Questars Adventure Race - Peak District - Stage Race
Searing heat at Questars in the Peak District
Press Release / 26.07.2025
The following is a report on the recent one-day Questars event in the Peak District from Race Directors Kim and Joe Selby.
Wow, what can we say…this was one of the best and hardest races for us to set up and for our racers for a number of reasons. But we can definitely say that it was an incredible day for the fourth race of our 2025 Summer Series. Not only did we have a heatwave and the hottest weekend to date at our events, but we also had the hilliest course we have ever put on!
A huge thank you to everyone for coming out to take on the challenge in some pretty tough heat. A lot of big races were cancelled on the day, but we, if we don’t say so ourselves, have the best racers around who respect the conditions and take care of themselves and each other.
The Hope Valley is one of our favourite areas to race with varied terrain and rewarding views – but that led to us setting an impossibly big course! With incredible cumulative elevation, tough terrain on both bike and foot and searing temperatures this was one of, if not the, hardest courses we have ever set.
The kayak leg was on Ladybower Reservoir, a terrific place to paddle, and some racers were even treated to a rare fly-by from a Lancaster bomber! The run leg took in the area around Ladybower including a tough climb to the top of Win Hill where racers were treated to stunning 360-degree views of the Peak District. The bike leg also gave racers the option of exploring the bridleways around Ladybower along with those further afield towards Edale and Mam Tor.
At over 22km and nearly 800m of climbing, the run course was big and brutal! Nobody on the one-day event cleared the course, with Rowan McCormish closest - dropping just one checkpoint in a time of 2:35, The Dirty Cheetahs (Rory Henson, Yasmina Khadhraoui) dropped just two checkpoints and Tim Barry dropped just three checkpoints. Rowan McCormish had the most profitable run picking up 2.32 points/minute closely followed by Tom Hards (2.3 points/minute).
At nearly 50km and over 1,300m of climbing the bike route was another beast of a course, and there was only one brave racer who cleared it – massive kudos to Sophie Clifford for doing so in a time of 5:15. Paul Fenton had the most profitable bike leg picking up 1.85 points per minute followed by Mud, Sweat and Gears (Joel Brown, Matthew James) with 1.76 points/minute.
The kayak was just over 6km and windy conditions out on course in the afternoon meant that no teams on the one-day event were able to clear it with Tom Hards coming closest dropping just one checkpoint in a time of 49:14. Tom also had the most profitable kayak picking up an average of 2.44 points/minute followed by Dad's on the run (Mark Robinson, Paul Caine) on 2.33 points/minute and Rowan McComish and A to Z (Zoe and Andrew Hodder Smith) on 2.22 points/minute.
The kayak leg was the most profitable with teams able to pick up on average 1.85 points per minute compared to 1.34 points per minute on the run and 1.24 points per minute on the bike – lower than normal and a representation of just how tough the course was!
For the first time in a long time, rewards for being back early far outweighed penalties for being late – although there were some brilliant exceptions to this rule with the likes of Sophie Clifford (80 penalty points), Moss Valley (Bethany & Oliver Thompson – 76 penalty points) and Dominic Courage (60 penalty points) doing their level best for the penalty column.
Our Adventure Racer of the day award goes to Julia Myers who managed to pull together six teams of four from Arbuthnot Latham. Many of the team were taking part in their first ever adventure race and in so doing, they also raised over £7,000 for The Felix Project (London’s largest food distribution charity fighting against food waste and hunger). A terrific effort from all involved. We hope to see many of you again at future events!
All in all, it was another amazing day of racing, we love the area and will definitely be back!
For us, our attention now turns to our next event in the Chilterns on 13 September.
We look forward to seeing you all soon.
Full results can be found here
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