All members have chipped in over the last few weeks making the job of picking out the highlights even harder! Here are a selection of the performances:

Rob Hope – 2008 British Fell Running Champion for the 2nd year running
Rob Jebb – English Champion, 2nd at Ben Nevis
Angela Mudge – British Champion and winner at Ben Nevis
Natalie White – English Champion and 2nd in British Championship, recent winner at Dufton
Tom Owens and Andy Symonds finished 2nd in the Trans Rockies run in Colorado last week – a fantastic result considering the race was all run above 12,000 ft.

Rob Hope will be competing at the 24th World Mountain Trophy race on the 14th of Sept, at Crans Montana, Switzerland. Results and report to follow…

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BTW did we mention the illustrious leader of the Team,

Tim “Ive not lost it!” Lloyd

Who also won a gold medal in the recent slalom ski race at the World Fire-Fighter games???

(need some photos to prove it though Tim – Ed)

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The last two days were particularly tough with two back-to-back three hour runs but Andy and Tom held their second place to finish just behind the race favourites Nike/Rogue Valley Runners when they crossed the finishing line at Beaver Creek.

By Steve

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After six tough days of running through the Rocky Mountains Tom and I completed the final 21 mile circuit (4,600ft climbing) from Vail to Beaver Creek yesterday, finishing the stage in second and securing second place overall.

The final day was particularly tough as it was the first time we’d done 3-hour runs back to back (the earlier stages were interspersed with shorter races). The whole field seemed to be feeling the consequences of that aswell as the 9-mile descent on dirt road from the previous day (a serious quad basher) as the pace was quite cruisy out of Vail. We soon reached the bottom of the first climb and followed the leading team of Eric Skaggs and Max King (Nike/Rogue Valley Runners). Unfortunately my achilles tendon, which had been nagging since day three, finally yielded and it was all I could do to walk and let Tom attempt to drag me up the hill with a windproof tied up to his bum-bag to form a makeshift tow system – cheers Tom! After Ibropufen was found at the first drinks station the pain subsided slighlty and we were able to regain some momentum, get back up into 2nd place and finish the stage in that position.

A couple of monsterous breakfast burritos and we’re ready to make the journey back across the Atlantic.

Andy

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Saab Salomon athletes have taken 2 silver medals at the World Mountain Running Long Course championships in Yorkshire at the end of April.

Team newcomer Tom Owens was the big shock of the weekend as he stormed his way through the field to finish a fantastic second, narrowly beaten by only 30 seconds over the three hour race. Saab Salomon also took the silver in the womens race as Angela Mudge proved once again her status in the running world.

Saab Salomon athletes also took 4th (Rob Jebb) and 5th (Rob Hope) place making them far and away the most successful team.

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New team member, the 2006 British Fell Running Champion Natalie White took victory at the English Championship ‘Paddy’s Pole’ in Lancashire, while further North Ben Bardsley and Angela Mudge took the honours at the Lakeland Classic ‘The Anniversary Waltz’, Angela was an amazing 4 minutes inside her own race record.

The Team has a very busy schedule again for 2007 with numerous athletes competing all over the globe in running and Adventure Races including the Buff Skyrunner series and the newly-launched Saab Salomon x Adventure Championship.

By Steve

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This time last week I was basking in the sunshine of Finland, knowing I had a rest day ahead of me, and that I had just produced a really strong clean ride in the Middle Distance Final. The MTBO World Championships take place every year, and this year, the 4th Annual event was in Finland. Finland is renowned for its foot orienteering skills, but is also one of the leading countries in the bike discipline too.

I arrived in Finland a few days before the races to get some training in and to get used to the terrain and map style, however my bike didn’t want to come, and had to be coaxed from Helsinki to some and join me 2 days later. The week began with the Long Distance Qualifier. I had been unlucky and was drawn as number 3, meaning I was first off, along with 2 others, there were 3 heats and people started at 2 minute intervals. I had a problem with my wheel early on, with it dropping out and jamming the brakes, I thought it was just the brakes, so adjusted them, wheel still wouldn’t move, then realised the problem, but had to re adjust the brakes again!! I then made one really bad error, costing me about 7 minutes, I just got confused in some undergrowth, as I was first start no one had been there, so I was trail blazing!! I did however manage to qualify for the final, scraping in, in 19th position, as a few people were disqualified for going through an out of bounds area.

