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| | | Posted 17. Nov, 2009 | | Thoughts on ARWC 2009 from Helly Hansen - Prunesco (World Champions) |
Hello to you all and thanks for the tremendous support from the UK. We really feel like the whole country (well AR community) are sharing in the victory. You never know we might knock a football story of the news for 5 seconds.
Having read some of the musing from Ifor, John, Gary etal I thought I'd try to explain some of the decisions that we made on the course.
1) At the start a lot of teams thought the course was clearable, if it was then you couldn't afford it miss out any early controls or bonuses. We aimed to clear the first few sections. The harder to get Bonus on the first long bike was the only one we debated and were very close to ditching - in hindsight we should have (along with the bonus on the Prologue)
2) We missed the bonus on the 2nd bike by mistake - nav error by myself that we didn't realise until near the bottom of the hill.
3) We had to make sure we were inside the cut off on the 1st long paddle. We decided to ditch 1 CP and 1 BP to get in in time. This turned out to be a good call.
4) The transition at the end of this paddle was our key moment. We set out the maps to see the next 2 legs (650km trek, 160km bike) and we knew we couldn't do it all before the cut off. The run was very linear so that only left the bike as having opportunity. We worked out we could cut 3 Cp's and 80 km off the route with an easy 35km ride on road. A quick look at a road atlas showed us the key town name we had to head too. No other team did this in transition and I think it is where our victory charge started.
5) We made a great call to avoid the short paddle and Jumar choosing instead to hike up the road to the next CP. This saved us hours.
6) We overslept in our next sleep getting 4 hours instea dof 2 - this was the best thing that could of happened to us. We were on fire after that running past Nike, Orion, Lundhags etc and putting 2.5 hrs on NIke by the end of the 60km trek.
7) We were now well infront of cut off's and able to take charge of our race an put pressure on Nike. On the next paddle we pulled back 1 Cp (and probably should of got the other one as well) and got the BP as well. We did the latter so that if we could draw level on CP's with Nike we could hopefully pull of a win on BP's.
8) We kept hearing that Nike were going to miss cut=offs, then the next thing they had just made it, it was very hard going from thinking you could win to being back in 2nd place.
9) We got to the last longish trek 2hrs before cut-off and had a cut off of 6pm to do the last CP, we were outside this so settled for 3 CP's. At the time we assumed that Nike were doing similar and we had pretty much accepted 2nd place. Though we had a feeling that the race wasn't completely over.
10) Arriving at the last long bike to find out what Nike had done was amazing. We needed to know exactly where we stood before leaving the transition. As we left in the knowledge we had a 2 or 3 lead from Nike and Lundhags I felt very mentally tired and suggested we go back and get an hour's kip to make sure we would make no error's to the finish. Michael from Team Explore told us "You cannot sleep. You are leading the World Championship !". That was exactly why we slept.
11) We decided to drop the last bike CP. It wasn't hard, it was just that we had no idea how long the last stage would take us and we couldn't afford to be late over the line and miss both CP's.
12) Up until a 200m to the finish we still didn't know if we were truly in the lead as no one would say definitively that we were.
and finally
Yes the boys did cry on the finish line. I have be AR'ing for 12 years, and have always wanted to win a big, big race. After the disappointments of Sweden and Scotland I thought I would never again have a chance of winning the title. This has been a dream come true and probably the most demanding week of my life. I still cannot believe that we have won, beating so many good strong teams in the process. I think I know now what Olympians feel when they win Gold. | | |  Tom Gibbs
Somerset
UK | | | | Posted 17. Nov, 2009 | | Thanks for the summery |
Well done and also thanks for the entertainment. Don't know what to do with myself this week. | | |  Ifor Powell
Avon
UK | | | | Posted 17. Nov, 2009 | | I do |
No probs Ifor, easy choice for me this week
Eat, Sleep and Polish my trophy ;-]
| | | Tom Gibbs
Somerset
UK | | | | Posted 17. Nov, 2009 | | Great stuff |
Great stuff, fantastic performance, eat & sleep well. | | |  barry french
Berkshire
UK | | | | Posted 17. Nov, 2009 | | Wow! What a result ..... |
Amazing result chaps - thoroughly well done.
