Adventure racers are a funny bunch. They’re strangely disinterested in concepts like “easy”, “comfortable” or “convenient”. By way of an example, two of the top adventure race/Polaris teams recently duelled it out across a large part of Scotland just for the hell of it.
Team Detail Events (Gary Tompsett and John Laughlin) set the challenge, with the only information given to Team Santa Cruz (John Houlihan and Paul Currant) beforehand being that they should show up at the appointed meeting spot with whatever they need for 24 hours of unsupported cycling. You might think that that would necessitate carrying a lot of stuff, but like we said, they’re a funny bunch and do this kind of thing equipped with little more than a plastic bag and a packet of fig rolls.
At 7am Houlihan and Currant open the envelope with the details of the challenge inside. They have to ride the red routes at each of the 7stanes trail centres, unsupported, riding between each forest. John Houlihan takes up the story in scribbled-down note form:
Glentrool
Start at Glentrool at 11.17am. There is no red route – yellow route done in 2hr 40m, then on the road to Kirroughtree.
Kirroughtree
Red route, 1hr. Gary has a big off and his bike needs attention. More road. Team Santa Cruz leave Team Detail Events after a pee stop.
Dalbeattie
1hr 25m, beautiful evening, blue bells in forest. Hit the road to Mabie.
Mabie
Time unsure but thought to be 1hr, did last part in the twillight with no lights. Got very cold after getting back to rucksacks. Waterproofs on to keep the wind out, road into Dumfries to eat. Stopped at Chinese takeaway, got chips, plastic bags for feet to keep cold wind out. Slept for 15 mins in a hedge, we don’t have sleeping bags, we just lie down on the floor in what we are wearing. Very cold when we wake
up. Temperature falling to near zero. We do not have gloves, this was not expected.
Ae
Time for red route unknown, by this time we don’t care, enter forest approx 11:20pm. Have to sleep twice for ten minutes each stop during red loop. Leave forest just before sunrise, frost on grass. Now have plastic bags over hands to keep the wind off.
Back on the road. Stop in Lochmaben at 5.30am when we spot a newsagent/cafe with people drinking hot coffee. They reluctantly let us in. Two lattes
each, feeling warm and awake now the sun has come up. Meet Team Detail Events in Lockerbie looking for hot drinks, they haven’t had any sleep and had overtaken us during our coffee stop. Travel together to Langholm, Team Santa Cruz leave Detail here to sleep and get hot drinks. On to Newcastleton via Tinnis Hill.
Newcastleton
57 mins red route, then on the road through Hawick, Selkirk, Innerleithen.
Glentress
Red route 1hr 13 mins including stop to take photos.
Total time 29 hrs, 12 minutes, including all stops, toilet breaks (Paul), and bumping into Paul’s mate at Glentress. Shower, coffee, food.
Once he’d recovered the power of speech, John Houlihan said: “I can do it quicker, but the beauty of this ride was the unknown nature of the challenge – just turn up and do it, no planning, no help. The only forest we had been to before was Ae, so thats the 7stanes visited…”
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