Adventure Racing World Championship 2006
Finland Second, Sweden Third
Rob Howard / 21.08.2006
To finish second here this is a great achievement, but there was a feeling among the team of ‘what might have been’. Anu Kopra smiled but shrugged her shoulders and said, “We are a little disappointed as we came to win and think we could have done better. We thought we had a good strategy for sleeping, but it wasn’t so good. We didn’t get enough and our speed dropped. On the last paddle and inline stage we were so slow. Too slow.�
Seppo Makinen looked hollow cheeked and unsteady, showing the effects of more than 5 days of continuous racing. “That last ride was the longest in my life! It hurt. It really hurt. And I was seeing so many things – I even talked to our President!�
The team is led by Petri Forsman, who captained Team Nokia to victory in the first World Championships in Switzerland, but it was a victory he was unable to repeat. Reflecting on events afterwards he said, “I’m disappointed, we didn’t fight for first place after the glacier crossing. Nike ran and no one in our team followed.�
Had all the team been as strong as Ville Niemela it might have been different – he looked the freshest of all and with Forsman had been driving his team mates on in the later stages of the race. Had he not done so the team may not have kept their second place as Lundhags Adventure were close behind.
The top Swedish team in the race claimed the final podium position, finishing at 18.30, just 77 minutes behind team Finland. They had their own battle with Golite Timberland overnight, with both teams stopping to sleep as their pace dropped to a shuffle and the third place position swapping between them.
It wasn’t until after they left the caves that Lundhags managed to break clear. “The final run was hard,� said Bjorn Rydvall, “and we gave it all we had and pulled out 45 minutes on Golite.�
It was enough to keep their 3rd place, a result the team and Swedish supporters were delighted with.
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