Ace Race One Day Series - Pippingford

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PIPPED at Pippingford

Gill Watson (Team SleepMonsters/Inov-8) / 15.05.2008

As Tim and I ate up the miles on Saturday morning on the drive down to Ashdown Forest and Pippingford Park the skies cleared and the temperature climbed steadily - it was going to be a beautiful day.

We met our 3rd team member Eddie and were greeted by a very smart set-up, a lovely big marquee with an AR shop and the BUFF bus. This was the first race organised by ACE Races long serving marshal Scott Alexander and it looked good.

We registered and the new BUFF bibs were very impressive albeit a tad confusing if you race for BUFF as everyone looks like a team mate! When the standard question was asked about first timers an amazing amount of hands went up which was excellent to see. There were only a few regular "veterans" to be seen.

Under the old format you ran approx 5k and were handed a map - this time we were given an envelope with the route of the trail run on it and we were told that somewhere on the trail run we would be allowed to open the envelope thus revealing the map and instructions. There were also some numbered boxes to be seen which applied to a challenge later on.

We all lined up under the start line - teams of 3, pairs and solos with a few winners from the Dynamic Event the week before to be seen.

STAMPEDE!

And we're off! Experience told us not to hammer round the trail run as when the maps are revealed a lot of people tend to slow right down, plus there was the oppressive heat to contend with as well.

With the maps out we returned to Transition and were quickly out on the bikes amongst the front runners ... only to shoot past CP1 in the heat of the moment losing a good few minutes. Then came the infamous CP2 where a lot of people where scrambling around a stream junction. We had a quick look but there was nothing to be seen and we moved on to find it lower down the steam where Paul Pickering and his partner had discovered it whilst fixing a puncture!

We carried on and came to our first challenge, stripping the tyre and tube off one bike and putting one team member through the tube! Tim is a bike mechanic and as we had encountered the race leaders at this challenge (Moxie crew, Nick Gracie and Paul again) he worked quickly and we soon made up the time we lost at CP1.See All Event Posts