Czech Adventure Race 2010
Castles and Crossings
Jan Smolik / 19.08.2010
The race started with a prologue in Ledec and Sazavou. This stage was designed as a city orienteering race, but reached the hills around the town. Some of these hills were well known to the racers as they are part of the spring one-day race Posazavsky Drson. Everyone knew they would hurt.
Part of the prologue was a castle orienteering section and as most of the rooms are not repaired in was sometimes bit creepy, especially the rope descent inside the dark tower. Planks creaked when people walked toward the tower in the attic, and you could see between them to the bottom. The bottom of the tower was just compacted soil with some stones, but most of the competitors did not hesitate and descended so quickly you could smell burnt rope.
After this prologue racers set off on a 100km biking stage. After passing through the ruins of castle Sion, which is a part of Czech history as an important location in the Husite Wars, teams moved to the lake close to Kutna Hora, with three special tasks complete. Teams were moving so fast it was hard to follow them in a car. They were moving in bunches, three or four teams locked together. Only AlpinePro/Nutrend/Merida were a bit ahead and they gained a 20 minute lead.
The special tasks at CP6 were a race in themselves. There were three locations: rope ascent and descent, rock climbing, and canyoning with a tough cross country run over steep hills and rocks. There were big differences between teams in the rope ascent.
AlpinePro/Nutrend/Merida only needed fifteen minutes, but many teams spent over an hour there.
But most enjoyable part of these special tasks was Bols Cross – a crazy combination of canyoneering, swimming, cross country climbing and whatever. It is called after a guy who designs similar things every year for more than one race. You spend thirty minutes cursing and trying to catch your breath, but after you finish it you say it was cool, and spend the evening talking about it.
This particular Bols cross consisted of swimming in the lake, so you got wet, running around in the steep hills, a rope descent to the water, running for a while in a creek, climbing up a waterfall, and then swimming again for a while. The most common comment was it was ‘super’. We hope the rest of race will be super as well.
From there teams returned back to the race center via a mandatory section in the valley of river Klejnarka, with several river crossings. Gaps between teams were very small, but some looked more tired than others upon arriving at the TA. The next stage is inline-trekking around Ledec (55 km). Teams can decide whether to take skates or not. As far as we were able to tell all the teams have took them.
SleepMonsters
