A Busy Week Ahead for Team Accelerate

Stuart Hale (Team Accelerate) / 24.08.2011

One advantage of a squad system is that you can be in two places at once ... or so it would appear for Team Accelerate. By their own standards the squad is having a quiet year and was seen to be concentrating on World Series Expedition style racing, untill Dan Halliday suggested that the younger generations would like to race relays or stage races. With this in mind, Dan was named Captain and focus was given to the Coast 2 Coast.

Dan is no stranger to success having won many Open 5 events and last year was part of the Accelerate Team that completed and finished in second place at the Terrex XPD race. This year he has also won the Forrestman Triathlon, amongst other things.
Dan will be joined by his younger, speedier, brother Matt who is a young, upcoming and highly regarded orienteer who represents Great Britain.
To complete the racing 'trio' is Maria Leijerstam, who in 2009 raced the C2C as a soloist and finished in second spot. She has also raced abroad, brings experience and a cool head to the Team. I am sure she will be keeping the 'Young Guns' in check.

No Team at the C2C is complete without it's own support crew. Alasdair Bruce, another experienced head from the Team, was also racing here in 2009 and is used to quick transitions and logistical challenges having raced on the World Scene with Accelerate.

Team Accelerate find themselves racing against Olympian, Gold medalist and now adventure racer, James Cracknell, who will be joining the race this year as a member of Team adidas TERREX

So for the first time, the Team 'Young Guns' are unleashed. We know they are fast, they are definitely competitors but can they race the Coast 2 Coast? We will know by the close of play this coming Monday.

Meanwhile, Dave Spence will be leading Caz Bullard, Kev Honeysett and Stuart Walker into the unknown on French soil. This years Raid in France is undoubtedly going to be one of the toughest events to be raced this year with competitors having to be totally self sufficient as they are only allowed access to their kit boxes twice throughout the event. The event has been described as ‘Back to Nature’ by the organizers and will last around 5 days for the faster teams. Little else has been announced by the organizers although disciplines will include everything you come to expect from adventure racing.

The Team arrives with plenty of experience and has been making progress. Last year Caz, Dave and Kev were second at the Terrex XPD race with Caz and Dave going on to finish third at Expedition Africa in May of this year. For Stuart this will be only his second XPD style event having raced in Switzerland earlier this year for an Accelerate team that pulled out during the race due to injury to one of the other team members. He has however raced the Lakeland 100, finished 8th and is the current record holder for running unsupported across Hadrian’s Wall.

So a busy weekend ahead for Team Accelerate, not without expectations as both the young stage racers and more experienced expeditionary racers enter the fray of competition. We will just have to wait and see ...

The Team would like to thank all of the Team Partners, especially the additional support received from New Balance, High Five and SKINS.