DART Wins the Wicked Adventure Sprint Series Race in the Gorge

News Release / 28.07.2005

Team DART recently won the third stop of the Wicked Adventure Sprint Series, Oregon’s premier adventure racing series (www.wickedar.com).

The race took place in the stupendous Gorge corridor along the Columbia River one hour east of Portland. The terrain in this area is dramatic and greeted the racers with enormous climbs, technical riding, dense bushwhacking, and fast moving water. The race, which covered more than 40 miles and gained 7,000+ ft, included, adventure running (on and off trail running), kayaking, and mountain biking. The team was comprised of Kimberly Shavender, Ryan VanGorder, Matt Hart, and Cyril Jay-Rayon.

“We didn’t expect that a sub 12 hour sprint race could be so demanding,” noted Kimberly after finishing the mountain bike section that had racers climb for hours. Matt concurred, “The race director was able to incorporate tough climbing with incredible single track riding on the way down”. The course took the teams high into the mountains where they had stunning views of Mt Hood and Mt Adams, two of the most impressive volcanoes in the region.

The race started with a tough bush-whack through blackberry bushes and stinging nettles down an old clearing to a river bed. The river banks were so dense that the fastest route was straight through the river to the kayak transition area on the banks of the Columbia River. During this first adventure running section, teams were caught off guard by the difficulty of the terrain and wished they had decided to wear more protective clothing that the typical Lycra shorts and short sleeve shirts.

DART was second onto the water where they chased down the leaders in search of the 3 check points in the kayak section. “Typically kayak navigation is not difficult,” commented Ryan, “but this time the water level was much lower than what the maps provided showed. Consequently, the check points were hiding in the high grass areas along the banks instead of being in plain view on the water.” The combination of lower water levels and fast moving currents made it difficult for teams to spot the check points as well as judge distances. DART did not escape these challenges and came out of the water mid-pack.