Dynamic Adventure Racing Challenge
Wet Weekend in the Wye Valley
Nicky Thomas (Dynamic Adventure Racing) / 21.05.2007
The weather forecast for the Challenge race in the Wye Valley was not good! Rain, rain and more rain and we wondered if all the AR virgins who’d entered the race would venture out in the wind and pouring rain for their adventure in Wales, or stay curled up, snug and warm in their beds at home. As always, we needn’t have worried, adventure racers always come through, whether they’re toughened endurance racers, or complete newbies, they all have that determined ‘go for it’ mentality!After the bouts of friendly banter at registration and some sound advice on route choice and kit for the beginners in the room, the race briefing was a serious affair. Simon warned racers that this was the toughest DAR Challenge they would encounter and for the beginners it would be a baptism of fire.
He explained about the steep climbs out of the valley, the many paths and trails twisting their way through the slopes and the importance of reading checkpoint descriptions carefully! He advised racers to take note of the contours and concentrate on their navigation. There was fun to be had too, on the high trails and technical single tracks and Simon promised that if the rain cleared they would have some great views of the Black Mountains and Brecon Beacons!
Un-deterred they kitted up, finished up their mugs of tea and lined up for the start. By now the rain was steady and clearly in for the day. There was a three way split in route choice, about a third of competitors chose to stay on the West side of the river, aiming for CPs 20 to 25, this meant a big climb out of the valley, up through the wooded slopes, to navigate towards some difficult CPs, some being quite a way off the paths, where descriptions had to be carefully read to locate them.
Another third chose to go across the River Wye, taking the crossing at Bigsweir Bridge and up through the Tuffs to CP 26, from there they could stay high to collect CP 29 further along the slope, but they then had to chose whether to double back to the bridge and take the path up the other side of the valley through Bigsnap Woods to CP 21, or to carry on along the east side of the river to collect CP 27 and then cross again at Brockweir.See All Event Posts
