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Into the Wild West

Andy Wilson / 14.09.2006

The latest in Detail Events growing event portfolio took place on the spectacular west coast of Ireland in and around the town of Westport. Commissioned by the local tourist board, Detail staged an Adventure Sports festival weekend in Westport including two adventure races, the day long Gaelforce 6 for individuals and those new to the sport and the three day Gaelforce 12 for more experienced teams. The intention is to build the GF12 over three years into an ARWC qualifier, but with just six weeks from concept to race it was perhaps unsurprising that just 9 teams started, including two from outside Ireland - ourselves and Accelerate – and an multi-national team under Dave Morrow's leadership.

The teams that did start were treated to a Tompsett classic similar to the WARC but a touch shorter. Over 250km of kayaking, biking and trekking over three days, with some rope activities thrown in for good measure. The race split into 2 stages, 75km on Saturday to run alongside the GF6, then the 180km stage to run continuously from Sunday morning until Monday afternoon, with aggregate times deciding positions.

The race included some interesting options, both to make the course achievable to all teams and to offer tactical opportunities. Essentially a linear course like the ARC, all checkpoints had associated time penalties, which teams could choose to take instead. This did make it difficult to keep on top of actual race positions, not least for the organisers. The second stage also included a mandatory 6 hour stop to be accumulated at two visits to the Mallaranny transition area.

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