The Sting in Stirling
A Strong Entry for the adidas TERREX ‘Sting in Stirling’
Rob Howard / 15.08.2012
Expedition Adventure Racing returns to Scotland on August 20th with the start of adidas TERREX ‘Sting in Stirling’ – a traditional 5 day, non-stop race, over 620km for teams of 4. There has been no expedition race in Scotland since 2007 and Open Adventure have been working towards a return the longest, most demanding form of adventure racing through most of the intervening years.
Under the leadership of James and Lisa Thurlow Open Adventure have moved from staging 5 hour races, to a programme which had included 12, 24 and two day events, multisport stage races, and two years ago they tested out an expedition length in race in the English Lake District. Now their focus has moved North to the wilder and more remote terrain of the Scottish Highlands for a race which is part of the AR World Series.
The event has attracted some of the UK’s most experienced racers, though most of the UK teams entering are inexperienced at expedition length racing. Some have progressed through the Open Adventure race calendar and many raced the adidas TERREX Swift in the Yorkshire Dales back in June. This was a 3 day, 2 night event designed to test out both the teams and the organisation ahead of ‘The Sting’, and for many of the teams the learning curve was a steep one. Now comes the main event.
With its ARWS status and as the final chance for the winners to qualify for a free spot in the World Championships in France, the race has also drawn some top class international teams to one of Europe’s finest mountain wilderness areas. Among the 36 entries there are teams from France, Canada, U.S.A. and Ireland competing, all of them with considerable expedition and world series race experience.
The winners of the race 2 years ago were Team adidas Terrex and they will be the favourites to win once again as the longest established and most successful UK team on the international stage. (They have previously won the World Championships and finished 4th last year in Tasmania.) Two of their world championships winning team will be taking part, Tom Gibbs and Nicola MacLeod, and they are joined by Bruce Duncan and Chris Hope. (Nick Gracie of the team is the course planner on this race.)
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