Kristian and I spoke and he was happy for us to move to a 2 person team and to manage our expectations that my hip might just not be up to it. The race organisers were also really good about moving the team to a pair as well.
Because of the injury, there was very little training done fitness wise for the race but we went in to it feeling good.
These races always start with some travelling. We went to Geneva airport with all our gear and checked in at the easyjet counter. The amount of gear we have to take these things always surprises me. However, it was handy that at the easyjet counter they didn’t bother weighing the bike boxes so we were able to put a lot more gear in them for flying.
We travelled on the Wednesday and met one of the other racers at the airport in Manchester who had been on our flight. She was getting the transfer that day. We had always planned to stay near the airport and take the transfer the following day so that we could go to the supermarket to do all our food shopping and get a nice sleep in a bed. So we headed off to ASDA is the horrible looking council estate near the airport. We were told it use to be Europes largest council estate. The highstreet was rather depressing. However, we got all our food shopping done and had some fish and chips for dinner there.
Back at the hotel we started sorting out our food into the packets for each leg. Going over all the legs, times and distances. There was a large amount of food on the beds but we managed to get it all sorted well enough. Once this was all sorted we decided it was time to get some rest.
The next morning we had the hotel breakfast and then back in the room and started sorting out our team bags. This meant a lot more tuff spread across the beds but we got everything into the team bags and were pretty happy with how we had sorted it all. After this we headed back to the airport to wait for our transfer to wales and the race venue. While waiting we found the other swiss team and sat down to wait with them for the transfer. We were getting a little stressed during this time because the transfer company and us, were not able to get through to the driver. The German team who were also on our transfer had a delayed flight as well. Eventually when the German team arrived we found that the driver only used his phone on whatsapp and the Germans had been in contact with him. We all went out to load into the van and this was the first challenge, they had not come with a big enough trailer for all the bikes and we had to put 4 bike boxes in the van with the passengers. It was a tight fit for all the gear and people and then we settled in for the long journey into wales.
Having arrived at the venue a little later than we had hoped we went and registered, got all the numbers and our team photo taken. Then we went back out into the sun to build our bikes and sort the final few things before the race. It was also nice at this point to bump into the people I knew from other races, including Steph who normally is part of our team, and be social. We lost track of the time and had to do more than we hoped to get the bags and bikes ready and realised that we had to get to the opening ceremony quickly so we put everything into the rugby club and headed over to the opening ceremony.
It was here that we finally got to see the course we would be taking. From the north of wales back down to where we started. It looked and sounded like it would be a good fun course. There was a lot of information about what paths we can and cant use for bikes in wales. As a foreign team it was rather confusing but we asked a number of questions and the race team were happy to answer man questions to help with this confusion. I worked through a few of the maps at the hall and then when it was time for the captains meeting Kristian went off to the pub we were staying in to get a table and order dinner for us while I was at the meeting.
I went back to the pub to join Kristian and over a pint or two of cider we worked through the maps to decide our route for the course. We were pretty happy with all the decisions we made and that the maps were ready for the race and we headed up to get some sleep.
Alarms set for 6am we got up and, showered to be clean for the last time in a few days and then got into out race gear. We were too early for the race breakfast but they gave us a packed takeaway breakfast. Over at the race venue, we finished going over our bags from the previous day and then did all the bag check ins. We were only over a little on our bike boxes so had to rejig the packing a little, but nothing major had to move.
Now we just had t wait for the busses to the start. They departed around 9:30 and we were taken up to the top of wales to the seaside town of Llandudno. When we arrived the sun was out and it was a lovely day at the seaside. We wandered around the boardwalk there a little before heading up to the start line.
The first leg of the race was designed just to spread out the teams a little and this was achieved by having a steep uphill to start with. We found ourselves somewhere in the middle of this after getting to the top and then on the other side of the hill we ran down the beach to get to the kayak leg.
