ACE Races 1-Day Team Adventure Series
Peel in the Sun
Rob / 16.05.2004
The Forest Centre at Birches Valley on Cannock Chase is always a popular venue for ACE Races. It has all the right facilities and there is plenty of scope for varied courses nearby, though Phil Humphreys used a few favourite checkpoint locations too – why deprive the newcomers of the best bits? There were many new to racing ACE one-day, but for those who had been to this venue before Phil commented: “If you think it will give you an advantage .. you are wrong. We are using a different part of the forest.� Alongside the beginners there was a strong group of elite teams led by last year’s champions ‘Peel Adventure’ (Jenny James, Dave Peel & Killian Lomas). Even so Phil stuck his neck out and said the winners would take 3 hours 22 minutes ... he was wrong too!
The race began with a short trail run, following a leading bike, to the map give out. Maps in the ACE one day series have all the controls, instructions and special challenges marked . This time there were 5 challenges and 14 checkpoints, 9 reached by bike, 5 on foot.
Despite his experience Dave Peel was fooled by a slight change in format. In the past a run stage has followed the give out, but this time teams had to go back to the start/transition area to collect their bikes. Peel Adventure set off on foot towards CP1 before they realised this was mistake and Dave read the instructions! Fortunately, they didn’t loose too much time.
After a hilly ride though CP’s 1 and 2, teams reached the first challenge via a long downhill section on which a couple of riders came to grief. There was some deeply rutted mud on an otherwise fast descent that caught a few teams out, worst affected being Alex Edia of the appropriately named team ‘Tried But Failed’. He came into the challenge holding one shoulder and although he couldn’t move it after the fall he kept going to the finish.
This first challenge involved one member of the team being blindfolded with 2 folded Buffs (you can see through one!) and then being led round a small lake by their team mates. A test of team work and trust. They started by having to duck under some low branches, but then the path disappeared into boggy and dense forest full of ditches.
Peel Adventure were the first through with Jenny James blindfolded, then came Mawn-Y-Wrach (Tom Gibbs, Mike Poole and Debbie Smith) and ‘Taking The Pith’ (Eddie Winthorpe, Kate Knight and Graham Baxter). See All Event Posts
