Cyclepath Adventure Racing

I had a notion that Aussies had a crazy tendency, but I didn’t know they’d plant an orienteering course in an abandoned mental asylum.

Sydney Orienteering

Jan 15, Callan park. Starting times are between 5:00 pm to 7:00 pm. It’s 35° C. Or somewhere near there. It’s HOT.

Primary goal is to pick up a southern hemisphere compass so I can brag at orienteering events at home that I raced ‘down under’. No such luck. These guys wouldn’t take my money, and wouldn’t sell a compass. I was expecting a sort of BAOC type of fair with wizened, profiteering dude hawking nylon pants. No such thing at Callan park. All navigation was done by landmarks and map reading. God help me.

Darcy and Amelia decided to take their late afternoon and play in the park watching the various fitness-minded Australians do their thing. Wow. Lot of fit people in Sydney.

I register and sign in. I mention my origin and looked for place to enter my club name (BAOC!!!) but didn’t see the place to enter it (and didn’t ask). Looking at the results it appears that there was a means to enter in the name… Ah well.

Very good course. FAST people with good aim. I came in somewhere near the middle. I was proud of my time too… Dang it.

So no compass. No physical proof that I was there except for the map. Neat place to race. The grounds are a historic part of Sydney and the 1800 architecture was cool to look at.

One thing I couldn’t find anywhere in Sydney (not that I was looking very hard) was an Outback steakhouse. Go figure. Apparently Australians just don’t know good australian food.

Team Cyclepath was in full effect at the Tahoe Big Blue 12hr AR this year. Karl and I raced the event while Cynthia was the volunteer-on-the-spot at a remote transition checkpoint. Karl and I placed 7th overall (out of 44 teams) and 3rd in our division! We ran a hard strong race and proved Team Cyclepath’s ability to paddle, bike, and navigate with determination. We made a couple of mistakes but recovered from them well and raced hard to the finish.

Also, it was great to see other friendly faces such as Dogs in Space, John Turner, Bullmoose Extreme, Mike Chastaine, Jason Sala, Diet Coke Bob, and others.

Race report coming soon (if we don’t soon get caught up in this Moab madness) but for now there are a few pictures courtesy of the Big Blue Adventure Series:

Karl and Randy at the Finish Line in King’s Beach, CA

Karl and Randy looking a bit too dirty post-race.

Randy, Todd Jackson (director of the event), and Karl post-race.
*Note* Yes, we are wearing Shooting Stars garb to a Big Blue event. This just means we’ll have to wear our new BB t-shirts to an SVS event.

This may very well have been our best race to date. One would not get that impression looking at our race results alone. We managed to put several obstacles in front of us just to add to the difficulty of the course. By the end of the day we were quite pleased with finishing.

A shameless plug…Go Cyclepath!

This was the largest race in regards to team participation we have been part of this year. Over 50 teams were entered and the weather was typical SF, cool and moist. We arrived before dawn and started setting up our Transition area. The maps were handed out at 7:30 followed by a race briefing  We surprised and happy to run into Jacob and Angie from “Its better with a chick”.  They made the trip up from Southern California to take in this inaugural event. 

Team Captains milling about for the team briefing.

The race started a little past 7:30 with a kayak leg around Alcatraz. Some teams went to the South side of the island and others (us included) the North. The Northern route group appeared to us; to gain both time and space on the Southern group. We were either the second or third team to round the buoy on the East side of island, and were passed by two teams on the way to CP 3. We took a slight detour into aquatic park on the way back (don’t ask) but it seemed like a good idea at the time. We were the fifth team off the water and were totally stoked! Not a position we are used to.

Kayaks on Parade

A fast transition had us on our way across the Golden Gate to the Marin headlands. In order to keep the speed down and protect tourists, each team needed to take 25 minutes for the crossing or they would be held up on the other side (CP 5). Upon arrival we saw teams plotting their courses for the mountain bike leg. We asked where the instructions were and at this point discovered they were back at the transition area … humm, wonder how that happened? We could have gone back but figured what the heck, we’ll beg, borrow, barter and when all else fails follow!

Brian of Dirty Avocados planning his race strategy

As we were riding up Conzelman road we were passed by Brian of the Dirty Avocados who was racing solo. We spoke for a bit prior to him dusting us in the fog. We hung a right on McCullough Rd and coasted down Bunker Road most of the way to CP6. A short climb and we ran into several racers leaving CP 6. We followed the crowed to CPs 7 & 8. Now all of this was familiar territory thanks to the Brawl. A 4-person team passed us on the downhill portion of the road just prior to the Miwok trailhead. We dropped further back and exited stage left as they kept going down the highway.

