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| Aberdeen win final 2007 ACE Race 2 Day Race - Lake District | Ace Race 2 Day Series
Round 3 – Lake District – August
The last round of the series was again up North in the grounds of a castle – this time the Lowther Estate in the Eastern Lake District. Once again the weather wasn’t playing fair and grey dull weather was a constant companion all weekend.
Saturday saw competitors undertake a journey, with a 2-hour MTB navigation stage to the shores of Ullswater. Teams had 2.5 hours to collect controls by kayak before undertaking a 2.5-hour foot orienteering stage back to the event centre. The first stage was fast and furious. Thanks to access gained by the organisation, cyclists could use any of the tracks in the competition area; this led to lots of route choice and some great riding. Soon we were swooping down to the transition at Howtown on the banks of Ullswater. The weather was threatening to rain, which isn’t a bad thing when you are paddling as you get wet anyway!
We set off on a course that took us all the way down to Patterdale at the western end of the lake to collect the big points. Returning by the north shore we managed to collect all the controls, but were a few minutes late. Spending more time paddling on such a nice lake is never a hardship though.
Returning to transition we were quickly out on foot and faced with a big 500m climb to warm ourselves up. The organisation had put out a lot of controls, allowing a lot of route choice. Points were spread pretty evenly, however the organisation had put some low points high up on Loadpot Hill to tempt competitors who didn’t pay attention to the values. We decided to ignore these and instead we concentrated on high pointers lower down. Once we had got these we had plenty of options to pick up smaller values missing the ones clustered around the top of the hill.
Getting back to the finish we had a good break before the Night Navigation, which allowed us plenty of time to eat and recover. Once the results had been posted it was clear that we had had a good day. We had a good lead in the team category and also fairing well against the solo’s and pair’s.
The Night Nav was based in and around the Lowther Estate. Lots of extra paths and very open grounds led to quite a confusing area, which navigationally you had to really concentrate on. A bit surreal when you are running along and all you can see are the eyes of the sheep and cattle reflected your headtorch. We again chose a round to give us options towards the end and in keeping with our previous events we aimed to get extra controls to offset penalties for being late. Again this tactic paid off with us achieving the top score of the evening.
After a satisfying day (and night’s) work we got some sleep in preparation to the last day of the competition. Predictably, Sunday dawned grey and damp. However as the last day of the series we didn’t mind too much and just focussed on the task of completing the remaining 2 stages in a timely fashion and not picking up any injuries. The first stage of the day was a straightforward bike up onto High Street. As leaders we were last off and we tried to make the most of it. The extra traction provided by our very able Mt Visions helped us to nearly clean the climb apart from the very steep last section to the checkpoint on the summit of Loadpot Hill. As the next checkpoint was nearly at the finish, we ignored the crowds of competitors heading North to the col and took a more direct line. This paid off handsomely and we made up a lot of time on other competitors, ending up being the first to the next control. As we came into transition we knew we had done enough to win the race and the series. All that we had to do was get round the final 20km run route and claim the prizes. Retracing some of the route we had done the night before we steadily made our way round the route, making sure we didn’t twist an ankle or made a navigational error. Finally we descended back to the finish and crossed the line, a job well done.
In the final analysis we had managed to secure our third win out of three to win the 2007 Ace Race 2 day series. Something we couldn’t of achieved without our sponsors – Marin (Nice Bikes and Kit), USE (Lights and Bling), Helly Hansen (Excellent Race Clothing), Paramo (Big Warm Kit), NUUN, EAS and Eat Natural (The Best Nutritional products).
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