ACE Race
Welsh Wonders
Rob / 05.08.2003
It was a big, grassy field with plenty of tent space and soft ground, the perfect setting for a weekend which the forecasters promised would be fine and hot. The happy ACE atmosphere was more cheery than usual, and the site was busy with racers getting set up and ready from mid-afternoon.
The reservoir was to the East, but most of the action took place to the West, starting with the longest ever run to a route give-out in ACE Race history – and it was all uphill! The 3km climb up a farm track into the hills seemed never ending, and tested the humour of some teams even before they’d really begun. Fired up for the start they were perhaps too determined to run up to the control give-out, putting in a big effort at the very start of the race. It didn’t seem to bother Marc Laithwaite, who was back fully motivated for the solo class. Phil Humphreys set off just behind him, and despite the fact he was in a Ford Ranger he never caught up!
When racers finally had the ‘live’ controls marked they were scattered across a wide area, some on the open hillside, reached by routes through tussock and bog, and to the South in the forest, where the switchback twists and turns of the fire tracks made reaching them tricky. Phil Humphreys was confident no one would clear them all and even said on the forum “control number 1... now that's evil - surely no-one will get there... better make that 50 points ...�.
He should know better really as quite a few did make it to CP1, including two ‘Czech mates’, Petr Strejcek and Martin Stepanek, though they admitted to being “a bit worried� as it took so long to get there through the tussocks. “We just saw 50 points and went for it,� said Petr, “but it was harder than we thought! We were a bit late getting back, but not too much.�
No one got them all though, and Marc Laithwaite notched up the highest score again, despite spending 20 minutes chasing a ‘dummy’ control! (He might have got them all but for that, as he only missed one.) With Chris Hall absent Mark Ford was reluctantly wearing the leader’s yellow bib and setting off first he got 373 points, the 6th highest score. Steve Turland was second and Jon Brooke 3rd, but another regular Solo contender, Eddie Winslow, pulled out with a recurring Achilles injury.
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