What's your secret? nuun perhaps? :)
Thanks to Ifor and the like for making things a bit easier to follow than the official site as well. | | | 
| | | | Posted 17. Nov, 2009 | | Polishing?? |
Tom,
But surely you'll be too busy for much polishing with all those interviews, photo shoots, sponsorship offers etc ;)
Can't wait for the open top bus to the AR Ball! | | |  russell ladkin
Cambridgeshire
UK | | | | Posted 17. Nov, 2009 | | Well Done Tom |
No secret to your success, other than hard work, skill, determination and experience. And very well deserved.
Joe | | |  Joe Faulkner
Cumbria
UK | | | | Posted 17. Nov, 2009 | | You did us proud |
A very public congratulations Tom, Nic, Nick, Warren, James and Nicola... a well deserved victory. Be proud - very, very proud! Look forward to hearing all about it!
Phil | | |  Phil Humphreys
Shropshire
UK | | | | Posted 18. Nov, 2009 | | Awesome result! Well done! |
Fantastic racing guys, huge congratulations to you all and thanks for keeping us all entertained along with the other british teams last week. Thought of everyone racing every night and felt very guilty thinking how you would all still be racing hard through the night while I was sleeping!Well done, I'm sure you'll enjoy polishing those trophies, sleeping and eating for england for a long time! Julia | | |  Julia Baron
Yorkshire
UK | | | | Posted 19. Nov, 2009 | | it was the prunes.... |
thanks all for your awesome support. we were touched to know everyone back in the uk was as excited as we were.
nice to race hard without mistakes with 3 driven boys! I still remember Nick and Warren visiting Glasgow about 7 years ago and saying we want to win the world champs- how's about it? Looks like we found our time!
Big well done to Cruachan who finished strong, Accelerate (guaranteed a big smile from Adam, Caz and the boys) and ASM (Gary for helping drag our boat up a dam infront of nike!).
BIG thanks to Nic W and James, the best support crew in the world, who really set the conditions for us to do well. without their strategic thinking, map work and admin we would have been well off the podium.
... now back to work. | | |  Nicola MacLeod
Midlothian
UK | | | | Posted 22. Nov, 2009 | | Pleasure was all mine |
No problem Nic. Anything to help Tom and the team. Watch out Bimbache next year. | | |  Gary Davies
Glamorgan
UK | | | | Posted 23. Nov, 2009 | | James report |
Just read James report and the last bit nearly got me blubbing again.... it really was a special moment and I am so glad that I have known and competed against these guys over the past 10 years and seen their rise to glory.
Every time I recall the finish line I feel very emotional... it was fabulous .. no doubt I will be getting the hankies out on the 27th december.. was good chatting in the van after I joined james and Nic remembering some of the old times like Brian Elliots BARC etc etc and when the guys were Team Thomas Cook.... to keep them awake in last last crucial day.. it was wicked !!! | | | Gill Watson
Derbyshire
UK | | | | Posted 23. Nov, 2009 | | Warren's words |
Well I've just read Warren's report, and as always he certainly has a way with words. As somebody who used to do battle with you guys (ISTR we used to beat you when you were Team Thomas Cook - though I suppose that was racing with one of your current team!) it's really nice to read a report like that which makes you feel like you were there. Congratulations again, and I look forward to hearing more tales when I get too see you all again. | | |  Chris McSweeny
Worcestershire
UK | | | | Posted 27. Nov, 2009 | | Some further discussion on ARWC format |
There is an ongoing (long) discussion on the ARWC format on Attackpoint which may be of interest for people here perhaps?
It seems the confusion and miunderstandings were fairly widespread.
http://www.ar.attackpoint.org/discussionthread.jsp/message_348225 | | |  Fiona McBryde
New Zealand
Other | | | | Posted 30. Nov, 2009 | | The Joys of Exped Racing... |
Despite a distinct lack of a UK response to this thread there is some interesting stuff there, but it always amazes me that people expect perfect media reporting from mountainous areas. Even the OMM couldn't manage that at it was a primary objective this year!
However, confusion within a race for competitors is not at all acceptable.
So,
Score v. Linear?
Bonuses v. Cut-offs?
Support v. Unsupported? - I really feel for the unsupported teams.