This victory regardless of how sweet was short lived. Those who know us; know that uphill mountain biking, well uphill anything is not our strength. The same team caught and passed us about 10 minutes later as we were nearing the top of the ridge.  A short traverse was follow by a drop into the Tennessee Valley, (CP 9) teams then headed down to CP 10, which was at the congruence of two trails. A short backtrack and then climb to the top of the ridge. I was scratching my head confirming our route choice when Bull Moose Extreme caught us. We worked some navigation and traveled together until CP 11. As we were nearing CP 11 we fell a bit behind Bull Moose Extreme having stopped to chat with John (John Jacoby admired my bike) Turner.

Mark and Lynn of Bullmoose

CP 11 was craftily hidden slightly off trail. As we were recording the word from the orienteering flag on our passport, several teams seemed to come out of the wood work. There must have been 10 teams mumbling about plotting CP 12. We started back up the ridge as some of the teams began to pass us. Hum, OK…ALL the teams passed us.

CP 12 was located on top of the highest summit, which was the beginning of what we believed was the most fun part of the course. A couple of miles of fire road and double track downhill, with a set of nice tight hairpins on the double track. These trails eventually ended back at the Tennessee Valley and CP 13. We did our check in, and helped a racer in need.

CP 14 was located on the costal trail between Bunker and Conzelman roads. A quick jaunt and downhill to the golden gate returned us to CP 15 in short order. We popped back over the bridge (I said that kind of nonchalantly, didn’t I?) The Golden Gate is one of the most wonderful crossings I’ve ever experienced. To, run, bike or walk it is something to behold. There is a magic to that place.

Big sigh, all in all, our entire race was ok to this point. We were still in the top half of the field and feeling pretty fresh. We did our check out and were told the instructions to CP 17 were on the board. The directions indicated we were supposed to go to 610 Mason Street to get further instructions. Seems odd, but what the heck, during Ocean Blue we were doing an urban thing in downtown Half Moon Bay. The map on the board has Old Mason Street in front of us and Mason Street down town. So we took off to Mason Street.

As we were on the 600 block and working our way down the hill to 610, after having our pictures taken by tourists on the cable cars (I was towing Cyn) a lady helpfully told us it wasn’t here. “What do you” mean I said. “The address you are looking for is not here”. Apparently several teams had come this way only to find disappointment and heartbreak.

So, we worked our back to the transition area and tried to figure out what happened. Cyn then said “THE SPORTS BASEMENT DUHH!” Ugh, there was truth in those words; they were/are a race sponsor after all. Upon arrival (at the Sport’s Basement) it was obvious this was the place. We picked up our packets; said hello to the other adventure racers. Sat down and plotted the coordinates with the Basic Roamer AR tool from ARNavSupplies.com very quickly. Compared notes with the team next door and started off on the trek; looking for cannon balls and stable history. Most of our energy both physically and emotionally was pretty much spent at this point. We kind of muddled through this section and staggered to the finish line after nearly 11 hours.

This was one of those races that graced us with a dose of humility. Some lessons we thought learned, came back to bite us when our guards were down. One of the many things we love about this sport.  We were pleasantly surprised to find our luck had changed once we crossed the finish.  A quick peak at the raffle list had us both leaving with additional swag.  It looked like everyone who raced won something.  Our friends at http://cyclepath.com/ heartily support our AR habit and thoroughly enjoy our trials and tribultions while competing.  They are very AR friendy and welcome all racers.

Posing for the camera

Enjoy the journey,

- Karl and Cynthia Royer

 

Race: Shooting Star Adventure Series SVS #2 - Del Valle

Date: August 5th, 2006

Site: SVS #2 - external link

Racers: Karl and Cynthia Royer, Randy Franklin, Brandon Nugent

Rating: 3.5 Wheels

Location: Del Valle Reservoir, Livermore, CA

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Nugent’s Version:
It began like a lot of last minute ideas begin, last minute. Like that week.

An instant message from Karl was all it took.

“Hmmm…”, pause for 5 seconds.

“Let’s do it.” Done.

So I was in Oregon for work that first part of the week, and almost didn’t make it home from the airport due to a ruptured radiator on my Jeep.
The Jeep was going to be the thing that got me to the race. How crappy would that have been to have the radiator blow on the way to the race?!
So Randy offerred to drive from Reno to Campbell, to sleep on our floor, so he could drive my butt and gear over to Del Valle. Turns out our carpet made his ear swell up. I am a terrible host. Word of warning.

We get to the race and proceed to get our gear and everyone all over to the start/finish TA a mile east of the boat ramp. Race director Mike has Rube-goldberg’d a method of getting all the kayaks dropped off at the ramp over to the TA. It was impressive.

Set up the TA, discuss our race strategy, and look over the maps. Randy and I both grabbed a park map with the trails (Karl and Cynthia knew the area so we were doubly prepared).

We transposed check points onto the park map and double checked our work. It’s one thing to transpose what you think should go where. It’s another to be right about it.

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