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Destination Abu Dhabi

Rob Howard / 22.05.2007

A new international event will be launched on the AR calendar soon and it’s a new location for Adventure Racing too – Abu Dhabi. This Persian Gulf state is the largest of the 7 United Arab Emirates and will host the new race, which is set to become a fixture on the calendar, offering a large prize purse and following the ‘traditional expedition format of mixed teams of 4 competing over a multi-day course.

The new event is being run by Saga d’Aventures, organisers of the old Raid series and new Mountain-X Race, and is provisionally set to take place from December 9 - 15th.

The race will be unsupported and Abu Dhabi offers some intriguing opportunities for an adventure race course. Salt flats line much of the coastline, and there are more than 200 off-shore islands. In the South of the country the ‘empty quarter’ includes the Rub al-Khali dunes, the largest sand sea in the world which runs for hundreds of miles into Saudi Arabia. The East is more mountainous and the peak of Jebel Hafeet, which towers over the city of al-Ain, rises to an impressive 1180m.

Some details are still to be finalised but the race will include some bivouac stops and run for 4 days and nights. The entry fee will be 3500 Euro, including all race assistance and 2 hotel nights.

We’ll bring you more news on this exciting new event soon but it might be wise to note the date now and plan ahead, as the first race will be limited to only 30 teams.