Shere Adventure Race
Shere Adventure
Press Release / 07.12.2017
This was the third time we were using the Shere Village Hall as our base, but I hadn’t realised that it’s 15 months since we were last here. How time flies!
The forecasters’ promise of cloudy with no rain turned out to be a bit optimistic as we arrived to set up for Sunday’s event. The on/off drizzle continued to just before the race started, and then it stayed away for the rest of the day. We even had a little bit of sun for a split second!
The course provided a variety of conditions, with some muddy bits, sticky chalk surfaces, some very slippery sections on the MTB course, and some really dry and fast bits – just the sort of challenge Tri-Adventurers enjoy. The Runners’ course turned out to be more manageable than the MTB course, with a number of the Experience people saying they’d collected more running checkpoints than bike ones; a rare occurrence for them.
We were back at Shere because it’s a really great venue. We’ve got loads of parking, the Village Hall is an excellent venue, and the transition area is really first class. The feedback about this venue is really positive, and we’ll be back there again in the future, with a different course to test people with.
We had a pretty good turnout this time, especially in the Trail and, as the two hour deadline approached, the finish line was inundated with runners, mountain bikers, and Sprint participants – all trying to avoid collecting any penalty points. Shere also demonstrated what is so great about our events – we had families taking part, youngsters on the MTBO course, first timers, and seasoned elite athletes. All were challenged, and all thoroughly enjoyed themselves. Among all the great performances, I’d like to single out Ian Cartwright’s achievement of collecting all but two of the MTBO CPs, despite the fact that some parts of the course were extremely challenging/difficult.
The flexible start available to the 4 hour Experience racers is becoming very popular, with some 80% of the participants starting before the 10am massed start for the other events.
There was a great atmosphere all the way through the event and, as the start horn went off at 10am, people set off in different directions, following their various strategies. Just as last time, Tracey Blandford, our Marketing Adviser, was there again, and posted a live stream of the Start on FB and Twitter just moments after the start of the race. Such is the power and immediacy of Social Media!
A word about CP 25. A number of you thought that it was either missing, or that the description was wrong. I double checked the location this morning, as I was collecting the CPs, and I understand how the confusion may have arisen. I know some racers found the CP location without too much trouble. It was accurately located in the centre of the circle on the map, but the description/ lay of the land was a bit misleading, as it referred to a bridleway junction which was just 15 metres away from the CP. The results include a credit to those of you who told me you’d been to the location, but couldn’t find the CP.
All the events were keenly contested, and there were some outstanding performances. I’ve already mentioned Ian Cartwright in the Male MTBO, and there were some close finishes in the Men’s Experience, and the Men’s Trail, with finishing times determining the winners.
The Men’s Experience provided a very close finish, with both Matt Zalewski and Simon Vickers collecting 23 CPs within the 4 hour time limit. It was Matt’s race by a margin of 1min 38sec, helped by a much shorter time in Transition.
The Ladies’ Experience saw two of our regular participants fighting it out, with Helen Murphy taking the honours on this occasion.
Mike Bailey and Geoff Kirk did really well in the Pairs’ Experience, collecting 20 CPs, and winning this section despite coming in a little over their time limit.
The 2 hour Men’s Sprint was primarily notable for Stephen Dadswell’s performance. Despite being over 10 minutes late, his tally of CPs was so much better than anyone else’s that he still came in first. An impressive performance, Stephen. Phil Gubby is a great example of the ups and downs of Adventure Racing. Having won the Men’s Sprint at Tilford in October, he had a bit of a disaster here, at Shere. First, much to his mates’ mirth, he lost his map on the run part, returned to find it within 500 metres of the start, and then he snapped a spoke on his wheel, causing him to finish early. Tough luck, Phil; next time is bound to be better! Congratulations, too, to the international pairing of a South African and a Kiwi – Tim van Oerle and Mike Jarvie, who won the Sprint Pairs on their first race with Tri-Adventure.
The Men’s 2 hour Trail was a keenly fought race, with three runners finishing with 12 CPs. Tom Frost came out on top as a result of finishing within the 2 hour deadline.
Harriet Irving was the runaway winner in the Ladies’ 2 hour Trail, finishing with an impressive 12 CPs. It’s not often that the Ladies’ winner collects the same number of CPs as the Men’s winner, so well done, Harriet.
15 months ago, at Shere, and for the first time in Tri-Adventure’s history, we introduced a new event – the MTBO, a mountain bike only Navigation race. Quite a number of people had told us that they’d love to take part in one of our events, but that they don’t particularly like running. Enter the MTBO only event! We had our best turnout yet in this section, with 13 people taking part.
The 2 hour race proved quite a battle for the minor places in the Men’s MTBO, as Ian Cartwright flew round the course, collecting 17 of the 19 CPs. Wendy Hardy brought her daughter along to the Ladies’ MTBO, and won this event for the third time in a row.
Chili the dog became our official mascot 15 months ago, here at Shere, and it was lovely to see him back again. He comes along with his owners, Chris and Clare Gibson and, after he’d taken them round the run part of the Sprint, he stayed and enthusiastically welcomed back the finishers. He has really taken to wearing the Tri-Adventure buff around his neck, and we loved having him with us. He doesn’t look a day older than when he came to Shere last time, and he’s such a delight to have around
The full race results, with splits and transition times, are available on the Tri-Adventure website here.
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