Cumbrian Commotion
Today saw the last in the Helly Hansen series of races, the series has been going since September and culminated in the toughest race of the series from Grizedale forest visitors centre.
Over 1000 people turned up for the race, almost a record, a lot of teams clearly making a weekend of it, there were almost as many supporters as racers, for me however it was a great race, only 45mins down the road! Although there was a mountain bike race right outside my door in Whinlatter!!
Nick had come up from London to race and to train, and Clive was over from York. We had a good day on Saturday with some kayaking on Windermere, then a relaxed afternoon with a big pre race feed.
The weather in the morning was lovely in Keswick, but as we headed south we entered the mist, it finally burnt off just after the race started. The registration and start was the usual madness, everyone queueing all over the place, getting last minute bike bits, sorting out kit in transition, and the usual teams putting war paint on for the team look!
We knew the VOtwo team would be very fast, and decided to just race our own race, if they had a shocker we would then be in the perfect position to capitalise. Heading out at the start, people set off at a fast speed, but as soon as we hit the first hill most teams dropped away, and after the 2km run leg we were comfortably in 2nd place.
The mountain bike leg was about 20km, it was mostly on fireroads, with the occasional bit of rocky singletrack which Clive and myself loved, but Nick was having an awful time, his forks had frozen on him, so he was effectively riding a rigid bike! Riding at a good fast pace we made sure we had no mechanicals or punctures and stayed the right way up on the bikes! Coming into transition we were about 5 minutes down on VOtwo.
The run to the kayak leg was tough, up and over the hill, then a long decent to Coniston Water. It was a beast of a run out, with Nick struggling on the hills and then flying on the flat, Clive and me going well on the hills and lagging behind on the flat. We reached the boats and found they were proper canadian canoes, the water was a bit choppy, but we managed to stay upright, i wonder how many teams didn’t though.
The climb back from the kayaking was really tough, but we soon seemed to be almost back at the finish. Running the last few km’s along the fire road Clive was worried about his hamstrings, but easing up slightly he was ok to the finish. The usual set of obstacles awaited us in the finish field, the planks, cargo net, and slippery slope were all completed and we crossed the line in a time of 2hrs 8mins, about 12 minutes behind VOtwo! Those guys are super fast, and took a well deserved victory.
After having some scran in the cafe and a wee chat with the FGS guys Nick and I headed toWindermere Canoe and Kayaks to get a paddle session in. We kayaked from the boat house to YMCA Lakeside and back again, a great paddle in pretty rough weather. Finally finishing a long day of exercise we went for a we road trip to see a friend, then back to drop some kit off at my dads, before eventually getting home some 12hrs after we left, a long day out in the Lakes.
It was a great weekend, and very happy to finish in 2nd place to such a good team, Clive was very happy with his condition after not racing for a while, and Nick was loving being out in the hills again. More training next week, getting ready for the next race!
The Helly Hansen boys win at Hawley
Fresh from World Championships victory Tom Gibbs, racing with Bruce Duncan and Paul Pickering (a kind, and fast, last minute replacement) managed to seize a win over VO2 in Hawley. Tom’s Portugal race had been strategic and lasted 6 days and 900km. Sunday’s was a marked route over about 2.5 hours including wet and technical mountain biking, wet and technical running and wet but not very technical kayaking. A different experience entirely! Read More
Warren’s account of winning the World Championships
Tom and I shared a hearty handshake when we met at Heathrow’s Terminal 1 as we’d not seen each other for a while. Despite the warmth of our embrace the sense of muted enthusiasm for the task ahead was palpable. Expedition racing had unfortunately become a results based enterprise with every mishap, non-finish, injury, and team mate debacle magnified by the pain of a million blistered footsteps. The emotional upheaval of leaving a young family behind was not getting any easier. Read More
Team Helly Hansen – Prunesco Crowned World Champions 2009….
