Bimbache Extrem - Castilla y Leon

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ARWC 2010 - The Route

Rob Howard / 02.10.2010

Antonio de la Rosa has been racing all over the world since 1996, competing in just about every major race at the highest level, and for the past decade has been organising races in his home country culminating in Bimbache Extrem being chosen for this year’s World Championships. He’s put all his experience as both a racer and an organiser into creating a course to test the best racers in the world to their limits, and one which will produce a worthy champion.

Several teams have commented on how long the course is, and at 720km with 20,766m of ascent it is no real surprise the Race Director thinks only 15 of the 51 starters will complete the whole course. He has designed the route with multiple loops so that it is easy to short-course teams and any that are 24 hours behind the leaders at any transition will be directed to cut the next stage/loop, and will presumably be lower in the rankings. (How this will work in practice we’ll have to see as some stages are very short and others much longer.)

There is another complicating factor as well, as many of the loops are optional, which may appeal to teams who are getting close to the 24 hour cut off. (It appears optionally missing a stage does not put you on the short course.)

The race begins by heading East to the Sierra De Guadarrama where the first orienteering section happens on day one, then back westwards to pass South of Avila for the first kayaking stage, which takes place at night on the Embalse del Burguillo, where there is also a trekking loop in the nearby hills.

This is one of several occasions when the teams split, with two paddling while the other two trek, and they then switch for the return journey, which may favour teams with more than one navigator. There is also of bonus time which is half the time the first to arrive waits for the other pair .. and since your reporter is not too sure how this works we'll have to come back to it!

Another bike ride then takes teams towards the Sierra de Gredos National Park, where the mountains rise to 2592m, and teams will skate, then undertake one of the longer treks of the race climbing above 2000m themselves. It’s on this trek they will meet the first ropes stage, which is at a high location and said to be spectacular. (The weather is also set to break for the first 2 days of the race with some rain coming in and temperatures dropping,so teams may see a dusting of snow on the highest points.)

The format of bike rides to get teams around the course, mixed with transitions to trekking, orienteering and paddling loops continues into days 3 and 4 and there is another lake paddle with two orienteering loops on it, followed by a skate before a high trek in the Parque National de Candelario, and another in the Sierra de Las Mestas. By the time teams have completed these they have made a huge circuit to get back to transition 23, which is close to transition 14/15.

Then comes the penultimate stage which is a 78km lake and river paddle northwards to Salamanca, where the race finishes. The race is using Rainbow plastic sea kayaks, but with a mix of one and two person boats. Another twist is that there is a dark zone on the river Tormes, but not on the lake which precedes it. (The Embalse de Santa Teresa.) However, teams will not be allowed onto the lake if they arrive after the dark zone starts at 20.30.

It is expected all the leaders will be caught by this river paddling dark zone and will have to stop for the night, and this will be enforced by the SPOT tracking recording their movements. (Hopefully the trackers will all keep working well!)

The paddle finishes in Salamanca where the last stage is a short (30 minute) street orienteering course, which will either be a victory parade for the 2010 World Champions or a very intense race to the finish. The winning team is expected to finish on Thursday 7th, with the rest of the finishers following them across the line and the 8th and the course closing at 19.00.See All Event Posts