adidas TERREX Swift
Stage 5: A Long Wet Ride
Rob Howard / 03.06.2012
For the morning of the second day of the race the rain continued, blown on a very cold wind which was chilling teams and sapping their energy as they moved into Stage 5 of the race – a long bike ride (113km max) into the heart of the Yorkshire Dales National Park.
During the morning the teams who had stopped overnight at transition at Kirkby Malham, sleeping in the barn or their tents, got up and got going again. Well, most of them did. This was the point where there were most retirements and a few teams became unranked as one or more members dropped out of the event.
The Spirit of Adventure team had managed to complete all nof the trek around Malham, then in their own words ‘slept for a long time’. If they were waiting it out to see if the rain stopped, it was to no avail, as it was still pouring when they set out again. In fact the rain had forced them out by flooding their tents! “We are going on against the odds,” said Phil Humphreys, “but we are not sure how much we can do – the full route isn’t looking feasible now.”
His team has already decided not to do the abseil at Kilnsey Crag (which came early in the bike ride). This meant they had no need to pack their heavy climbing kit for the whole ride, and also the abseil would slow them down and they’d get cold. All the other teams going on made the same call so the abseil from the overhanging rockface was closed earlier than expected.
At this stage all of the teams were on the Stage 5 ride, the back markers leaving Kirkby Malham and the leaders pushing on towards the final transition at Hawes. They were still moving at a fast pace, but had slowed a little in the cold and on the attrition of the long ride, and were now back on the predicted race pace.
The route of the full ride took teams Northwards along the river Wharf, then up and over Cragdale Moor, past Aysgarth Falls, through Castle Bolton, close to Richmond and then back along Swaledale to finish the stage at Hawes. About half way around there was a significant short cut for those wanting to take the short course, and the checkpoints were all optional after the first one, so teams could miss out parts of the route as they chose.
In the bad weather most took shelter at some point, to warm up, eat and recover a bit. After coming down off the moors the National Park Visitor Centre cafe at Aysgarth was a popular stop, as was another cafe in town, which the Camracers team had “bribed to open early!” The adidas Terrex team told how they’d passed a lady looking out of her window and she had made them tea and food, then later on when they tried to buy coke at a shop, but the owner would not change a £10 note, another shopper bought it for them.
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