Tarragona, Tempting Adventure

News Release / 17.05.2016

­

Scandinavian adventure racers were put through many exciting challenges in the five day adventure race, Viking Raid Tarragona, which was celebrated in and around the old Roman Mediterranean province capital, Tarragona in Catalonia in the Northern Spain from May, 2 to May, 5 2016.

“What a stage!”, shouts Camilla Gry Elmann, from the Danish Ultra Trail national team, when she crosses the finish line after stage two. And this feeling is shared among all the Scandinavian racers, who participated in this year’s Viking Raid Tarragona. “Tarragona is the perfect place for adventure racing. The mountains are awesome and it is warm. And there is no mud and cold wind like back in Denmark”, says Lars Bukkehave, who has competed for more than twelve years. Søren Spang Hansen from Team Spang & Nydahl agrees: “Cool race! Cool locations. Cool tracks. And so tough!”, he says with a smile from ear to ear after the race.

And it was, without a doubt, five tough days for the Danish and Norwegian Vikings and Shieldmaidens fighting for the title “Vikings of Scandinavia” in the first Danish adventure race outside Scandinavia. The racers have given everything they had in adventure race disciplines like kayak, paddlesurf, swimming, kayak and swim, orienteering, caving, mountain biking, trail runs, city runs, via ferrata, rappelling and ascending. The latter rope activities were well-appreciated among the racers, especially on the second stage in the climbing mecca of the Siurana and Montsant area. The experienced adventure racer, Lars Bukkehave from Team Merrell Denmark, said after the race that it was probably the race he had participated in with the most rope activities ever and that Viking Raid lived up to the many possibilities the landscape had to offer.

Some of the most prominent activities were a 70 metre high ascending section, with three shifts, on the steepest wall all the way up to Siurana and a via ferrata track in the mountains of Montsant, both of them “enough to get your heart beating faster”, says race director, Nils Gisli. Vertigo was not an option for the racers in this year’s Viking Raid Tarragona.

It was the nature in and around Tarragona, which made Race Director, Nils Gisli, plan Viking Raid in the first place; “When I first moved here my first thought was: Wow! I have to do an adventure race here!”, he says and he continues: “Many Scandinavians visit other places in Spain and they have no idea of what Tarragona has to offer. It is an unknown treasure and I want to change that”.

The racer Søren Spang Hansen agrees with the Race Director: “Tarragona is a great city. There is so much to see and to visit and just outside the city you have this beautiful nature. You can go kayaking, climb mountains and ride some outstanding mountainbike trails. It is an excellent place and this is definitely not our last trip to Tarragona”. Team giv.dk, who were third overall in the race, agreed: “There is so much more to see in and around Tarragona”, says Camilla Gry Elmann. And  her teammate, Casper Iversen, added: “We were surprised about how luxuriant the Tarragona province was” and Camilla continues: “it was almost like in a fairtale. All of a sudden it was like being in Peru and shortly after, the landscape reminded me to Vietnam and thereafter the cliffs took us to the Rocky Mountains. Tarragona is tempting for adventure”, she concluded.

Viking Raid Tarragona was hard on the racers and only three teams were fighting for the title “Vikings of Scandinavia” to the last moment. So it was a well-deserved cold beer the racers enjoyed in the sun in front of the cathedral in Tarragona after ending the last stage on Friday. The winners, Team Merrell Denmark, crossed the finish line after racing 29 hours and 30 minutes in total. They won with 3 hours and 6 minutes to the runners-up, the Norwegian team, Team Nordic Adventure Racing; and with 6 hours and 23 minutes to number three, Team giv.dk.

Viking Raid Tarragona, which was organised by the Danish association AR Sport together with the travel site tarragona.dk, is the first part of a trilogy. In 2017, ten years after the until now longest and toughest nonstop adventure race in Denmark ever, race director, Nils Gisli, is back at the helm in Viking Raid 450. And Team Merrell Denmark is looking forward to defending their title as “Vikings of Scandinavia” in Denmark. Viking Raid 450 has been approved to be a part of the Adventure Racing European Series, which means that it has become an even bigger challenge for the teams participating. The trilogy ends with Viking Raid South Greenland in the summer of 2018.