Finnish AR Series Kicks Off at the Spring Adventure Race

Press Release / 11.05.2024

The first official Finnish championship series in adventure racing kicked off on Saturday May 5th in Nurmijärvi with all the top teams in Finland racing, and two Estonian teams. 52 teams participated in the Spring Adventure organized by Northern Adventure Team, of which 38 participated in the Finnish championship competition series.

The course was 70 km long including 7 legs, 7 km kayaking, 2 mtb legs total of 44 km and 3 trekking legs with a total of 19 km. The fast paced trails included a Mountain Bike orienteering section with maps from the Finnish  Mountain Biking orienteering championships in 2022.
(All the maps: http://www.tulospalvelu.fi/gps/2024springadvKilpa )

The Estonian team Tactical Foodpack / La Sportiva was the fastest on the route. The team included World Championship medalist Timmo Tammemäe and his team mate Tauno Riibak.

The Finnish team Multisport.fi, Jaakko Mäkelä and Mikko Sakala, finished second, seven minutes behind the winners. Last year they won Endurance Quest Espoo and finished 4th in Raid in France European Championships and this year their goal is win again Endurance Quest and then participate in Raid Lowlands.

Third place was another Estonian team Expedition Estonia.com with brothers Silver and Rain Eensaar. They used the Spring Adventure as a last training before Adventure Race Croatia and had to borrow bikes since they had already shipped their race bikes to Croatia.

The trails of Nurmijärvi and Kiljavan had dried quickly from the over 30 centimetres of snow from the late winter a little over a week ago and were surprisingly fast, as the winning team beat the course director's ideal time by 40 minutes. The winning time in the men's category was just under five hours.

Race organizer  Northern Adventure Team will race in Rajd Beskiby and then Expedition Estonia before they organize the ARWS European race Endurance Quest in the Uusima region. Registration for Endurance Quest is still open and there is free airport transfer from the Helsinki Vantaa Airport.

Last year Swedish Armed Forces raced in Endurance Quest. “There were some of the best maps in the world and some challenging navigation sections, a really beautiful and challenging course” , Oskar Svard said at the finish line last year.

Last year course and maps: http://www.tulospalvelu.fi/gps/2023eqARWS/
Endurance Quest information: https://www.northernadventure.fi/endurancequest