Haglöfs Åre Extreme Challenge
The Usshers not only win each of their categories
Richard Ussher / 05.07.2009
www.adventuresportnz.com
It’s amazing that a month has nearly passed since Elina and I escaped the NZ winter and headed for the northern summer for some training and racing. Finland has been a good base, albeit with a few more chilly days than would have been preferred, but for the past week summer has truly arrived.
The race starts at the highest waterfall in Sweden which is a spectacular sight. The teams and women get a 40 minute head start on the individual guys so it was great to watch the chaos and help Elina get sorted and then relax before my race started.
Elina’s race looked like being a tough one with all the top Swedish women on the start line. The favourite for the race was Viktoria Wallin who had won in 2007 & 2008. Last year she won in impressive fashion by over 10 minutes and had also been close to a new race record - and also racing was Kristen Lundgren who had been 3rd in 2008.
In the men’s race I again had competition from John Anden and Andreas Svanebo – 2nd and 3rd respectively last year, and as usual there were plenty of others who had been making big improvements from last year.
Seeing as the kayaking has been a bit on the back burner recently I didn’t sprint for all I was worth at the start but I was still surprised at how many people were lined up on the wash. The first few kilometres are completely flat and it wasn’t until we hit the main rapid section until I was able to pull away. I was in a different boat this year, the XOR which is a similar style boat to the Sharp - which was maybe a touch slower on the flat but really came into its own in the white water.
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