London Rat Race

Another Rat Race outing in the big smoke: Pete James, Sarah Odell and Tarquin Cooper get 3rd at the London Rat Race


We knew that this was our best Mean Streets yet, and we were happy even before we heard the results. And the key was the team work. Trying to navigate and re-plan simultaneously on the go had led to Pete making too many small mistakes in the past. But with Tarquin taking over bits of street navigation Pete could come up with a better overall route. Sarah has a sharp eye for SI boxes and is a great race tactician after years of racing with some of the top racers in the world: shortcuts, watching other teams, tactics to trim time down. It all helped give us an edge. And we were all running really well, which never hurts if you're using your heads too.

Highlights of the evening? London can’t match somewhere like Bristol for greenery, hard core outdoors on the doorstep and parkland, but on the other hand it’s fun to be racing in one of the biggest cities and the world. I loved sneaking through St Catherines docks in the dusk and not getting dead-ended, hopping in the sit-on tops for a quick paddle in the City Road Basin, chasing around the Barbican (now I know it a bit better, 3rd time around), and just generally watching Tarquin and Sarah making fools of themselves when I ducked out of activities because I was supposed to be looking the map.

Sunday, didn’t go quite so well! The speed limit on the canals led to frustration and silly mistakes cost us – especially the one where we had to turn back and join the rear of a huge mass of riders. It was tricky navigating as neither the route notes nor the map marked up in advance were enough, so it required a hard to manage combination of both. We just weren’t racing as smart as we have, and it showed. It didn’t help that the seals blew on my front forks, turning what should have been some really quite pleasant bits of urban off-road through Epping Forest into a teeth clenching struggle to read the map on the go, but there’s nobody else ot blame for that!

There were plenty of new chunks of London to see with the switch to the North-East. There was a nice little three way checkpoint at Mile End with a climbing wall traverse, kayak and park orienteering. And we got to see one of the most valuable pieces of real estate in London at the Honorable Artillary Company, en route to a nice little abseil and landrover pull. I even had another chance to get to grips with HMS Belfast, and with Sarah’s help we did better this time around.

So in the end we were 3rd mixed team against one of the biggest fields of racers ever assembled worldwide. And there’s more to come – if we can just put together two good days in one go:)

Thanks to Detail Events for a fun weekend, and Inov8 for all their support.