Will be interesting to see what James takes away from it for next year's Open100.
| | | Joe Faulkner
Cumbria
UK | | | | Posted 30. Nov, 2009 | | UK response |
Joe,
Tom and I have put our penny's worth in already so there is defo a UK and a NZ response there!
I am already dreading what elements of Portugal may have made their way into James' consciousness!! trikke hell?
n | | | Nicola MacLeod
Midlothian
UK | | | | Posted 30. Nov, 2009 | | Yes - seen them |
Yes, seen yours and Tom's comments, which are very good, balanced and obviously informed. It was a lack general 'domestic UK' response I was referring too .... which, in many ways, is a good thing!
Thanks.
Personally, I'd do The Heb, instead of any Exped race in 2010 of course! | | | Joe Faulkner
Cumbria
UK | | | | Posted 30. Nov, 2009 | | BEAUTIFUL HEBRIDES |
In my Clan homeland. The Heb is on my wishlist... | | | Nicola MacLeod
Midlothian
UK | | | | Posted 30. Nov, 2009 | | I like the sound of XPD |
Despite the criticism by some of the teams and others, I have to say that I really like the sound of the XPD - I'd like to do it. Nothing wrong with a bit of strategy.
And just to give Joe a plug, there isn't a more strategic race than the Heb.
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| | | | Posted 02. Dec, 2009 | | XPD format |
For my penny's worth, I think the format looks really good in principle, but they overcomplicated it.
Removing the distinction between compulsory/bonus checks would make it a whole lot clearer (the distinction seemed very blurred anyway, as people didn't get all the compulsory ones anyway), and having the checks simply numbered 1 to x, so you didn't have to get each full set would also help.
Finally, I would have expected the cut-offs to have far harsher penalties than short-cutting a stage. Usually when you miss a cut you drop below all teams who have made that cut, but here teams that missed one suddenly jumped back into contention when they got to the following stage and could collet a heap of checks.
Even with this format you can still force a linear 'conventional' race by check point positioning - perhaps a combination would work well - a linear course for the first 2/3rds, with checks becoming more spread in the last part to force teams to think more and strategise about timings/route choice.
Kev | | | Kevin Cordina
Hertfordshire
UK | | | | Posted 02. Dec, 2009 | | Format error |
As an observer, I have to say I liked the XPD format, but there's a few things to clear up that are more-or-less translation issues rather than anything else. A lot of teams didn't get their heads round these, so perhaps this will help explain a few things.
1) There are NO compulsory checkpoints. You can miss out as many as you like, the only places which you MUST visit are the transitions.
2) On the race maps, the labelling of the CPs (1a, 1b, 1c, 2a etc) is there to group them. You get one 'point' per cluster. So there's no point collecting 1a and 1c if you're going to miss 1b. These seemed positioned to allow a good cut-through if you skipped, but with points being the number 1 scoring factor, careful consideration was necessary. I'm not sure if the notation was the same on google maps.
3) Bonus checkpoints are labelled as bonus. They're even less compulsory than the normal CPs, they're a tertiary scoring factor (after 'points' and time), and only really applicable if you're pushing for the front.
4) Cutoffs - some cuts were there to re-route/short course people, some were 'skip a section in a vehicle'. They were a little hard to get your head round in ranking terms, but generally a team who were short coursed missed out the CPs for that section, so dropped in the rankings accordingly. They could also only leave the next transition after the first full-course team, so preventing them having masses of extra time to collect for the next section.
On the whole, I think the format was very good, and a lot of the issues the teams had came from not understanding it. Whether that's a fault of communication or simply that people are used to a linear, 'first-across-the-line' format is another debate. But AR isn't just about one set format, variety is the spice of life! | | |  Carrick Armer
West Yorkshire
UK | | | | Posted 02. Dec, 2009 | | Adventure, not formula |
Tom's comment on Attackpoint summed it up fairly well - it's supposed to be ADVENTURE racing, which means you should have new challenges to deal with, not just the same old thing all the time, where you win simply by doing what you've done in a previous race and going fast. Certainly all my most enjoyable races have had an element of this, whether it's down to deliberate course planning or just due to some missing information which you have to work out (Edinburgh Rat Race '06 comes to mind as a good example of the latter!) | | | Chris McSweeny
Worcestershire
UK | | |
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