Haglöfs Open5 Adventure Race Series - South Pennines
Winter Weather at Bacup
Dave Johnson / 07.12.2011
The first drama to unfold of this event was that the transition was relocated at the last minute. This was due to be high up in the dramatic location of Lee Quarry itself with its many sculptures, pump tracks, trials and skills areas. But on inspection the day before the event, James Thurlow (Event Director) asked for the location to be changed. The reason being that high winds whistling through the quarry would be too risky for competitors and event staff manning transition. So further down the quarry track in a field it was to be. Competitors were notified of the change at registration the following morning, but some either missed this announcement or failed to take in the change and thought the transition was still in its original location. This lead to some confusion during the event while navigating to nearby controls.
The weather forecasts of low temperatures, rain (falling as snow on high ground) and winds also lead to lots of pre-event information being supplied to competitors regarding conditions, clothing and mandatory kit. Until now Open Adventure have been fairly relaxed about checks for mandatory kit, but after observation of kit checks during a recent trip to the World Champs in Tasmania, James decided that more emphasis should be placed on competitors carrying mandatory kit. It certainly proved useful too as many competitors seemed reluctant to carry extra kit out onto the course prior to starting.
So on the day around 270 competitors arrived at Futures Park in Bacup, Rossendale to register in the plush surroundings of the Mayor of Rossendales Chambers! There was lots of pre-event anticipation as competitors had been supplied with some clues as to what to expect on this one both before the event on the web site and in race information supplied inside their race packs.
They would already know before the event that the twist in this one was the inclusion of some technical singletrack control hunting around the Lee and Cragg Quarry red routes. Usually competitors know the location of all the controls when they receive their maps at registration. This time some of the controls on the technical single track were not marked on the map, meaning that competitors would either have to ride the whole of the red routes in Lee Quarry(8km) and Cragg Quarry(6.5km) or hedge their bets and guess where they may be. Competitors also knew what feature the control was on and how many points they were worth.
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