Media Dahhrling

I was on TV over the holiday period- racing in Cyprus on Adrenaline Rush. It will be on ESPN soon and is available here for a limited period.

In association with the guys at Alpkit I'm also going to star in a film!

Exciting stuff!

World Team Challenge- Cyprus

Sorry for the gap in postings but it’s that time of year and between Christmas parties, work and trying to get some riding and running in I’ve been pretty busy.

The World team Challenge was a great event. I really liked Cyprus and it was definitely the best venue I’ve been to for one of these events. The journey build up is always a little tense, but this time at least the journey went smoothly. I got picked up at 3am and made for Heathrow, terminal 5. We effortlessly cruised through security, seeing no evidence of the chaos the media had led us to believe in. The journey was long but pretty un-eventful, so by the time we got to the hotel and grabbed dinner it everyone was pretty much ready for bed.

Thursday was spent preparing for the event- assembly bikes, a quick ride and then a ride to loosen up the legs and stocking up on supplies. By the evening we had time to have a swim and a bit of relaxing before the event briefings started.



Friday morning saw us start the first stage high on Mount Olympus the area was lovely and the weather was beautiful and sunny but with snow hiding in the shade. Challenger stages are never easy to explain (that’s part of the attraction of the event!) but the general format of this one was a four hour ride and run with twelve “challenges”. The challenges could be done in any order but you had the added complication of having to collect points to allow you time in each of 3 zones. We set off at a casual pace but kept going steadily, slowly knocking off one challenge at a time. Some were puzzles, one was hill sprints, one was carrying people, good performances gave you time bonuses. In the end we managed eleven of the twelve and comfortably won the stage.

The next stage was back at the hotel at night. We had to solve puzzles and run around to get materials in order to construct canoes. Again we had a solid performance, winning the stage. Finishing quickly would have allowed most teams to go to bed early but instead we went through course notes and strategy for the stage the following morning. Unfortunately this didn’t pay off.


The third stage saw us split into two pairs. The two pairs had to communicate using flags and then run to appropriate checkpoints to “buy” goods and then run somewhere else to sell them. Unfortunately, despite a generally good performance one silly error landed us with a huge penalty (excessively large in our view). This knocked us down to sixteenth in this stage, which placed us third going in to the final stage. For the final stage the ranking equated to a penalty; nothing for first, five minutes for us, and increasing as you move down the table. You have to sit out the penalty towards the end of the stage. I’d already seen the map of the final stage so knew it was going to be tight. 1km run then 25km downhill on the mountain bikes followed by a 5km run and punctuated by 4 “Brain Cells” where you had to answer a puzzle or sit out a further penalty. We got off to a good start, leading the field to the first Brain Cell. Then we got the puzzle wrong. As we sat out our five-minute penalty several teams passed us. So off we chased. The second question we got correct and put us back in the lead on the ground. We chain-ganged along the coast slowly extending our lead, right up to the third Brain Cell. Where we, once again, got the question wrong and we lost the lead. Now we knew that it was going to be super close. We still had to sit out our five-minute penalty (for qualifying third) and the leaders, Sanlam Investment Management from South Africa, were in front of us with no penalty. By the transition into the run we had made up a fair bit of time and we came almost together. We sat out our penalty as they made almost three minutes on us- quite a margin to make over 5km! Those few minutes were tense. We set off at a quick pace, and as the weakest runner I opted to get a tow from Pete. Team before pride. There wasn’t much talking going on- just time splits when we caught a sight of them. Slowly we got closer. Then is a rocky-as-hell section we caught them. Showing their sportsmanship they let us past without a fuss and wished us luck. We then hit tarmac and the pace quickened. There was a long straight, but no one looked back there was no point- we couldn’t go any quicker. We got to the hotel with them out of sight and headed to the final Brain Cell. We knew this one was an observation question. We had to put a series of photos from the course in the correct order. It was a tough call, so we made an informed guess. Wrong. The South Africans came in about 2 minutes down. The now knew if they got the question right they would beat us and win the event. If they got it wrong, they couldn’t make up the time. So they deliberated over it. All we could do is wait. But they got it wrong. Then the US Air Force came in, and again got the question wrong. As we counted down our penalty we knew we had it in the bag! 4 of us ran around the harbour while Chewy had to swim across. We helped him out and ran over the finish line together to claim the title for another year!

Challenger Worlds 2008

In a couple of hours I’m of to Cyprus for the Challenger World final. Teams from all around the world have qualified for this event as a culmination of a years worth of heats held as far apart as Singapore, New York and German. The event runs Friday and Saturday, but we don’t know the format until it starts. On past experience it’s likely to include cross-country running, mountain biking, canoeing and orienteering while all the time having to solve tough puzzles and crack complex strategy! It’s not easy!

We’ve won the event for the last 4 years, although I’ve ‘only’ done 3. The rules have had a bit of a tweak this year but once again we are out there to win it. You can keep up with the results here.

Fuel for adventure!

Mule Bar sent through a load of bars for me to take out to Cyprus. Included were the new Apple Strudel and Liquorice Allsports. The Strudel is a new firm favorite. Yum.

One Of Those Days

It really was One Of Those Days. Mel left first thing in the morning, she's away for three days on an outdoor training course. I'm jealous and will miss her. I had a glass of juice and a bowl of cereal, nice and relaxed. I picked up my commute bike. Overnight puncture. Arse. Now in a rush, I grabbed up the newly built (or rather bodged) touring bike. It needs some reworking, and reminded me about it all the way to the office.

Work was too much, well, work. Nothing went to plan, and seemingly nothing got done. I found-out that my Challenger team-mate, Chewy, is injured and plans for the Dynamic at the weekend, and our trip to Cyprus in a few weeks are up in the air.

I rushed out as soon as I could leave, looking forward to the long way home. Then on the first off-road section I binned it over the bars at a fair old speed. My left foot failed to come out of the, well past it's use-by date, Time pedal. I landed on my knees and chest, for a split second it want that bad, then the rear rack crashed down on my coccyx. Argh. I lay there for a moment, checking I was OK. A bit bruised and battered but not that bad. I picked myself up, and headed home on the road. Within three miles I nearly got hit by the same number of cars. First one cut a corner at speed, second one overtook me then turned off a few feet later, then a red light jumper. Some really bad driving.

Sometimes I really wonder how we live so long! I think I deserve a beer and another couple of chapters of The White Spider. Hopefully tomorrow is a better day!

I found the lost member of the Happy Days gang

Really.

Yesterday afternoon I went out with our work Challenger World team. The plan was for the 3 teams to do a mock stage. The basic jist was running and Mountain Biking orienteering to collect sets which allowed us to answer questions and play darts to score more points. Tom and set of on our bikes while Chewy and Pete set off on foot. We were having a fun ride despite the mud. We rode up a white lane to Charmy Down, a deserted World war 2 Night Fighter base. It's a strange spooky place with cows grazing on the runway and loads of derelict buildings. I'll have to have more of a look around (perhaps on a trip out to here). On our way down a guy in a nice old Merc was stopped on the road, we had a chat for a few minutes. Apparently they want to build a car park over the airfield, but he's been trying to stop it. He also mentioned that there are now wild Boar in the area- I'd not heard of them so far south. Interesting. Anyway, as he drove of, Tom and I realised that we both recognised him as an actor, but couldn't put our finger on who he was. I had to search he web when I got home, but finally found him.

Despite a really good ride, which our team completely got the wrong end off the stage. Consequently we completely messed the event up and came last. Better now than in the real event...