Adventure Racing World Championship Portugal 2009
View from the Van Part II
Team Adventure Sports Magazine - Odlo UK / 25.11.2009
We had a minor drama : Kris had worn his brake pads flat and asked to have them changed. This situation was not entirely appeased by him having bent his wheel on the downhill, or that his bike has v brakes instead of discs. We managed to achieve most of the desired repairs after borrowing tools from another team - his brakes being particularly peculiar to set up, and had to leave the final adjustments to him when he arrived.
We were pleasantly surprised to see team arrive earlier than expected at around 23:30. After a mini feed, they opted to take their first sleep for an hour in the provided room. I set their bedding out while Kris and Nat put the finishing touches to his bike. Nat and I set the alarm and retired to the van to drink tea and wait until time to wake the kids for school. After the first shaking at 1hr, we left them and they promptly turned over and went back to sleep. We gave them an extra 30 minutes and then did the job properly. The poor wee ones emerged from the nice warm hall looking haggard and shell shocked in the cold air at 01:15. More feeding and tea drinking ensued, then they piled onto their steeds with amazing speed and pedalled into the cool, clear darkness. Nat and I grabbed 2 quick hours of sleep, setting out our bags out on the kids sleeping gear for a bit of protection from the floor.
We arose, cleaned away the transition detritus, packed up the sleeping kit, and headed on to pick up the unused paddling kit, then charged on to the next transition as the cold night turned into a beautiful warm sunny morning. We had long given up using the supplied directions in the support package as they just didn't ever quite seem to get us there. We prepared yet more sandwiches and left out cold pasta. This transition turned out to be in the car park of a swimming pool. We set out the skates, food & trikke in preparation for the arrival of our charges. Interestingly, the people running the swimming pool hounded us out of the loos and locked them. A stunning consideration for the 200 odd nervous, tired, athletes who would soon be passing through ... not to mention the support crews with their legs crossed.
SleepMonsters
