Wuhan Outdoor Quest - Final Report

Martin Flinta / 22.11.2015

­We felt quite confident about our 10 minute lead when we go out on the 48km-long MTB ride which started the last of three day's competition. As the leading team, we started 30 seconds before the runners-up and so on. We started very hard so the RAW Adventure Team do not to make eye contact. After 10- 5 minutes we do not see them on an open part that took at least 1 1/2 - 2 min to bike over and slow down slightly, but still keep a good pace.

With only a few kilometers left, we feel properly secure with our lead and realize we'd be able to win the last stage relatively comfortably. And just as one may not think of things happenning, they happen! We lost the course markings and bike down a hill 2-3 minutes in the wrong direction before we realise and are forced to turn around. When we got back on track we see lots of ruts. Halti, with two national team riders have caught up with the RAW team and they got a comfortable ride in their draft on this relatively flat bike leg.

When we come to transition to the 15km-long paddle section we saw two teams in the distance, however they appeared to have some problems with navigation and we caught up to them by the first checkpoint. Instead of passing and trying to pull away we let them do the heavy work on the paddle leaving them entirely 'mushy'  when the 15km long mountain run start.

The fast runners in the RAW team still made a valiant attempt and started with a tempo that can be compared with a 5km run. But it costs them, and pretty soon they are tired and we open a gap that we expand significantly over the mountain. Again we have a 4-5 minute lead when we reach today's final challenge, a 3.4m high wall that we have to climb over, 25m before the finish line. It's hard to run away from the RAW team as they are one of the best running teams in the world and we wish we could just roll out the mattresses and rest before the wall, exhausted as we were.

We can not manage to pull over +85kg Dougal and it is only when we see the RAW team arriving we change strategy. We kneel down 48kg Helena and +85kg Dougal stands on her shoulders to climb over. Dougal with his long arms then reaches back down to Helena and can pull her up just when the RAW team reaches the wall - we manage to win this last stage by just 38 seconds!

Overall we win the Quest by 10 minutes and after being interviewed by various TV channels, we finally get to the hotel where we get cleaned up, pack the bikes, and manage to celebrate the successful end of the season (against the Finns and some strong Eastern European teams), including some shots with some Chinese bosses. This didn't last too long - rice wine is not really to our taste, so we were in bed soon after.

Final results:

1. The Thule Adventure Team, Sweden (Martin Flinta, Helena Erbenova Czech, Dougal Allen and Jacob Roberts NZL)

2. RAW Adventure Aus / FRA + 11min (Jacky and Mimi Boisset FRA, Klythen Smith and Alex Hunt Australia

3. Team Halti Adventure Finland + 34 min  (with Petri Forsman)

4. Team New World, New Zealand + 41 min

5. Team Kolumb, China. + 59min