World Championship Contenders
Rob Howard / 17.09.2008
The full list of qualifiers is as follows;
Orionhealth.com (NZ) - XPD ‘07 Australia
Les Arcs Quechua (Swiss/ Fr) - The Raid in France
Buff Coolmax (Spain) – Ecomotion Pro \'07
Teva-La Pinilla (Spain) - Portugal XPD Race
Navigator Suunto Poldim (Poland) - Bergson Winter Challenge
Dart/Nuun(USA) - Baja Travesia
Powered by Velvet (NZ) - Southern Traverse
Wilsa Helly Hansen (France) - Bimbache Extrem
Salomon Crested Butte (USA) - The Turas
USN (SA) - Bull of Africa
Lundhags Adventure (Sweden) - Explore Sweden
There are no real surprises, apart perhaps from the fact current World Champions Team Nike, who won their title last year in Scotland, have not won a free place to make their defence. (They will be there however). Otherwise the list has all the top contenders who would be expected to be there and a strong international spread.
Home advantage seems to have played a factor as most of the qualifiers did so on home territory and of the 11 qualifiers the ‘wild-cards’ are USN of South Africa and Powered by Velvet of New Zealand – who don’t have the track record of the other teams. At this stage however, we don’t know if they have all accepted their places or the team line-ups for ARWC.
The race will take place from October 29th to November 9th and there are 45 places, with 22 reserved for international teams. The course was originally announced at 700km but after completion the organisers settled on 550km, with an estimated finish time of 7 days. It will take competitors through the northern provinces of Ceara, Piaui and Maranhao. For more information on the race see www.ecomotion.com.br.
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