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Best Racers of 2002? – Part 1

Rob / 05.01.2003

With the year just gone by it’s an ideal time to look back at who were the top names in UK Racing in 2002. I’ve watched some amazing performances during the year and it may be that this selection is a little biased by that. I may not know about everything that everyone’s been doing either, but for what it’s worth here are the first of my selections of the top female racers of the year.

They are in no particular order and there are 3 more to come – I’ll leave you to guess who … A summary of the top male racers of the year will follow and if you like you can disagree with (or correct) everything I’ve said in the forum – where there are already a few suggestions.

Anna McCormack – Battling the Big Guns

Anna made a brave decision this year - to race full time and try for top performances in the major international races. With sponsorship so hard to find in the UK she spent much of her time travelling, but did make it to 3 of the biggest races of all – Raid Gauloises, Primal Quest and Eco-Challenge. It wasn’t always with a British team, as she might have hoped, and there were no podium places, but the results were still some of the most impressive by a Briton in 2002.

She started off the season in the UK though, with a win at the inaugural Red Bull Northern Exposure. She was racing with Team Golite/Goretex, alongside her partner Pasi Ikonen, and two refugees from 2001’s Team 9feet.com, Ski Sharp and Pete James. Ski and Pete had been to the extreme winter race, Raid Ukatak, in Canada in January, which Pasi had won, so with Anna’s mountain instructor skills they were well set for the icy slopes of the Cairngorms. They might have been more hard pressed without an injury to Parrot/Lythgoe, and were badly affected near the finish by illness after drinking bad water, but made it over the line for a well deserved win.

Within a few days she was off to the Raid Gauloises in Vietnam as part of team Lapin Kulta – again with Pasi and Ski, with two more accomplished Finnish racers made up the team. This time it was a much longer affair, the longest Raid ever. The jungles were hot and for Anna foot rot and poor communication within the team were the toughest tests. Their 5th place in such a gruelling race, just ahead of Team Buff from Spain, put them among the world’s best.

Anna was back racing in the UK again in May for Adrenalin Rush, but wasn’t defending the title she won with Team 9feet.com. She helped put together an all-female team, no doubt with an eye to the media and sponsorship opportunities. Team ‘Snow and Rock’ were the first all-female team to compete in the race, and they finished 10th (and got several pages in the Guardian supplement). It wasn’t Anna’s most glorious finish though – she had a black eye and bruised face, the result of falling asleep while on the bike.

Primal Quest was a disaster all round, with late team replacements, then the medics stopping Anna taking asthma medication so she was forced to withdraw with breathing problems. There was more success at the end of the year at Eco-Challenge though, with The North Face/Kona. This time it was a UK squad (Eco insists anyway) and taking part in the race was the achievement of a long held ambition for Anna. A major navigational error early on didn’t help, but when all but 10 of the 81 starters withdrew from a brutal course TNF Kona kept going, taking 10th place. No doubt Anna will want to go back to get higher up the leaderboard though ... and maybe she will in 2003.

You can read Anna’s Profile here.

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