Adventure Race Slovenia
Like wasps at a lollipop
Jan SmolÃk / 24.06.2011
And their help is needed. While the race headquarters is located in Velenje the race started in Maribor, which is about 70 kilometers of driving from Velenje. And first stages are even further from there, at the Slovenian-Austrian border.
After preparing all the boxes until six o'clock which was unpopular, every man, woman, box, bike and buff were hauled to Maribor. The race started at 10 a.m from under the main bridge of Maribor with a run from one side of the city to the other.
If you do not know it, Maribor is a pleasant town with a wide river, cafes in the streets and it is surrounded by high mountains. The last part concerned competitors the most. First stage was in the hilly area north of Maribor, and all those hills look like their main purpose was to form contour to long valleys. All the valleys are sloped uphill to the range teams had to cross to the Mura river. And of course CPs were in multiple valleys.
Weather was of a serious concern of the pre-race talks among competitors. It was indecisive. On the way to Maribor, everybody could see fog curling around tops of the mountains and raindrops drumming on the window of the bus. But while waiting for the start there was no rain. The weather finally decided itself at twelve, when it started to rain and rained until five. Since that, the weather is fine. A young lady at city orienteering section told me this was not normal weather in Slovenia at this time of the year. It is supposed to be sunny and 25 – 35 degrees centigrade. But once AR Slovenia comes, it is always raining and cold.
After hilly biking stage, teams continued on sit-on-top kayaks down the Mura river. It is a relatively wide river forming border between Slovenia and Austria. There was much more water than usual and the stream was flowing really fast. Kilometers went by quickly and were interrupted only by city orienteering in Gorna Radgona.
Fast progress of teams caused headache to the race organizers. As next section opened at 1800 some teams had to wait in TA under the motorway bridge. Some waited almost three hours. I can tell you, it is not the most beautiful place in Slovenia. I did not get there as I refused to cross a moat full of knee deep nasty green water. But when I saw teams on the next CP, all of them had green bikes. They did not mind.
After the restart the pack was very compact and teams were racing head to head. Upon reaching the first CP they attacked the lampion like a wasps a lollipop.
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