The Sting in Stirling
All Together Now For the Finish
Rob Howard / 24.08.2012
One of the advantages of the tight deadline for teams to get onto the water at Grandtully this morning was that it compressed the race and got everyone back together again. This ensured extensive safety cover on the river descent and that all the teams would finish fairly closely together, giving a more manageable and sociable end to the race.
Once they were on the River Tay again the teams made their way down the city of Perth – a longer paddle than the previous one, but one which still had numerous rapids, falls and weirs. The flow of water was strong as the river broadened, and locals I spoke to said it was unusually high for the time of year.
On the way there was a stop at the town of Dunkeld for an orienteering stage, for those who chose to do it. Teams came ashore under the main bridge into town at a grassy bank and were given an orienteering map drawn by Tayside Orienteers. This marked 3 checkpoints in the nearby hills and teams had to adjust to using a very detailed map.
Before that they had to get out of thetheir canoes! Cramp was a problem and Pete Cameron crawled very slowly and painfully up the bank. Anyone watching the team hobble off wouldn’t have guessed they were in second place! The leaders, adidas TERREX had already passed through and spent a while looking for a cafe (owned by a relative of one of the team), before realising it would not be open and pressing on!
Once back on the water there was more excitement in the rapids, particularly around Stanley Mills, where there were numerous rapids, on the last of which the Irish Army team capsized. They were not the only ones who found it tricky and a couple of teams came out of the other side with canoes full of water and had to head into the shore to empty their boat.
From here on there were no bigger rapids and the flow helped carry teams down to Perth, right into the city centre where the came ashore under a railway bridge, then carried their canoes to a nearby car park – the last transition of the race. Here they built their bikes for the last time and began the 55km ride through the Ochil hills to take them back to the finish at Stirling.
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