In the race briefing we had been told we would be paddling upstream with the incoming tide and that the river would be moving quite fast upstream We were told to avoid things like moorings and bouys in the water as these would suck us in and could be dangerous. So we set out to avoid all of these. But after having navigated through all the boats and the thinner part of the river we came out to a nice wide bit of river with only 1 mooring point in it that we had to avoid. But we managed to paddle right to it and as it sucked us in, we lost balance and got tipped into the water. Thankfully we had strapped everything into the boat properly and so nothing went missing. But Kristian did drop his paddle, thankfully by this point the river was not too quick so it didn’t go too far from us. We got the kayak turned up the right way working together to counter balance the kayak we both managed to get back in without tipping it over again. It was only a short paddle to get Kristian’s paddle and then we were on our way again.
This leg included one checkpoint in a small cave, coming into land the kayak was a challenge as we had to turn the kayak 180 degrees in the fast moving water without going over again and then find a place to put the kayak while going to get the checkpoint. It was at this point that we found Kristian’s torch had not liked the swim and had stopped working. Also, the bag I had my spare batteries for the gopro and my torch had leaked and all the batteries were now dead. But we went into the cave without a light, got the control and headed back to the boat to finish the kayak. At the take out, there was a steep muddy bank to get the kayak out but the organisers had helpfully put some ropes out to help. There was then what felt like a long walk to the transition with all our wet gear before heading off onto the first biking leg of the race.
Bikes all set up headed out to go biking, It was quite hot as we headed out to the bike and there wasn’t any water in the transition so we were a bit low as we headed out. We were doing well on this bike and enjoying it as we went across fields, over to dams and down bridelways. At one point we realised we had missed the “shortcut” on the map that the organisers had arranged access to and clearly marked on the map, but we went the longer way around the road and lot a bit more elevation. This worked out for us though because at one point a local asked us what we were up to and we happily told him about the race and right when our water was getting low he took Kristian into his place to fill our water bottles. We headed back up the hill and found that some of the teams who were around the same time as us before the shortcut were just coming out, so we had lost no time at all and had instead ridden on raods rather than trails/tracks. Towards the end of the ride we came to some deep puddles and I managed to take a trip over my handlebars, which snapped a few bits off my bike, including my light, my Di2 Juntion box, the gear display and bend my gear selector and somehow managed to cause the front brake to no longer work. I also took on a nice big bruise in my thigh. As I was going over the handlebars time seemed to slow down and all I could think about was “this is how I break my hip again”, but we were able to continue without much issue. But this leg is also were it was clear to me that although I was healed, I was not race fit. I was holding Kristian back a lot here, but because I had the map he couldn’t go too far without me.
Next was the first big hike stage and we were approaching the first night of the race. We headed out with some hot food in hand and started walking over the fields as the sun was setting. It was taking me a long time to get through my couscous but eventually I got through it and we were heading along at a decent speed. We got the first control and it all seemed too good, nice paths to walk on at night, but this was to change. We got to a section where we had to go up a stream over a hill and down the other side. Well, it looked and sounded that easy from the map. But it turned out to be more of a waterfall and it was steep enough that you could eat the blueberries off the bush in front of your face while climbing the hill. It was rather sketchy and neither of us were particularly comfortable with this section. We decided as we were going up that we would head out to the right to make it less steep and go round the hill and down the other side to a wall that was marked on the map. As we went down we hit the bog that we would spend the rest of the night walking around in. The wall didn’t exist and nor did most of the trails that were on the map. So lots of aimless walking back and forth trying to find trails and walls, we eventually found the sheepfold (sheep pen made of stone). It was here that we decided we didn’t want to go up any more cliffs in the dark and so didn’t go for the next control and decided we would short course. But the nice trail that was marked on the map that should have taken us around the hills instead of over them didn’t exist either. A lot more walking through bog and marsh and very wet feet the sun finally started to rise, and we managed to find a feature that was actually there. We were now back on course and collected a few more controls without much difficulty and headed down the hills to get to the next bike leg. I was quite demoralised after this hike and not in a great place. We took a long time in transition, mostly because Kristian recognised I needed some space, but I sorted that out soon enough and after that reset was ready to head off again.
