Series Hots Up On Cold Dales

9 FEB2011

Round 3 of the Mountain Hardwear Open5 Series saw competitors head for the Northern Dales on Saturday and a tough contest in testing conditions. Five hours of fell running and mountain biking saw individual and paired teams choosing the best routes to collect as many checkpoints as possible, scoring as high a score as they could in the time limit. How far they rode or ran was entirely up to them.

Team Accelerate dominated in the mixed pairs with Jo Halliday and Eddie Winslow in first place and Julia Baron and Dave Spence in third. Chris Hope/Andy Wrigley of Keswick Bikes gathered most points in the male pairs, followed by Team Accelerate's Matt and Dan Halliday. Jill Eccleston and Sharon McDonald (Castlebergoutdoors.co.uk) took first place in the women's pairs.

In the singles Rosemary Byde (Edinburgh RC) finished ahead of Lucy Harris (Team Accelerate) while Team Inov8's Kim Collison was top man.

Eddie Winslow of Team Accelerate was quietly pleased with his team's performance on the day, despite the conditions. He highlighted a successful day for the Halliday family with Jo teaming up with Eddie in the mixed pairs, finishing first by a clear points margin.

Eddie told northernrunningguide.com: "Jo is learning fast about the tactics involved in adventure racing after her introduction to the sport last year as a female soloist. Also racing in the mixed pairs were third placed Julia Baron and Dave Spence who found the conditions a sharp contrast to the heat of Abu Dhabi. Completing Team Accelerate's success were the Halliday brothers, Dan and Matt in the male pairs. This was Matt's first ever adventure race and he clearly had a lot fun as he and Dan finished second.