UK Team Chosen for The Abu Dhabi Adventure Race

Rob Howard / 06.10.2008

Over the past 3 months the teams entered in the Abu Adventure Challenge competition have been racing and training together, working towards the September 30th deadline. Their objective was to be the UK team chosen to compete in the Abu Dhabi Adventure Race from December 12-17th, with all expenses paid courtesy of the Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority.

The judges in this very special competition were Rob Howard, Editor of SleepMonsters, and Tim Lloyd, who has been the manager of Team Saab Salomon for many years, and knows more about preparing teams for major expedition races than anyone else in the UK.

The prize is given by the ADTA Awards which were set up to encourage new teams into international adventure racing at the highest level. As such the award was for a mixed team from the UK or Ireland comprised of racers who have not competed in expedition adventure races outside of the UK and Ireland before. It was judged on the team results, and their frequency of racing and training over the past 3 months, based on team web sites posted on SleepMonsters and a follow-up questionnaire.

After an intensive analysis of all the teams entered the final choice came down to a selection from the following top three - New Horizons, Average Joes and For Goodness Shakes. It was exceptionally difficult to choose between them but both judges agreed on the final choice, and the team travelling to Abu Dhabi will be ‘For Goodness Shakes’, comprising of Andy Wilson, Fi Spotswood, Simon Enderby and Tom Hodgkinson.

“These teams all put a great effort into their racing and training programme, and into the team websites. We looked at their individual profiles, race records, depth of squad and all showed great attitude and commitment.\" Said Lloyd. \"Choosing between them was one of the hardest jobs I’ve had to do in adventure racing, and it’s a great shame we can’t send all of the top three – but we had to choose just one and the team we felt was best equipped overall to race in Abu Dhabi was For Goodness Shakes.“

“I’d like to congratulate all those who took part and was impressed with how the teams approached the competition. All have lots of potential, and those not going to Abu Dhabi will, I am sure, race internationally in the future and do well. I hope the For Goodness Shakes team enjoy the experience and do well in Abu Dhabi ... but not so well that they beat Team Saab Salomon!”