The Middle distance I felt would always be my strongest race, knowing I can be pretty fast, but I had an early start again, so I had to ride very sensibly, so as to have a clean race. I rode strongly and made no mistakes, just a few bad route choice errors, which cost me a few minutes. I finished in 29th place, so was really pleased to get into the top 30, and be the top British Rider.

The Long final was a tough race, it was hot and the course had been over planned, winning time should have been 105mins, but turned out to be about 125mins. I made some bad route choices at the start, and then I settled into a rhythm, racing with the Latvian who had started 3 minutes after me. I was always trying to get away, but whenever we did different routes we ended up at the control together. I finished in a time pf 2hrs 24mins, about 20mins off the lead pace, and 40 seconds behind the John Houlihan racing for Ireland. I was pretty happy with this, but know that my first few routes were not great, and I could have made it into the top 20, but the race was good experience for next year.

The relay was the next race, and after a shaky start I managed to pull back up the field to finish in 12th place on 1st leg, and the team finally placed as 10th nation in 13th place, a great result for us.

The whole week was great, and my Orange E8 was fantastic, I had no major mechanicals, and it coped with the dusty sandy rocky conditions very well. I look forward to the World Champs next year in the Czech Republic.

By Bruce

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Phil re-joined us for this stage; we were all a bit loaded up with climbing gear for the abseil and climb, as well as carrying full platypus’s. It was mercilessly hot by now being near midday, but we were making a good fist of it. We caught Lafuma, followed by the leading team Spyder, but there was a long way to go. Too long or me, as I had drunk most of my water after a couple of hours, and was already feeling ‘dry’. Chris was suffering in the terrific heat-the odd patch in the dunes was unbearable, and the pace was dropping. We ran with the Spyder boys for much of this stage as far as the ropes section, Phil was supporting me as I ailed and moaned under the duress of dehydration and cramp. I lost count of how many rucksacks Phil was carrying at one point. He was operating like a tug, pulling floundering hulks off the sandbanks.

Eventually we reached the ropes-there was some water here, but we rushed on into the abseil, when at the time-out we could have had water and a breather. I was slow down the cliffs, they looked bloody enormous to me, and then climbed up the other side like a crippled spider wheezing and blowing. Nonetheless, we got off from there, and the going was good for a few km, before the fatigue began to bite. Eventually we made it to the end of the stage mainly due to Phil’s belligerence, my stiff upper lip having long since become a husk. In the scheme of things we had lost a little time to team Spyder on the ropes, but the fast Kiwi team Go Lite had taken at least 10 minutes out of us on the run, and moved into 2nd place with a very good performance. I was never so pleased to see John’s bearded mug at the end of the stage, where, as usual, the food and drink was all laid out ready.

After some much-needed rest, Jackie, Chris and Phil set of for the 90km bike, whilst I was fortunate to be able to try and assuage the cramp, and recuperate. The highlight of the bike ride seemed to be the large orb spiders seen on the tracks in the dark. The tracks themselves were a mixture of fast trails with sand traps that stopped you dead, or wicked corrugated sections that shook the life out of the nethers. Jackie came into some awesome form, and was peddling through sand when Phil and Chris were falling off looking for spiders. The team did well finishing about 11.00pm, and we were still in 3rd place after the bike with a new day in front of us. I ate lots of warm pizza; it was unfortunately cold when those guys arrived.

Day 2

Phil, Jackie and me set off down the Blackwood River at 6.15am for a 2 hour canoe. Some rogue Aussie’s came steaming past with a huge guy in the back, he was almost powering the canoe single-handed. Once again Phil kept us going straight, but the leaders were out of sight, and we were unsure how we had done compared to the lead teams. This would have been a very pleasant recreational paddle, sadly it was a race. The mist was rising off the water in the early morning sun, parakeets flew across the woodland edge, and it was probably worth having a line out the back for the big one. Keeping my mind on the monotony of the task was the biggest problem.

