The 2007 Adventure Race World Championship
What a Week!
Rob Howard / 01.06.2007
Through the morning more teams have been coming into the finish line and collapsing down onto the grass in the sunshine, their race in ARWC2007 and their journey across Scotland over. Up on Ben Nevis it was too hot for teams later in the day, who were coming down dehydrated and footsore after a long time on the mountain, an unlikely finish for a race which had been exceptionally cold for much of the week. Nevertheless, it was a chance for the teams to cross Britain’s highest peak and finally break the weather curse that has struck all previous races attempting the mountain.
Wilsa Sport Helly Hansen finished second on the full course after a strong race, in which they were Nike’s only real challengers for some time. In a race beset by penalty decisions the team are one of only two who have no penalties against them in either the prologue or the main race (the other are Bjurfors), and course planner Gary Tompsett described their race as “impeccable�.
He sat on the finish line for ages talking through the whole epic route with Alain Berger who said they found the Aonach Eagach ridge much more scary than Curved Ridge but they’d not used the confidence rope they were carrying.
Among the short course teams there was a 3 way battle on ‘The Ben’ with Merrell Wigwam, Speleo Salomon and Salmon Crested Butte all within sight of each other. Merrell Wigwam pushed ahead to finish first but the other two teams were closer.
Salomon Crested Butte were moving quite slowly due to an ankle injury to one of the team but Speleo Salomon were moving strongly ... just temporarily in the wrong direction. Instead of taking the set route back they cut down a valley and finished up racing into CP34 from the opposite direction and coming face to face with the American team!
They passed each other on the road, then the Polish team turned and raced back past their rivals. (However, a penalty for taking the wrong route may yet mean they finish behind them.)See All Event Posts