This bike leg was the longest on the course and we knew we would be out for most of the day. We also knew they there was a compulsory special stage that would come with a penalty if we didn’t do it. I made a mistake here; I thought the penalty would only be a couple hours and so we decided to go get a few extra checkpoints and miss the cut off at the special stage. We found out when we got there that the penalty was 6 hours. So not the best decision to miss it. We collected most of the checkpoints this day, only skipping the ones thar required using the mtb trails. The other great decision we made this day was to sit in the sun with a few of the other teams and have fish and chips for dinner. We over ate but it was soo good after 2 days of racing.
fter this there was a very long walk up a tall quarry where we passed a local who decided to give us an earful because she assumed that the people going into the bushes at the bottom were all going to the toilet and wouldn’t listen to us when we tried explaining that there was a control there that they were getting. Then she didn’t believe that we had permission to use the quarry for the race. We politely gave her the details of the race and the organisers and suggest she should call them and the landowner if she had concerns. This hill just kept on going up and up. When we were finally at the top, we thought we might finally have a leg of the race where we are not going to get wet, but then we hit the trail across the top that had water up to our knees while cycling. We were making decent progress across the top and cycling again at this point with the Crafty Devils when it started getting dark quickly. So, at the next control I stopped to get my torch out (as I had not bike light by this stage) and when I looked up, Kristian and the Irish had headed down the route marked as out of bounds (mostly because the trail was dangerous, and Kristian confirmed this later). I shouted down to them to come back, Kristian eventually was able to get himself back up to me and by this time we joined a few other teams going across the last bit at the top n the mist and dark. There was then a steep section to go down to the quarry and without front brakes my bike was just skidding, I did a 180 at one point, so I got off and had to run my bike down the hill. We eventually made it into the transition and after putting the bike away we set the tent up to get a couple hours sleep.
3 hours after settling down to sleep we were up again, packing our gear and tent up so we could head out onto the next hike. We felt good after a few hours sleep and even jogged a little, this didn’t last too long. As the sun came up, we found ourselves not quite where we intended to be, but 3 other teams were in exactly the same place as us, making the same route choices. We were able to use the landmarks to work out where we were and got back on course. Walking with other teams and chatting the day away we made our way along the next parts of the hike and came to the lake to do the kayaking stage on a really nice lake. We had decided that we didn’t want to waste any time on the lake, we chose which controls we were going to head for and said if we couldn’t find any we would just move on. We got most of them easy enough and the one that we didn’t quite navigate directly to, we left and headed back to get on our bikes as we had decided we wanted to finish that day about 8pm.
On the bikes, we had again decided we were just going to get one of the optional controls and otherwise just do the mandatory controls. It started with a nice cycle around the lake we had been paddling on. While going around this lake we had to get out the way of some kid driving a tractor too fast, he almost put it into the wall which would have made a spectacular crash. Along this leg I was having problems with the cleats on my shoes, they just kept coming loose and so then would move on the bottom my shoe and not let me click out. I had a number of near crashes because I couldn’t get my feet out to stop. On this leg we decided we didn’t want to do any of the mountain bike trails and so passed through the forest area on a nice ride into the final transition.
We didn’t waste much time at the final transition and were on our way quick enough for the final hike. We had decided to get 4 of the optional controls in the hills and then head for home. We had not anticipated that it would be more swamp/bog to walk through with little to no trails again and so it was very wet and tough going. I was trying very hard to keep my feet dry which in fact was doing them more damage than good and meant that it was quite slow going. I eventually had to get them wet when we crossed a little wet section that basically came up to my waist. By this point, I was also having problems with my feet, and I had stopped really caring for them. But we eventually managed to get through the fields, controls collected and were heading down paths in the direction of the finish. A few other teams joined us around this final stretch, and it was nice chatting and sharing stories from the race with people as we came to the finish.
This finish line was quite special for me as Vanessa and the kids had come to see us finish and had bought beers and pizza to the finish line for us. We shared our stories and went back to the pub to chat some more and decompress after the race. Showers were also needed. It took a lot of scrubbing to get all the mud out of the skin.
A good night sleep was had before meeting up with the family again in the morning and the process of sorting out race kit to take home started. We then went to the closing ceremony and in the lost property box at the end, I found the bike light I had lost on the first day, someone had picked it up off the course and given it to the organisers. It was nice chatting with all the other teams, but all good things come to an end and it was time to head off on the airport transfer for Kristian and me in a car down to Bristol.
It was a tough but fun race overall. More lessons learned and plenty more still to be learned. Looking forward to the next race.