Quest ARS

---

A Choice Questars

Rob / 07.05.2003

There may have been a cold wind blowing across the nearby Dartmoor Tors but at registration for this Questars 2 day race brainpower was heating the room up nicely. The relatively short planning time and a complex and very tactical format meant everyone was kept busy working out the day of racing ahead of them.

Questars don’t like limiting options so teams of one, two, three and four were gathered in the Okehampton Army Camp at the foot of the moors trying to piece together the 5 laminated maps that covered the course, and that was the least of their puzzles! Those who had their own O.S. maps to mark the course onto were happiest, and those who didn’t were struggling with the planning. “These maps are a nightmare,� said a frustrated looking James Thurlow as he tried to visualise the course.

This covered a wide area of southern Dartmoor and the surrounding villages and included 15 running and 15 mountain biking controls of varying values which were very well spread. None was compulsory so it was a pure score event, with the catch that the riding and running could be done in either order. Race Director Martyn Ward explained, “It helps those new to the sport. If they are a mountain biker and not sure about their ability to run they can do a long ride and a very short run. It’s up to them.�

Even for the more experienced though there was much discussion and scratching of heads. Lucy Poole said ‘Aztec Multipower’ had decided to ride first. “If there is a technical problem on the bike at least you can then switch to the run and we think the weather may deteriorate as well. We’d rather get to the Abseil and Tyrolean traverse challenges later too, there may be queues early on.� Riding first was also the option for the strong Saab Salomon team who were favourites among the many teams of 4 entered for this first British Championship series event.

Most other teams chose to run first, but that still left an another critical decision, how much time to give each discipline, and almost everyone’s plans on which CP’s to reach in a given time were wrong, blown away by the gale force winds that got stronger as the day went on, though it was drier than the grim forecast had predicted.

Difficult Decisions

Most of the those who chose to ride first, and stuck to their original plans made the tactical mistake of not accounting for the windy weather. Riding was difficult, times much longer than expected to reach CP’s and the energy expended greater than running. “I’ve never had to pedal hard to go downhill before,� said Gill Watson of ‘Polaris Sealskins High5’. Her team mate Jue Panter agreed. “Points were much harder won on the bikes today.�

All of which made Saab Salomon’s decision to go for almost all the biking controls first a bad move. With 3 of the best navigators in the country on the team (Pete James, Steve Birkinshaw and Tom Gibbs) they managed to get the planning wrong and had a few other problems as well. Gibbs had a brief argument with the tarmac and was a bit shaken up for a while, they couldn’t find one control (though it was there), and Nicky Davies was struggling with a cold. They were even 3 minutes late which costs 30 penalties on a Questars race. It wasn’t going to be their day. “That last hour on the bikes took a lot out of us,� said Birkinshaw, “and we’d only left 1 and quarter hours for the run, which wasn’t enough. It’s not been a brilliant day!�See All Event Posts