---

Mads Dogs And Englishmen (and some Kiwis) ...

Nick Gracie (Team adidas TERREX) / 19.12.2010

The final race of 2010 took team adidas TERREX to the Abu Dhabi Adventure Challenge in the United Arab Emirates. The race is now in its 4th year and it has become one of the most competitive races of the year with 50 teams competing for over a quarter of a million US dollars in prize money. The race is a stage race and therefore split into a number of sections with periods of rest in between. This makes the race much harder and faster than the normal ‘expedition’ length races that we compete in.

Two weeks before the race one of our teammates Warren Bates had to pull out due to a leg injury, it was a bit of a scrabble but we managed to find Trevor Voyce from New Zealand to fill his big boots. Trevor has done a lot of multi sport in New Zealand and came second in the Speight’s Coast to Coast in 2009 behind Richard Ussher. However this was Trevor’s first full on adventure race but we were confident he would manage well.

Coming from -3C in the UK to 28C when we got off the plane in Abu Dhabi was certainly a shock to the system and it was only to get hotter as we headed into the desert. Looking at the race before we started we had an untested and new team line up, a massive temperature change to deal with and a format that didn’t play to our strengths. However we approached the race with our usual high level of preparation and the determination to do our best.

The first day started with an adventure prologue around the corniche waterfront of Abu Dhabi in the heart of the city. It involved a 2 and half hour, non stop canoe, run, swim, run, canoe, run, canoe – hectic, very fast and although we gave it our everything we could only manage 18th. We were then bussed a few hours inland to the town of Al Ain, the second largest city in the Abu Dhabi Emirate.

The second stage started with a fast tarmac mountain bike ride in which a few peloton’s developed, we worked hard and got in the leading pack and when the tarmac turned into off road we pushed on and came off the stage in 12th. We were then straight off the bikes onto a technical and challenging mountain run along the side of the local mountain, Jabel Hafeet. The stage ended with an abseil and a sprint finish to the overnight camp in the desert, we were 6th in off the stage and moved up the overall leader board just out of the top 10.

See All Stories On This Race