 After the adventures of the first night’s challenge, the 32 teams were up bright and early for the long and winding transfer to Achray Forest, the backdrop for the second stage – a 2 hour 30 minute set time, physical and strategic biking challenge.
Teams were tasked with flying to 14 destinations (some worth more bonus points than others) based on BG countries of operation. Firstly the teams had to visit ticket points to collect varying amounts of flight time which would determine how long they had to visit as many destination points as possible per trip. So as not to receive time penalties, teams had to ensure they returned to the Terminal area together before their flight time expired and be aware that destination points were closed at certain times during the stage!
The sun came out from behind the clouds as the starting gun fired and the team captains sprinted off to collect their information envelopes and then huddled with their teams to deliberate their individual strategies. Having already taken some key learning’s from the first stage, the teams took longer to plan this stage to ensure they used their time out on the course efficiently, with Team 8 from BG Group taking as long as 25 minutes before heading off to the ticket points.
It was a survival of the fittest in this testing physical stage as teams had to cycle over miles of undulating forest tracks to the destination points. Two members of the team from Amec Natural Resources faced particular difficulty running into mechanical problems en route to one of their first destination points, meaning they lost time receiving technical assistance.
The steep terrain played a huge part in slowing participants down with some having to push their bikes whilst others including Team 9 of BG Group demonstrated impressive team work by implementing a buddy system to pull the weaker team members up the hills.
By the end of the stage, the majority of teams had visited an average of 9 destinations, with Team 30 and 17, Advantica Ltd and Western Geco achieving an extremely impressive 14 destination points each.
Alan Ruff of BG Group Team 2 said:
“It was wet, muddy, hilly and slippery but everyone pulled together, worked well and we all enjoyed every single minute of it. Ultimately the outcome is not about the final positions but how much money we’ve raised along the way and that’s what we think about to get us through stages as tough as this.”
With renewed energy the teams headed back to Stirling University to eagerly await the next challenge.
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