Kilbroney Challenge
The Haribo Joes survive a wet Kilbroney Challenge
Paul McArthur / 03.07.2008
Prior knowledge of the route, however, proved to be a minor factor on race day itself. Instead, the terrible weather ensured that only the hardiest and most waterproofed would last the course.
Saturday morning was the usual adventure racing pre-start scene: a hotchpotch of bike building, registration, kit checks and toilet queues. The rain had already started by this stage, but the relatively light drizzle gave no indication of the deluge to come. The race start was at the Carlingford Lough Yacht Club, beside the village of Killowen, and after a quick briefing everyone gathered on the front lawn. The hooter sounded and teams ran under the Red Bull arch and headed down the shore to collect their sit-on-top kayaks. The kayak section was a quick 2km paddle down the shoreline toward Rostrevor. The sea was calm and, with a slight tail-wind, quick progress was made to the first transition - the bike pickup. Team Passing Wind (Billy Reed & Gerry Kingston) hit the transition first with Team Castor & Bollix and Team Haribo Joes (Paul McArthur & Jonny Gallier) and the rest of the teams quickly following behind.
After a bit of confusion leaving the transition, Team Castor & Bollix headed out first with Tango and Cash jumping into 2nd placed
In the long climb out of Kilbroney Forest the top six teams (Haribo Joes, Tango & Cash, Passing Wind, Give It A Go, Team Purple 2 and Wagon Wheels) were packed together. Team Wagon Wheels (Don Travers & Martin O’Hagan) soon started to create a gap between them and the chasing pack and, once the teams reached the next transition at Yellow Water, they had about a 90 second lead. The run section at Yellow Water was a quick 1km loop up the right-hand side of a small stream to collect three controls and then back down the track on the other side. Haribo Joes make a major mistake going up the valley and missed CP5. It meant they had to go back to it and dib before they could carry onto CP6 or they would be out of the race. This mistake not only lost them about 6 minutes but, more crucially, it meant that they were no longer in contact with the leading group. In such a fast race, it would be very hard to make up the time.
Back on the bike the route took the teams onto singletrack paths, fireroads, and forest tracks before leading out onto the open mountain side for a 1km hike-a-bike or ride south (depending how good a rider you were) to rejoin the main fireroad again. Here there was a quick loop of the Fallows to pick off CP 10 and CP 11. While riding up to the start of the loop the strong MTBing pair of Don & Martin came flying down the track after completing the loop, approximately 10 minutes ahead of Haribo Joes, with the rest of the leading four teams about 5 minutes further back.
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