The second day run was 24km, but an 8km stretch of it looked like it went straight up the beach. And of course it was now bloody hot again, couldn’t we have done this first? We set off well with Jackie sitting this one out, and hoping to make time on the lead teams under the illusion that we were good runners. Whilst we soon caught GoLite, they then found an extra gear from pure fear, while we again started to languish in the increasing heat. Phil was towing again, and that soft, deep sand was again sapping our strength. We resorted to running in the surf edge to try and get some hard ground. This had mixed results, sometimes proving to be the right choice, and at other times we were wading through porridge.

The end was approaching, and suddenly Lafuma went past us. They had had an amazing leg, and ended up taking some 6 minutes from us. The time gap between us and them in 4th was now alarmingly tight, and with 2 bike legs to come, we were up against it to hold 3rd place. This was compounded by Chris requiring the attentions of an attractive medic at the end of the stage, he looked fine to me.

Two bike legs remaining, the gap between Lafuma and us was down to 6 minutes or so. We had already seen that they were horribly good on the bikes, and pulled all the stops out. Jackie was again making us look like amateurs as she waltzed through the deep sand, particularly annoying when I was eating sand at one point following a ‘stopper’. Chris was back in action for the final fling, and drove the pace throughout the leg, the last few km being on the road into Margaret River. We knew Lafuma would be on our tails, and so it proved. We had barely got our breath back from the frantic ride to the finish when they too were in. Had we done enough? Despite breaking a chain on the first mountain bike leg, we thought they had clinched it with some outstanding riding.

It was a huge relief to finish; I was knackered, and desperate to get out of the heat for the first time in 2 days. Thanks to John and Andrew had kept us all going through the well-organised transitions, as usual getting less rest than we did.

Rumours were circulating that on the website we were 3rd, although our own calculations were implying we had lost out to come 4th. At the presentation we waited for the official results, and were relieved and delighted to come 3rd. Beers were on the agenda back at the bungalow, and the winners team Spyder came over for a barbie. However, the night didn’t last long, as everyone was exhausted and turned in despite the best intentions of consuming the enormous pile of remaining food.

The nest morning it was back up to Perth, and there was little time before we were back on the aircraft. Again the Aussie’s greatly helped us out by taking back the hired truck, and getting us to the airport. Thanks guys, great trip.

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Raid Series

Getting off the plane in Perth on Wednesday 15th March, the 35° heat struck us initially as a welcome relief from the falling snow back home in Blighty. The relief was short-lived, as the awful realisation dawned that we would have to run in this furnace within a few days. Naturally we were all well rested from the flight over, and full up with anti-oxidants after consuming Chris’s huge bag of fruit on the plane. There was no nagging fear that the combination of terrific heat and askew body clock might affect peak performance when the race kicked off in Margaret River on Saturday.

We had loaded up with food, in fact we had so much food that there was scant room left in the truck for us, and there might have been a touch of ‘over ambition’ in the shopping. The Aussie connection had done well, and booked us a great bungalow near the start of the race north of Margaret River. Although rumour had it that the long grass was full of vicious spiders, we saw none, and were only troubled by the tame kangaroo complete with joey. There is nothing cute about a kangaroo, they are like enormous rats, but more troublesome.

As usual, after receiving the maps on Friday evening, a hectic session of route planning followed. We finally got to be about midnight for a few hours sleep before the main event.

Day 1

The race kicked off at 6.30 on the beach, with a breeze blowing more or less south behind the boats. Unfortunately the day looked immediately like being a roaster. Although we had considered setting the sail up at the front of the canoe, we decided that the wind was not sufficient to merit the trouble. This was mistake number 1, as several teams, and in particular Lafuma, raced past us with the sails giving them a significant advantage over the first leg. However, we came in strongly under elbow power alone, with Phil doing the tricky job of keeping the canoe head on in the swell. On the second canoeing leg we got the sail up pronto, Jackie managing the awkward ropes like a veteran of the oceans.

By Simon Stainer

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Tom has led throughout the series and this last win at Exmoor puts not only as this year’s champion but still in the lead in the all-time career table.

For full results see www.aceraces.com

By Steve

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