iAdventure Sprint race report by Pierre Francois, Team No Detour 23. February 23rd 201 !ttps"##$$$.%aceboo&.

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To be successful in a sprint adventure race, you have to be the fastest and avoid any kind of mistakes. Today we were none of that. By Pierre The story To kick off the season, Ross and I decided to meet again and race a sprint event run by iAdventure in Narrabeen Lakes. Despite this is a sprint event and we both think there are not worth the money trave! time spent etc" it is a very c!ose event and we!! p!aced in the ca!endar. #n top of that I on!y had good feedback from iAdventure so !et$s see what they have in their bucket. %e meet at &.'(A) at the bike drop, on the east side of the !ake *+amieson ,ark-, and the weather is .uite nice, sounds promising. #n a sprint format, the maps are given on!y '(min before the start, which !eaves a short amount of time for race prep. It is not our first race so we know what to e/pect. The race consists in 01 mandatory checkpoints 20 to 013 and & optiona! bonus points 2A to 43 and it wi!! be divided into ( !egs. 5onus checkpoints are by name optiona! but when you attempt one of them, the cutoff time to finish the race is 'h16 sharp. In a mass start format, we have to run across the 7ydney 7ports Academy to grab ' mandatory checkpoints and one optiona! bonus point A. Then we transition onto the kayak for a padd!e across the !ake, with 8 mandatory and 0 optiona!. It wi!! be time to 9ump of the bike for technica! )T5 !eg behind :romer suburban area. The specific point wi!! be that we have to ride with our ,;D because we wi!! need it for the tubing which is the 'th !eg. (th and fina! !eg wi!! be padd!e across the !ake, going back to the start. It sounds interesting< %e draw a rough idea of our p!an, contact the map and we are ready to go.

=A)> the siren is on and we are running as fast as we can in the 7port Academy fie!ds to grab :,0, 8, 1 and then '. It !ooks !ike an orienteering sprint event The !ast checkpoint which is an optiona! bonus point is worth it and !ocated under the bridge of %akehurst ,arkway. It invo!ves a swim across a 86m channe! which I did. Thinking of it post race we shou!d have grabbed that one first in the !oop because it wou!d have saved us few hundred meters of run and confusion of having to wear ,;D or not 2because the organi?ers to!d everyone that it was mandatory before changing their mind during the race3" Anyway it was a p!easant 1.8km start which we did in 9ust under 0=min and we are ready to 9ump on the fat toyboy II voyager kayak 2we hate them<3.

As usua! we are not the strongest contingents on the padd!e< %e had few portages, few mud runs and grabbed :,( and & as we!! as optiona! bonus 5. The !eaders are probab!y ( minutes in front of us, and we$ve been racing for !ess than 0 hour" 7o far so good.

#ur transition is I think .uite s!ow but here comes our first mistake. Indeed whereas a!! teams are riding a!ongside the !ake on a firetrai!, our origina! p!an was to ride the road. A !itt!e hi!! to start with but I think it shou!d be faster. %e stick to our p!an but definite!y it is not an easy c!imb< 7udden!y Ross stops because his rear tyre is b!ocked by the brakes and he can$t ride in such conditions". The on!y option is to remove the brake pads which we do in few minutes. It$s over for us and Ross wi!! have to ride the technica! )T5 !eg with on!y the front brake. Last but not !east, when we arrive at :,@ we rea!i?e that we have !ost the c!ue sheet, which te!!s the e/act !ocation of the checkpoints. 5ugger< %e have to re!y on our imagination and eyes to spot each checkpoint, which we did for :,@, = and A.

Checkpoint 9 was down there It is the end of easy mi/ of road firetrai! road ride, now it is time to go into the bush and get optiona! :, D and B. The tracks are most!y rocky sing!e tracks, but not in very good conditions because shared with motocross riders. #n top of that there are numerous minor trai!s which are not mapped and we strugg!e to find :, D. After few attempts and a !ong detour from the south 2hence our team name3 we find checkpoint D. The view here is nice and reminds me why I am doing such a sport. :heckpoint B is at the top of the hi!!, but again we don$t know the e/act !ocation. %e spent a good ha!f an hour in what we be!ieve is the right area but cou!dn$t find it" ,ost race comment > C!ad we didn$t spend more time because we were definite!y in the wrong spot. Time is running out .uick!y, we have to move on to :,06. The technica! downhi!! reminds us that we are not the best mountain bikers on earth and so we wa!k part of it" most of it " I have to say we are very !ucky to find checkpoint 06 because Ross spots it a second before we were heading down to the sport fie!ds" Creat <

Time for the tubing, an e/citing !eg. A!! teams were re.uired to bring a spare '/' or car inner tube, as we are going to cross the !ake to find checkpoints, materia!i?ed by white bott!es f!oating on the !ake. None of us have tried it in the past and we are e/cited to give it a go. 5ut what is the best techni.ue> swim D wa!k D hmmm not sure. 5ecause of the sha!!ow water we wa!k most of the time and find :,00, even if the bott!e is gone 2intentiona!!y or not, whatever3.

#n our way to :,08 we decide it wou!d be a faster move to take the track in!and but the thick bush to reach him is hard to cross. After some effort and scratches we fina!!y reach the track and run unti! :,08.

%e are !ate, very !ate and have to 9ump on the fina! padd!e !eg, missing two more bonus points 2; and C3. The !ast !eg is indeed a padd!e to :,01 on the west side of the !ake and the fast teams have the option to grab optiona! bonus point 4, which we obvious!y ditched by !ack of time.

%e finished in 'h0=minutes, with a!! mandatory checkpoints p!us ' = bonus points. #ur ranking is 01th '& starters, one of the !owest resu!ts we had". The winners 25e!rose 5icyc!es3 c!eared the course in 1h(6 < Impressive. I be!ieve our race was not great in term of route choices and fast moving but we had a great day and were overa!! happy. #bvious!y with a !itt!e bit more of common sense 2route choice to :,@3, !uck 2Ross )T5 issue3, !oca! know!edge$s 2I be!ieve it does he!p for the )T53 and of course fitness 2a!! others fai!s we had today 3 we cou!d have done better but that$s not the essentia!. Thanks iAdventure who have been on the sprint scene for a !itt!e whi!e and who have decided to step away. I$ve done on!y one of your events but !iked the format. As a young dad too I understand the reasons and can te!! it is a great choice< ,ersona!!y I hope the Devi!$s !air @8hrs wi!! sti!! e/ist in 860(< To %inis! t!is is a messa'e to $!oever is readin' t!is race report. (e are )oo&in' %or a team mate to do t!e 'eo*uest+!a)% t!is year ,-100&m 20-30!ours.. /% you !ave done some adventure racin'#ro'aines and $ant to 0oin t!e %un $it! us, %ee) %ree to send me a messa'e. (e are nice 'uys and team motto $i)) be 1/n 'uts $e trust2 $it! aim to %inis! in 'ood position3