After a gruelling 6 days of racing, with little more than 7hrs sleep, Team Helly Hansen – Prunesco consisting of Nicola Macleod, Nick Gracie, Tom Gibbs and Warren Bates with support crew James Thurlow and Nicola Wiseman were crowned Adventure Racing World Champions 2009. It has been a nail biting time trying to follow the 59 teams progress through the course with both mandatory checkpoints (CP’s) to visit and the “bonus” CP’s thrown into the mix. This made the event even harder for the teams, having to meet the strict cut off times and working out the strategy well in advance. Lack of information from the organisers and faulty GPS tracking devices made following the teams almost impossible on the race website. It was only through the power of Twitter that we could communicate with the teams support crew’s on the ground and other people supporting the event that enabled us to piece together the team’s positions.
On the back of winning the Wenger Patagonian Adventure Race win earlier in the year and now crowned World Champions the recently expanded Helly Hansen – Prunesco team have certainly put this squad firmly onto the Adventure racing map and are already looking forward to 2010.
London Rat Race…
Saturday was hot and sunny in London, something that most people have not experienced this year, especially Clive and myself living up North! Read More
Helly Hansen Series – Cannock Chase…
The first Helly Hansen Adventure Challenge in Cannock took place in hot sunshine this weekend. With over 148 teams of three completing the Run-> Bike -> Run -> Paddle ->Run -> Bike -> Challenges format event proved to be popular as ever.
Each stage distances were a bit vague as the race started. As usual the first run was more a sprint lasting 30mins ending back at the transition with many other teams leaving on their bikes. Over the tannoy system we could hear the commentator saying “the fastest teams will be back within 1:30mins…” with that in mind we headed out on some amazing fire and single track trails…. 1:15 mins later we ended at the run transition to the kayaks. I think the 1:30 was a bit over optimistic!. Here we were told it’s only 2.5km run to the water… Up, down, down up… across grassy fields finally ending up at the waters edge. Here we all pilled into a 3 person kayak to paddle firstly up stream 500m before turning round and heading back down stream, much easier. Out of the boats it was a run back to the bike drop off, by now we were passing many other teams heading to the kayak. Back on the bikes we headed off after a team we could see in front. The bike leg back was fairly short and soon caught the all male team in front. It was then a sprint to the finish with both teams head to head on the Plank walk, through the cargo net and finally over the slippery wall. We came 4th overall, just missing out on third and 1st in the mixed category.
We would like to thank Paul from TrailPlus for putting on another excellent event, and we are all looking forward to the other HH Challenge series event.
The Cent Cols Challenge…
Nick Gracie, Tom Gibbs, Heather Dawe and Warren Bates are currently competing in the Ultimate Sportive challenge….The Cent Cols. The challenge is 10 days in the saddle 1 day off – 2000km with 45000m of climbing. This is the first year for such an event and 10 teams are currently participating.
Stage 1: Team Helly Hansen – Wilier – Nuun Safely completed the first stage of The Cent Cols Challenge. Today we left from Thonon, on the shores of Lake Geneva and did a small climb over to Morzine and then a series of classic tour de France Cols including Joux Plane, Colombiere, Arivis and the Col Saisis and then
finishing in Albertville.
The bikes have been amazing and the clothing top class.
Total stats for the day where: 4,700m Climb 195 KM Distance
and according to our GPS computers we burnt around 9,000 calories.
Epic day tomorrow 6000m of climb and a few more classics (snow forecast too)
Open 5 – Coast to Coast……
The first C2C event organised by Open5 involved a 4 day stage race from Whithaven to Whitby. The Helly Hansen squad had a strong presence and dominated the prizes with Nicola MacLeod competing as a solo female, Nick Gracie, Tom Gibbs and Cheryl Frost racing as a mixed team and Bruce Duncan competing in the Mens Solo category.
Read More
Ironman UK
Congratulations to Nicola on her result from the UK’s Ironman. After swimming 2.4miles in 01:22:41
, Biking 112m in 06:07:53 and a final run of 26.2 miles in 03:39:54 Nicola finished in 128th overall and 6th in the Female class and 2nd in her category.
More details on the event can be found at IronmanUK
