Drumlanrig Root Rats and Drumlanrig Rik’s Bike shed team had plenty to celebrate after the 2009 Hardrock Challenge held at Dalbeattie Forest on 3rd and 4th of October.The Junior event was held on the Saturday, with the weather defying its own forecast by staying dry and gale free. The Drumlanrig team fielded three competitors to run 1.8m followed by a mountain bike stage of 5.2m using the trails and singletrack of the forest. All three boys competed in the 12-15 section where the competition was fierce.
Ally Taylor got off to an excellent start, finishing his run looking comfortable and well up the field, however, mechanical gremlins finished his race for him as his chain snapped on the way out of the changeover pit. Cameron Scott , who was pitting himself against much older (and bigger) boys cruised into the changeover pit and showed the others how to do a slick changeover,. He followed this up with a great ride to finish 2nd in the solo boys category. Luke Ball did the running leg for his team mate, Drumlanrig Root Rat Ryan Hill. The boys put in a great performance and their brilliant effort was rewarded with 11th place in the teams category. Well done to all the boys.
The much trained for and greatly anticipated adult race was held on the Sunday. The weather conditions were near perfect and the 10mile run followed by the 16 mile mountain bike stage attracted the largest field that this event has seen so far.
Best placed Drumlanrig rider was Ewan Clark, securing second place in the Mens Team category with Lewis Harkness from Thornhill who ran a great 10m. Ewan was sporting a natty hairdo under his helmet, as he recently had stitches removed from his head. Next Drumlanrig face past the finish line was rider was Graeme Scott, who powered home in third place in the Solo Men’s category. To state the obvious, solo competitors do both the running leg and the riding stage! Richard Cantillon followed a great run by Gordon Vivers by keeping his head and riding strongly to finish in 8th place in the Male Team section. Sixteen year old Drumlanrig rider , Jack Taylor took everyone, including himself by surprise by finishing 5th in the Solo Mens’ category against seasoned triathletes. Although Jack has lots of cycling and racing experience, he had never before tried a duathlon, and was in new territory with the cycling hard after running hard combination. Not to be outdone by son Jack, Drumlanrig members Jane and Andrew Taylor finished their Hardrock Challenge team effort 10 minutes up on last years time to finish in 9th place in the Mixed Teams section.
Well done to all those who participated, supported and organised this year’s event. It certainly lives up to the slogan, "the friendly duathlon."
No comments:
Post a Comment