---

Portugal Prepares for October XPD

Rob / 19.08.2004

Preparations for the 500km Portugal XPD race, which is round 5 of the Expedition Racing League (ERL) are well underway.

The race will run from October 7th to 10th and the organisers are promising \"A fast pace expedition race in a beautiful landscape. Hard navigation and many transitions will push the teams to their limits.\"

The race will run non-stop, with teams of 4 allowed no assistance but it will be on a Score format, with teams ranked depending how many CP\'s they reach. So every competing team can be ranked.

Last year\'s race was organised in the Algarve, but this year the course is a bit further north in the prairies and valleys of the Guadiana basin. It looks like the course will favour strong bikers, but there will be plenty of variety, including the first ever use of the \'Trikke\' in an adventure race. What\'s a Trikke\'? Well it looks like a 3 wheeled hinged scooter, and the makers say you just have \'rock and roll\' to make it go!

The full programme includes a prologue, a night time Tyrolean traverse, a second day that lasts 25 hours (now that\'s impressive!), plus kayaking, rollerblading and plenty of navigation.

At present there are only 3 Portuguese and one Spanish team listed as entered, but European teams hoping to pick of ERL ranking points are likely to enter, so there could be a good international mix. (Current leaders are eVent P&G.) Portugal in October should be a very pleasant climate to race in too.

All the details are on the race web site, web site, which is in Portuguese and English.