Team No Detour iAdventure Sprint Race Report

8/12/2019 Team No Detour iAdventure Sprint Race Report

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iAdventure Sprint race report – by Pierre Francois, Team No Detour 23.

February 23rd

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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

moneytrave!time spent etc" it is a very c!ose event and we!! p!aced in the ca!endar. #n top of that Ion!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 ofthe 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 .

Checkpoint 9 was down there

It is the end of easy mi/ of roadfiretrai! 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 findcheckpoint 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 reuired 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. Noneof us have tried it in the past and we are e/cited to give it a go. 5ut what is the best techniue> swim

wa!k 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 oin t!e %un $it! us, %ee) %ree to send me a messa'e. (e are nice 'uys

and team motto $i)) be /n 'uts $e trust $it! aim to %inis! in 'ood position

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Team No Detour iAdventure Sprint Race Report

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