While Katie Birch had a clear run to the women’s title, which she confirmed on Saturday with a clean sweep of stage wins, the men’s competition had been blown wide open by leader James Priest’s unfortunate, injury-prompted withdrawal.
Haimes claimed his first-ever stage win on the sixth and penultimate day, which marked the long-awaited return of Le Val des Terres hill climb.
Going into the final stage of this year’s Deloitte-supported event, Haimes led the general classification but with just 24sec. between him, Ben Langlois in second and Andrew Zabiela in third.
Although fifth-ranked Jamie Ingrouille produced a 51sec. breakaway victory in the Herm cross-country finale, Haimes finished runner-up, confirming his title.
‘It’s quite a surprise,’ said the musician and keen runner.
‘It wasn’t what I was expecting at the start of the week, for sure, but it’s been very exciting.
‘Normally, when I’m racing, I’m trying to beat my own time or I’m trying to get a top 10 finish – I’ve never really had to worry about race tactics or trying to keep an eye on someone.’
He felt it was a shame that Priest had to drop out but highlighted the ‘exciting, good-natured contest’ that followed.
Le Val des Terres’ comeback provided a special touch for the 30th ATC.
Once an annual event, run until 1993, it returned from its long hiatus in the form of a closed-road climb contested in divisional races.
The course was about 700m in length – slightly shorter than the popular motorsport version – but times were doubled for general classification purposes.
Having spent much of the past year in the French Alps, Haimes strode up the hill assuredly and embraced the vocal crowds at the summit to win Division One in a swift 2min. 38sec.
Alex Grogan just edged out Langlois on the sprint as both posted 2-42, while Jake McNaught and Shay Goddard shared the 2-47 mark to complete the top five.
Division Two’s James Plumley used his strength endurance honed through rowing to dominate his group in 2-48, with the top flight’s Ingrouille (2-55), Zabiela (2-57) and Aaron Walden (2-59) being the remaining sub-3min. runners.
Division One’s Birch had gone out hard and persevered amid growing fatigue to set the leading women’s time of 3-22.
Her closest competition had come from Division Three, where Liz Chalmers ran 3-42, Isabel Power 3-49, and Lucy Garner 4-02.
Other divisional crowns went to Chris O’Neil (3-27), Harry Plumley (3-32), Herbert Settimba (4-10) and Benjamin Perfitt (4-35).
‘I’ve been doing a lot of hill training over the last year and it all came to fruition,’ Haimes said.
‘You couldn’t see much, and you couldn’t hear anything, and then all of a sudden you come out of the clearing and there’s the big roar of the crowd and you see all the people lining the banks – it just felt like a victory lap.
‘After that moment, I felt like I’d had my glory moment, and whatever happened, happened.’
With Herm being a very different assignment, nearly 11km in warm conditions and passing Shell Beach three times and climbing Belvoir Hill three times for the top flight runners, Haimes had gone out more conservatively.
Zabiela led the charge early on, before Ingrouille edged ahead during the sandy run to Belvoir – around the 3km mark.
Ingrouille maintained his lead to the line, posting 44-56 for his first-ever ATC stage win.
‘I’m so honoured to finally win a stage, given that I’ve entered regularly since 2013, even if it’s not quite the same with “Priesty” out,’ he said.
‘The support on course was really meaningful and I didn’t want to let anyone down by breaking clear only to get picked off by the end – which I fully expected to happen.
‘I’ll say this has been my favourite All Terrain enjoyment-wise, given the mix of classics and more novel stages, the close competition, and the overall buzz around it.’
Haimes followed in 45-47, 5sec. clear of Zabiela, having passed him on the final Belvoir climb.
Goddard took fourth in 46-22 and Langlois fifth in 46-45, just 1sec. clear of Grogan. Veteran Zabiela claimed second spot for the week and relegated Langlois to third.
Birch completed her women’s clean-sweep with a 51-30 for 12th in the Division One race.
After another personal highlight of a week where she relished the rare opportunity of racing in Division One as a woman, lifting that trophy at the Mermaid Tavern meant a lot to her.
‘I’m absolutely over the moon,’ she said.
‘Getting the trophy, I actually welled up inside – the cheering and the support has honestly just been amazing, especially being the only woman competing with all the men in Div One.
‘The support behind me for that has just been amazing.
‘I went into this not having a clue where I would get to, or where I would be, and what a great, unique event and experience.’
Danny Legg confirmed his Division Two title after winning on the day, finishing 1-02 clear of Plumley over a 9.6km course.
In Division Three, Clement Le Pelley dominated his 7.8km race to steal the overall crown from O’Neil.
That division also featured the duelling Chalmers and Garner, with the former winning by 46sec. to confirm second to her rival’s third in the final women’s standings.
Although Matthew Lomas-Lloyd merely edged Ruari Harnden by 6sec. in the 6.6km Division Four race, he ultimately topped the group’s ‘GC’ convincingly.
Settimba sealed the Division Five title with another victory against nearest rival Daz Carre, both racing over 4.9km.
Darren Loveridge topped Division Six in Herm, albeit by just 4sec. over 3.6km, and also ended up among the week’s champions.
Vest-Ed Interests won the team competition in a total time of 2-09-08.
More reaction to follow
