Kong Vinter
A Gusty Start for Gutsy Adventure Racers
Anne-Marie Dunhill / 10.01.2015
Teams have converged on the small town of Hove, about an hours drive outside of Copenhagen, in a tiny village primary school that is serving as the race headquarters for this years Kong Vinter adventure race. All day yesterday the organizers ferried international teams from the airport and there was a slight glitch to the planning when the Italian teams’ flight was three hours late. The silver lining to that cloud was that the delay allowed the organizers to find a last-minute printer for the road books and maps as they had run out of ink!
The race director, Sanne Hansen, briefed all of the teams starting at 07:00 with the race briefing for the Masters category. The briefings took place in English and in Danish and afterwards all teams lined up for a quick team photo.
There are two categories: Masters and Challenge. The teams are composed of two or three members and they will be ranked in Men, Mixed or Ladies rankings. On the Master race there are ten stages with funky names like “Paddle Damnit , “Never Lose Your Grip” and “Row Row Row Your Boat”. The Masters category began at 10:00 on the dot this morning from the top of a grassy hill that marked the start of the “Further…Faster” section of 27km on foot, orienteering with 1:25 maps. There are mandatory check points as well as optional ones which allows teams to refine their racing tactics.
It had been drizzling since 05:30 this morning but as the sun rose, strong gusts of wind joined the party. Although the temperature is a relatively clement °7, the wind chill factor has made this section challenging. After the 27km trek/run, teams will transition to the “Pedal Damn It” mountain bike orienteering stage for 20km.
The winter storm Egon that the weather forecasters have predicted is due to blow in this afternoon and the organizers have had to put in place a Plan B for the abseil which was originally supposed to take place on a crane.
Further information is available on the Kong Vinter official webpage:
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