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Multisport Mayhem in Cascais

Rob Howard / 08.11.2009

In showery weather the racers gathered outside the Estoril Casino (famous as the inspiration of Casino Royale) for the 10.00 start of ARWC2009. All the teams were issued with tracking devices (two per team of different types) and right up the start there was still much discussion as to the best tactics to take for the first section.

Around 20 of the slower teams opted to simply miss it out and not collect the bonus CP, preferring to move on around the course and not bother about the bonus. As the day progressed this proved to be a wise choice.

Those who are more competitive set off to try and score their 100 points, and once again the tactics varied. Some were trying to avoid getting wet at the swimming, diving, surfing checkpoints, and it was possible to do this, and perhaps advisable as after a few days of strong winds the surf was high and the breakers spectacular. This didn't put off all the teams and some began by running 2.5 km along the coast to the surf section.

There was no chance of reaching the buoy which was beyond the biggest of the breakers, which must have been 4 m high. So teams had to paddle out in the lee of a promontory then surf back in on the lower waves. The first teams there, including the defending champions, Orion Health, paddled all the way out and it took some time, they went well into the bigger waves too, but the later teams ran along the beach at the side of the promontory then paddled in. One racer managed to catch a wave and surf in properly, standing upright almost all the way in.

One of the teams opting to miss out on this was Multisport.fi of Finland, and their captain Petri Forsman had no doubt about their tactics. "We have to do the bonus CP's," he said, "as we want to do well. Also we are not too worried about the time it will take, the bonus CP is much more important than time."
He wasn't a fan of the format of the race for a world championship course. "In the past most of the teams at XPD have been Portuguese and they understand this format," he said, "but for this race 90% of the teams are international, and they don't really understand what is going on."

Forsman has won his race in the past and added, "I think in this race to understand it and to make the right choices are most important - if you go too fast and too far you can a mistake you cannot recover from."

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