A Sprint Relay to Warm Up

Rob Howard / 19.08.2012

It was day Zero at the adidas TERREX Sting in Stirling, with the prologue to the race taking place this evening, allowing the teams to see a bit more of Stirling and the people of Stirling to see a bit of these strange athletes who are about to disappear into the hills for a week.

During the day teams had a last Q&A session with the Race Director, did any last minute shopping and packing, and those who brought their own canoes handed them in.  By now everyone was itching to race, but those still rushing around were glad of the full weekend to prepare.

As promised it began to rain in the afternoon prior to the prologue and it was still wet when teams gathered outside Stirling Castle for the briefing at 18.30.  They had been given 3 of the four maps for the stages of the event, which was a relay with two bike and two run stages.  The course had been set by the team from TriActive Stirling, who are taking part in the full race. They would have had a ‘home advantage’ anyway, but James Thurlow had introduced a section where home town knowledge was not so useful.  The third stage would be an orienteering stage, but the twist was it was on a map made in 1898!

With the countdown over the first runners sprinted off down the cobbled hill and straight into a hairpin turn and a steep set of stairs!  The rain head eased off but it was still wet and runners and riders had to take care on the slippery streets.  Though the prologue is only a bit of fun to open proceeding, it does affect the race as there will be a penalty for all but the winners, which teams will have to sit out at Grandtully.  This would be twice the time difference to the winners, so finishing 5 minutes after them would mean a 10 minute time-out during the main race.

With the Race Directors warning that a few minutes made little difference and they should take care ... everyone set off to race hard!  The field did quickly spread out, even on the first trail run, which was followed by the orienteering stage.  This did give some runners a few minor problems and Ian Furlong of Total XC said, “I set off about 10^th, but this was an advantage as I saw others mistakes and quickly caught everyone up!”

Next came the first of the mountain bike stages, starting with a steep downhill (some of it over steps), and finishing with a climb back up to the castle, which stands high above the town. The ‘baton’ for each team was a race tracker and while runners and riders were out on their lap, the rest of the team could see their progress on two large TV screens set up by the start/finish.

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