Czech Adventure Race 2011
Strong Entry at European Championships in the Czech Republic
Jan Smolik & Rob Howard / 16.08.2011
The race starts Wednesday at 10 a.m. at Sunny Bay near Ledec nad Sazavou. It is a place where the history of the Czech scouting was written and it will now be the center for yet another adventure.
It is really difficult to say who the favourite of the race is. The Spanish team ‘Columbia Irontec Vidaraid’ surely looks the strongest on the paper as they were fifth at the last World Champs in Spain. The Czech teams however will want to get the most from their home field advantage.
‘Accom/Nutrend/Merida’ is a strong and experienced team and they will want to defend their title from The Czech Adventure Race 2010. This team, with a slightly different composition was ninth at the Worlds in Spain last year. Second of the strongest Czech contenders is probably ‘Czech Adidas Terrex’. This team includes Eva Haskova, who is one of few females to finish The Crocodile Trophy. Pavel Stryncl has replaced mountaineer Libor Uher (who climbed K2 in 2007) and they feel they will be even stronger for this.
French team Sport Nature Ville-La-Grand were 9th and 18th in the last two world Champs, and have a big squad. They were winners in Slovenia in June this year and recently finished a good second to Team Quechua at the Adventure Aveyronnaise
These four teams will probably set a very high pace that will be too fast for some. However the list of favorites cannot end there. You can name practically any team from the start list and mark it as a favorite.
There are two strong Polish teams. ‘Code 34’ has beaten ‘Accom’ in Slovenia, while ‘Team 360’ includes Ulrike Fuhrmann, a mother of four who can race an Ironman in under 11 hours. The Estonians from ‘Ace Logistics Salomon’ are this year’s European Champions at Rogaining and Czech team ‘Kompar XStream’ are finishers of Explore Sweden’s Monster Edition. Other experienced Czech teams include ‘OpavaNet/Tilak/Merida‘ and Alpine Pro.
All of those teams and many others will be able to compete and fight for victory over the coming days and with the free entry to World Championships in Tasmania and the European title on the line, there is a lot to race for.
SleepMonsters will be carrying daily news and you can also follow the news on the main race <a href="#" onClick="javascript:newsitewindow('http://www.adventurerace.cz/en/home')" class="main">website</a>.
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