British Indoor Adventure Race
Blow Outs and Scratch Teams
Rob / 03.04.2004
The first heat had the defending champions, Saab Salomon/Orange, racing head to head with The North Face, one of the teams most likely to challenge them. Tom Gibbs and Pete James were late replacements to race with Helen Jackson for Saab Salomon/Orange, and they began on the ‘sky-frame’ in the indoor Technical section. It was neck and neck all the way for this stage, with the defending champions coming out just ahead with 780 points to TNF’s 750. (This is still nowhere near the 1020 scored by yesterday’s heat one winners Decathlon’s SAS Jungle Bunnies’.) The highest score by any other teams in the heat was 390 by On’t Moor and High 5.
Saab Salomon/Orange then pulled out a big lead on the simulator stage, with the highest score so far (1067), but when they went outside for the ‘Land’ section it all went wrong very quickly. Teams were set off on the short circuit of the woods together, but in no time Tom Gibbs had a puncture which put them at the back. By the second lap he had another, and shortly after realised his tyre was split and had to run with his bike. The result was they finished the stage in equal 4th, 224 points down on The North Face, and wondering if they could still qualify for the finals.
This section of the race is similar to last year, but the ride around the woodland paths has been lengthened a little and included a run/carry over some piles of gravel. The teams stopped on the way round to carry out a short navigation exercise, following a bearing to find a checkpoint, but this too was a little more difficult as what was a clearing last year was now a plantation. All the saplings had white plastic protectors around them (there are deer in the forest) so it was hard to follow a bearing through them or fix a point to aim for.
The canoe stage on the lake in the NEC complex was new this year and teams had to reach 4 checkpoints in tethered canoes out on the water (the first one cruelly placed under the fountain) and continue doing circuits for 35 minutes, getting as many points as they could. On a small lake it became monotonous but High 5 amused themselves by dropping the electronic control box in the water!
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