Saab Salomon’s New Line Up

Rob Howard / 14.03.2006

The Saab Salomon squad are about to begin their 5th year of top level international competition, flying across the world to compete in the first stage of the X-adventure Series in Western Australia. However, it’s a largely new squad for 2006, and for the second year there will also be a Saab Salomon Adventure Running team racing in the Buff Skyrunner series.

For the adventure racing team 2006 was always going to be a year of change as Pete James and team captain Jim Davies both retired from international competition after last years World Championship races, and taking the two most experienced and successful UK racers out of any team was always going to leave a huge hole to fill. It was an even bigger hole when, after several years of competition, Ben Bardsley also decided it was time for a rest from the demands of international travel and racing.

At the same time Salomon was bought by new owners (Finnish company Amer Sports - who also own Suunto), and the brand was placing more emphasis on adventure and trail running – though there are still more Salomon sponsored AR teams in the world than any other brand. This stronger emphasis on running is reflected in the new line up of the adventure racing team, and as a result team manager Tim Lloyd had to make the hard decision to ask Helen Jackson and Tom Gibbs to leave the squad as well.

Only Phil and Nicky Davies remain from last year’s team, with Phil taking on the role of team captain and relishing the chance to complete a full X-adventure Raid series. Chris Near who raced with Aberdeen Asset Management last year when they won the Wilderness ARC joins them, as do Simon Stainer and Jackie Lee, two newcomers to adventure racing. Stainer is an English international fell runner with experience in triathlon and Lee has represented Wales at mountain running.