adidas TERREX Swift
A Swift 48 hours
Rob Howard / 01.06.2012
The Open Adventure season moves into its expedition phase over the Queens Diamond Jubilee Bank Holiday weekend at the start of June, with the new adidas TERREX Swift race. This is a two day non-stop race for teams of 4, designed in part to help teams prepare for the adidas TERREX Sting in Stirling – Open Adventure’s World Series Expedition Race in Scotland at the end of August.
The Swift challenges teams to take on a course of 300km and 7,700km of ascent in The Yorkshire Dales (or 200km with 4,800m ascent on the short course), racing non-stop over the long bank holiday weekend. There will be no time for street parties but maybe one or two will fly a union Jack off their rucksacks as they tackle the usual open adventure mix of endurance, navigational challenge, and ‘trouser fillers’ – those special tasks with extra adrenaline guaranteed. These will be kept secret until the route books are given out, although for this race teams will have been emailed the course maps in advance.
They know there will be some ropes sections and also caving (no great surprise in The Dales), which they have been advised to bring arm and leg covering for, and also that they will be going into some areas not used for competitive racing before (not easy to achieve in The Dales).
The race will begin in Kirby Lonsdale after a short coach ride from the HQ and finish in Settle, and after a short run teams get to paddle down the River Lune, which promises shallows and rapids and a finish in the cross winds and tidal conditions of the Glasson Estuary. This race is using double open canoes, with single hulls, and single bladed paddles, which will also be the case at The Sting. It’s surprisingly rare to see open canoes used in adventure racing and the more experienced kayaking teams may find they have less advantage than they are used to.
Stage two takes the teams across the Forest of Bowland on their bikes, and into Gisburn Forest on their way to Kirkby Malham, where they are on foot again to run/trek around the famous sights of Malhamdale (Malham Cove, Goredale Scar and Janet’s Foss), and with most controls optional there will be strategic choices to be made. After returning to Kirkby Malham teams are back on their bikes to ride to Hawes, and there is significant route choice on this stage, before the final trek taking in some of the Yorkshire 3 Peaks to finish at Settle on Monday morning. And along the way there will be a scattering of those extra special challenges as well ... somewhere.
In total 26 teams will start (5 non-competitive as they are all-male) and there are visiting international teams from France and Ireland, along with a mix of very experienced UK racers and some teams moving up from the shorter Open Adventure races into the expedition arena. The adidas Terrex team includes 3 former World Champions, with regular team members Tom Gibbs and Nick Gracie joined by Stuart Lynch (NZ) and Sam Noble. Lynch won the World title with Team Orion Health and beat everyone as a solo racer (including the teams) in last year’s Coast to Coast stage race, and Noble is one of the more experienced expedition racers within the UK.
The team will still be smarting from their defeat at the recent Open Adventure 2 day race, where they were beaten by Team Mountain Hardwear and they in turn will want to keep the pressure on the established top team, ahead of The Sting and the World Championships in France, which they have already entered. There are other strong contenders too, including Averne Outdoor, a French team who have been racing since 2007. They are very experienced and have with numerous Raid wins under their belts as well as stage race and rogaine experience. Two FGS teams, Team Accelerate, the Irish team Moxie Racers and Team endurancelife will all be in the competitive mix as well. It should be a highly competitive race, with experience of expedition conditions, sleep strategy and endurance coming into play. Will that give the adidas TERREX team the edge to resume their winning ways ... ?
For those teams new to expedition racing The Swift is a chance to start the learning curve ahead of the longer, and much more demanding Sting in Stirling. This includes the preparation and planning needed for a longer event, and Open Adventure are accomplishing much of the ‘admin’ in advance of teams arriving. Maps are posted out to teams, who all have to have completed canoe and ropes certification, and medical forms before coming to the race. Nor will there be any kit check prior to the start – instead teams will be asked to show certain items at points around the course – with harsh penalties if they don’t have them.
This is system used in many World Series races, and a couple of other innovations which have come from involvement in the series are the use of standard sized bike boxes, which all teams must use, and bio security measures. These measures are to stop non-native invasive species spreading in UK waterways, and teams will have to clean and disinfect kit and clothing before and during the race.
All teams will be carrying trackers for the duration and there will be live race coverage on www.adidas-ar.com throughout the weekend.
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