ACE Race

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Excellent Exmoor Ends the Series

Rob / 23.10.2003

The fourth and final ACE race of the 2003 series made a return visit to Exmoor and Wimbleball Lake, which was used for a midsummer race last year. This time around the sun shone once again (has it rained at all in an ACE Race this year?), but a bitter cold wind blew all weekend and the view from the camping field above the lake was very different. A broad, muddy fringe surrounded the much reduced reservoir, which was showing the effect of the long drought.

There were other differences too, with a change in the format for day one, which was now a 9 hour long, combined running and mountain biking stage, covering a huge area to the North of the camp. The furthest control was north of Minehead on the South West coast path overlooking the Devon coastline some 30km from the start. Within the 9 hour stage there were 25 bike controls, and everyone had to stop at a transition point among the complex tangle of deep valleys between Dunkery Beacon and Porlock for another possible 25 controls on the running stage.

They had to get there first though, and it was a hilly 25km ride by the most direct route. Route choice split to the East or West of the winding A396 in the Exe Valley, with plenty of tracks and bridleways to choose from, but the bright sunshine of the start soon faded to a heavily overcast gloom that hid the landscape in a dense haze.

There was soon a bit of gloom in The North Face camp as they set off in pursuit of Proventure, series leaders by a mere 3 points. In no time at all TNF were back in camp when Keith Byrne’s crank shaft broke. The bad news for them was that CycloSport couldn’t fix it, the good news was they had a spare bike he could borrow, but then came more bad news, it was a 21½ inch frame, giving Byrne a slightly higher view of the countryside than he was used to on his 19 inch frame! “It’s just and extra challenge�, he said, “and it could be worse, we could be out of the race altogether.� Even so he looked a bit doubtful as the team set off a second time.See All Event Posts