Czech Adventure Race 2007
Czech AR 2007: strong teams in the pack, lots of decisions to make
Jan Smolik / 17.08.2007
Apart from Tilak/OpavaNet, four other teams have experience from this year's Bergson Winter Challenge. These are Polish Trezeta Adventura, who finished fifth, Finish Omjakon (7th), Estonia's Twister and Czech Hi-Tec Internet Billboard. Other teams will also be strong. Most of them have been racing in previous years, when they gained experience. And it is very likely that this year they will start pushing to the front positions and biting.
The race, which starts on August 22, will take teams into beautiful area around Orlik dam. And while there are no real mountains involved there is still plenty of hills. On recently released route preview, most common CP description was simply: "on the top". While the route details still remain secret, it is practically sure that the teams will visit many places of historical interest and will do most condensed sightseeing tour. And there is a lot to see. The immediate surroundings of race headquarters offer two medieval castles and three spectacular bridges that loom at least 40 meters above the lake.
The course measures over 360 kilometers and leaves a lot to strategic decisions of the teams. In the first stage teams will have to decide whether run longer way along the shore or swim across. Teams can also use flippers but they have to carry them for the rest of the stage. "You can even bring your air mattress, it will be nice holiday," jokes Petr Bloudek, one of the course designers. In the fourth, trekking, stage teams will be able to use roller skates to speed up their progress. But as the checkpoints are on the tops of hills and even on the top of an observation tower, it is not clear whether it will be such an advantage. All wrapped up, teams will walk 100 kilometers, bike 200 km and swim around 3 km. Additional 40 km will be on roller skates and 10 km of orienteering. To make it more interesting there are special tasks, mainly rope descending, ascending and rock climbing.
The Czech Adventure Race 2007 is set as non-stop race with no dark zones and minimum of cut-offs. Time limit is three days, three nights and three hours (75 hours) but first teams are expected to finish in about 50 hrs. "There is nothing to worry about," says race director Tomas Vanek, an experienced racer who finished 9th on ARWC in Sweden last year. "On the first trekking stage you will just lie on the water, during second trek you will just ride your skates, on the third you will finally have some walk and then you will be just sitting on the bike, in the harness and in the canoe. It is all simple," he concludes.
The race website, www.adventurerace.cz, will provide leaderboard, updated hourly
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