in the Brecons
06.06.2006
Over 300 adventure racers from all over the UK and beyond converged upon the delightful village of Llangorse to compete in the second event of the Questars adventure race series. Llangorse lake is the largest natural body of water in South Wales and is wonderfully set in the heart of the Brecon Beacons National Park.The lake waters had been augmented by the heavy rain in the week before the race and the whole countryside was pretty waterlogged. Forewarned at the pre-event briefing to be aware of the slippery conditions racers wisely revised their initial planned routes as they started to experience the wet conditions. Many trail runners returned to the run/bike transition point with gleeful reports of overtaking mountain bikers on the muddy bridleways!
Despite the initial rain and low cloud paddling conditions were near perfect on the lake. Many teams took advantage of this and cleared the whole course earning themselves maximum points on the kayaking stage. The other stages proved much harder.
Trail running checkpoints were scattered across the locality on footpaths and on the nearby open access hills. The morning mists made the latter a real challenge. Particular congratulations to the three male solo racers (Andrew Wood, Simon Proud and Chris Volley) who still managed to clear the whole trail running course.
Mountain bikers quickly realised that the bridleways were going to make slow going. Many took longer routes to avoid the worst of the mud and still accumulated very impressive scores in the biking stage. Those that made it over the 1000 foot summit of Allt yr Esgair were rewarded (at least later in the day) with magnificent views.
From this height the colourful fleet of sit on top kayaks looked like a rash of giant waterboatmen scampering across the still waters of the lake. Both the Black Mountains and central peaks of the Brecon Beacons showed themselves in full glory as the sun came out to see racers across the finishing line.See All Event Posts
