Ultimax Stingers Win Sprint Adventure Race Season Opener

Sunday, 17 September 2006

The first AROC Sprint Adventure Race was held in Umina on the Central Coast in spectacular Spring conditions. The NSW Ultimax Stingers Adventure Racing team of Rob Preston, Ben Rattray and Andrew Hill showed strong early season form to take out the first race of the season.

The race started on Umina Beach with a short 200 metre run before paddling out to Pearl Beach. The Stingers team hit the lead early entering first into the water and opening up a 30 second lead at the first transition. The following leg consisted of a short run through the nearby bush and tracks and after being passed at the first checkpoint the Stingers team then started to pull out of site of the rest of the field. The following leg consisted of an uphill mountain bike stage to Transition 3. Lead navigator Preston then made some quick bike adjustments and handed the map over to team mates whilst directing the team to follow the downhill track. This turned out to be the wrong track and the team lost 15 minutes after deciding to turn back and cut their losses.

By Transition 4 the Stingers team was back in 3rd place about 5 minutes behind as they hit the water for the next kayak leg. The leading teams made a slight directional error and the Stingers team quickly bridged the gap and later hit the lead during the coasteering leg.

After another kayak leg through the shallow waters of a river and a short run leg the team was first through to start the bonus leg, where the top 20 teams endure yet another long paddle through the rough waters out to Broken Bay for a steep run leg and paddle back to Patonga.

By this stage the Stingers had opened up a sizable lead and were strong during the last uphill run leg to the last transition area and onto the bikes for a long ride through the sandy bush tracks. The leg consisted of carrying the bikes through the bush to the top of a ridgeline and traversing the bare rocks along the ridge whilst on the bikes. The final section of the bike leg was through the back streets of Umina and finished with a ride along the sandy beach and up to the finish. The Stingers finished in 3 hours 52 minutes closely followed by Team Terra X 5 minutes behind.

The Ultimax Stingers early season form is a good sign for the long summer season ahead. Rob Preston will aim to become the NSW Stingers first World Champion running in the World Rogaining Championships in Coonabarabran in a few weeks time whilst on the same day Ben Rattray and Andrew Hill race off in Chicago, USA in the City Chase Adventure Race World Final.

Results can be found here 

A GPS overlay of our course using Google earth can be found here: AROCSept2006.kml

Andy Hill

 
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