Budding Racers

Well its pretty cold up here – it was even bleaker last weekend with 6” of snow falling on Open5 competitors at Hamsterley Forest.  News of more Open5 events and the Open24 to follow, so read on.

July 29/30th :: Yorkshire Dales

Even those in the know are drawing breath over the Open24 this year, we have some real corkers for special stages in store as well as providing the usual platter of excellent mountain biking and running.

For those of you who have taken five minutes to look at the website will have noticed that the deadline for a discounted entry is March 31st, best find that pen and get your entry in the post.

The Open24 entry form is available here :: more details on the event will be posted sometime in April.

Hamsterley Forest bared its teeth last weekend complimented with a heavy flurry of snow, we had a little fluster as the forestry commission ummed and arrhed over whether to close the road to the car park.  It was with great relief that they kept it open.  The snow seem to make the event, as one competitor at the transition remarked “I’ve fell off twice, and slipped over a dozen times – its FANTASTIC!” you have to say it does take a particular type of person to still be smiling after such an event, most of them in the north of England were there!!

A more detailed race report was kindly compiled by Phil Scarf from Team Compasspoint, you can find it on Sleepmonsters.co.uk here.  Likewise James Kirby and Scott Watson were out in force capturing the day on camera – James’s photos are up on Sleepmonsters and Scott’s should also be up soon.  Find their photos here.

Broughton in Furness on the 14th May is the next event some 8 weeks away.  If we compare the number of entries we have so far, with 8 weeks to go, we already have twice as many entries.  It’s our back garden so we know it well, as ever expect the unexpected.  More details on the Open5 series here

Series Ranking sometime next week we will put up series rankings following the first two events – remember if you want to be ranked for the series you only have to turn up to three events out of the five this year.  Total Adventure is behind the series prizes which as ever with Open Adventure will certainly put a smile to your face.  They are in the business of MTBing, Kayaking and Training … and having competed in Adventure Racing at the top level, these guys certainly will serve any series winners well.

Please note it would be most helpful if you are entering the series as a pair to keep competitor1 the same person.

Free maps

We have recently put an offer together on the “New to Open5 events” page [click here] offering free maps and course descriptions from a previous event to anybody who is thinking of competing in an Open5 event.  The thinking is that it will give any budding racer a chance to get their head around the event format before the day.  To obtain a free map you have to send an A4 stamped addressed envelope with details of which event map you would like.  The maps are subject to availability as they are a result of the overprinting we do for entries on the day.  The offer is not available for existing competitors and excludes the Swaledale event from 2005.

Open Adventure 2007

The idea for the Hebden Bridge event earlier this year came from Adventure Racer Mick Kenyon who followed up on a request for ideas for new venues.  We are already planning 2007 so if you have any ideas for locations, event formats, or people you think Open Adventure should talk to give us a bell – we would love to hear about them.

We still have a stack of leaflets and posters so if you know of people who would benefit in knowing about us or a place that needs some new wallpaper give us a bell and we will do our best to oblige.

Catch some fresh air this weekend and have a good day.

No worries
James Thurlow