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A Frosty Challenge in Kielder

Ian Mulvey (High Terrain Events) / 01.02.2011

The inaugural Kielder Off Road Duathlon kicked of on the 9th January and proved to be a true winter event, with fresh snow on the ground and a chill to the air. The sun made an appearance and served to heighten the feel of being transported to Scandinavia in this vast forest landscape. Based from Kielder castle, former hunting lodge to the Duke of Northumberland, this was the perfect venue to stage the event and provided a backdrop like no other. With a fresh covering of overnight snow settling onto the frozen hard packed layer the route was shortened slightly from the original distance but proved no less arduous in the conditions.

Starting from the castle gates the first run was a testing 6k route which took competitors onto the lower slopes of Deadwater Fell before returning back to transition at the castle. With a fresh covering of overnight snow settling onto the frozen hard packed layer the route was shortened slightly from the original distance but proved no less arduous in the conditions. Starting from the castle gates the first run was a testing 6k route which took competitors onto the lower slopes of Deadwater Fell before returning back to transition at the castle.

First back was Gary Grounds (Bike Traks) in a time of 21:36 followed by Andrew Higgins (Northumberland Fell Runners) in 22:22 and Phillip Addyman (Ryton Tri) in 22:42. In the women’s race Victoria Fawcett from Stockton was first back into transition in 29:22 followed closely by Joanne Caruthers in 29:27 and Louise Wilkinson in 30:14.

The mountain bike stage followed the recently completed Blue graded trail, however due to the conditions it was more white than blue! With a further heavy snow shower descending on the cyclists Paul Beckett from Manchester describes his take on this section, 'I actually think the snow added an extra level of extremism to the event, drafting behind each other along the fire roads in tyre width channels in the snow was awesome!' Matthew Jones (<a href="#" onClick="javascript:newsitewindow('http://www.killerkielder.com')" class="main">www.killerkielder.co.uk</a>) was forced to look sideways as the driving snow relentlessly pounded his face.

Phillip Addyman took the lead on this 16k section recording 57:16 and the fastest bike split overall despite having to create a line in the snow that everyone else could follow. However, with two strong runners close behind there was no time to relax coming into T2. The womans race followed a similar fashion, with local girl Louise clearly thriving in the conditions 'The weather just made it even better’ and blasting round the bike route in 1:14:48.

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