Adventure Racing World Championship 2006
The Race is On
Rob Howard / 20.08.2006
When Team Finland completed the sea paddling stage and arrived at the head of Melfjordan 2 hours and 20 minutes ahead of their nearest rival Nike Powerblast the expectation was that they would maintain their lead and arrive first at the glacier traverse between checkpoints 28 and 29 ... but that expectation changed 6 hours later.The Finns had left the transition at the head of the fjord without saying much about their paddle, only that it had been very cold and they’d not slept much as a result. With steep sea cliffs all around and the nearby summits capped with snowfields the transition was once again a magnificent setting. However, teams were more concerned with the steep climb out. With no valley running into the Fjord, and in hot sunny weather they faced a long trudge up the switchback road which snaked skywards to a mountain plateau at over 350m.
Nike Powerblast had been close to 3 other teams at checkpoint 25, on a peninsula at the entrance to the fjord, but arrived 40 minutes ahead of Lundhags, looking strong and saying they’d stopped for 5 hours sleep during the paddle. Ian Adamson even said they’d found some beds, but Richard Ussher didn’t bother. “I was so cold when we stopped I just stripped and got into my sleeping bag on the beach while they wandered off to mess around for 5 hours. We’ve had so much sleep on this race it’s ridiculous, I wasn’t that tired and just wanted to go!�
As the team prepared to leave a Japanese journalist tried his pack and could barely lift it, loaded as it was with rope and climbing gear. She tried the rest of the team packs and said, “Richard’s is at least twice the weight of the others!� Even so, as the team climbed up the rocks between the switch backs on the road it was Ussher who was leading and towing Ian Adamson.
Ussher’s frustration with the sleep tactics may have eased 5 hours later, when his team caught sight of Team Finland. The Finns had stopped to sleep early on the trek and Nike were moving much more strongly, running on the flat and downhills, which is no mean achievement on day 5. They’d already said they would not sleep any more and were now ready to push hard to the finish, but could not have expected to gain on the Finns so quickly. See All Event Posts
