Rajd Beskidy
The Heat is on at Day 4 at Rajd Beskidy
Rob Howard / 22.06.2023
On day 4 of Rajd Beskidy the temperature is still blisteringly hot, the competition at the front of the race is intense and the pressure is on the teams at the back to stay ahead of the cut-offs and keep collecting all of the checkpoints.
When OMM Nordisk were the last team to check out of TA3 at 15.10 on day 4 they were well inside the 16.00 cut-off and at that point all of the teams had collected all 71 checkpoints, so it’s still possible every team can complete all of this very tough course.
Neil McQueen of OMM Nordisk said, “It’s going to be a challenge, but we just have to keep getting the checkpoints one after the other and look after each other.” It was Neil who needed some looking after as he’d been vomiting on the final part of the trek into TA3, due to the heat and fatigue. Fortunately, he could get inside out of the sun, there was a bed to lie on for a while, and a cold shower to help revive him.
The team had stopped in a mountain hut overnight due the dark zone in the Mala Fatra National Park, but it wasn’t quite the experience he’d hoped for. “I was looking forward to a bed,” he said, “but we arrived too late and slept on benches in refectory.”
Liv Wallin was feeling ill from the heat and stress of competition as well and she’d been glad of the stop in the hut. “We were out in a big thunderstorm at night and we were soaked,” she said, “so it would have been hard to stop and sleep outside. At least it was warm and we could dry off, and then, when we got up in the early morning, the views were amazing up in the mountains.”
She added, “In fact the whole course has been great. The rafting was lovely, the archery was fun and I’m really looking forward to the via ferrata.”
Also sleeping in the hut (on the floor) was team “We love the smell of flags in the morning”, and they had been delayed getting there by the storm. “We were on the ridge and there was lightning so we had to take shelter,” said Tadek Podraza. “We came off the ridge and found some trees to go into for around an hour. It was the only safe thing to do.”
His team mate Ania Witkowska was excited by the storm. “It was a wonderful experience and really energising as well as scary,” she said. Ania is easy to spot as she races with a toy bunny on her should strap (called Stefan), and bunny ears on her bike helmet.
When she came to leave TA3 she found her rear brake was broken and the team were concerned how they would continue safely, but Christoph Lindner from OMM Nordisk came to the rescue. He carries extensive bike spares and luckily had a spare brake unit to give them. (It’s not the first time he’s helped a team and saved their race in this way.)
After leaving TA3 both of these teams had to ride 12km to the via ferrata start, which they needed to reach by 16.30, and this is the last cut-off in the race. OMM Nordisk made it with 10 minutes to spare!
Earlier in the day at the end of the via ferrata Team On-Sight Navigatoria said, “It is such a beautiful route and the weather was perfect. We enjoyed it so much.”
It’s not a via ferrata on exposed rock faces, but takes the racers along a heavily forested ravine, with high bridges from one side to the other in several places. The two final teams should be able to complete it in daylight and enjoy it as well. (It’s called the HZS Marinske Hole Via Ferrata if you want to look it up.)
Once the Via Ferrata trek is completed teams move onto Stage 10 – the final stage – but in this race that does not mean they are anywhere near the finish!
Most races have a ‘monster’ stage, but this one is exceptional as it covers 260km with 6900m of climbing and passes through 3 countries. It starts in Slovakia, goes through the Czech Republic and takes teams to the finish in Poland.
There are 29 checkpoints and the fastest predicted time is 30 hours. The route includes some classic Czech cycle trails and a long MTBO section with 10 checkpoints taken in any order. This takes place on specialist 1;16,000 orienteering map in some very complex terrain. CP100 on the map is the point where the borders of Poland, Slovakia and the Czech Republic meet, which is a nice touch by the course planner.
Six of the checkpoints are Golden or Silver Bonus checkpoints (3 of each with time credits of 1 hour or 30 minutes respectively). Then at the finish CP101 is in a cave (and there is a fake CP in there too) and then the race ends with a specialist downhill course on the ‘Hip, Hopa, Flow trail’.
That is a big finish to a race!
Of course, teams can choose to miss the bonus checkpoints or the MTBO stage to ensure they get to the finish in time, but with all of them racing full course and almost 2 full days still to go, that isn’t an option they’ll be considering.
The two leading teams, Nonstop Adventure and Snowdog Trailteam are far ahead of the other teams and are now rapidly collecting the bonus checkpoints in the CHKO Beskidy hills in the Czech Republic.
Nonstop Adventure are in the lead again, have time credits and they have banked more sleep too, which may prove crucial going into the 4th night of racing.
Some of that night will be spent on the technical MTBO, which will be challenging, and a missed checkpoint may still prove decisive. There is a lot of racing to be completed before the end of this epic race.
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