The fourth edition of the Abu Dhabi Adventure Challenge began this morning with a fast paced prologue in Abu Dhabi city. Judging by the frantic pounding on the next door to my hotel room in the Rotana , an adventure racer had overslept and almost missed the 05:00 set off to the race start.
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The race start was at 08:00 and was a fast and furious adventure triathlon. Teams piled into large red blow-up boats, two per boat. There was joyful chaos in the water as they accustomed themselves to maneuvering the awkward boats (imagine bumper cars and you’ve got the scene).
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The New Zealand team Thule quickly took the lead early on. Once out of the water they ran to the Emirates Palace hotel, as sumptuous a location as one can imagine. Once through the manicured gardens three team members took to the sea for 900meters of swimming whilst the fourth team member walked along the beach weighted down with all of their gear.
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Although many found the swimming section refreshing, not all adventure racers are strong in all disciplines and this fact starkly stood out in the swimming section and it was amusing to see some racers who are akin to machines on land flounder in the water.Nicolas Mulder of the South African team Cyanosis was scene walking shoulder deep in the water imitating the arm moves of a breast stroke. Thule was right out in front but even Nathan Fa’avae was unsinkable, wearing a bright red light jacket to swim with.
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At the CP on the far end of the pristine private beach the four members reunited and ran out of the Emirate Palace gardens back to the boats for a quick paddle along the Abu Dhabi coastline out to nearby island where they raced up a dune to a CP and back to the boats. After punching in a final time on the Abu Dhabi Corniche beach, the prologue was over and teams snacked and showered as they awaited transfer.
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Buses took the teams on a two hour journey from Abu Dhabi to Al-Ain. The race started again at the Jahili fort in Al-Ain with a fast paced mountain biking section through the Jebel Hafeet valley. The Jebel Hafeet is the highest point in Abu Dhabi, high mountain (jebel in Arabic) with sharp rocks where the racers did rope work and time was neutralized. The bikes that the organization provided the teams were hard tailed instead of full suspension and Nicolas Mulder said that he could really tell the difference, not having ridden hard tail in over 5 years, he back was telling him off loudly as he made his way out of the rocks and to the bivouac.
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On the mountain biking section a certain lead team was heard shouting at another lead team, “You’re pulling, and pulling is forbidden on this section�! To which the other team replied, “No we’re not, we’re pushing, and pushing is allowed�! End of discussion.
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