Merrell Kong Vinter
Merrell Kong Vinter
Lars Bukkehave / 21.01.2013
On January 12th, around 70 teams of 2 or 3 from Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Estonia and the Czech Republic showed up in Farum just north of Copenhagen, Denmark to get an early start on the race season.
On the long course, the competition was strong, with most of the Danish top teams and several strong international teams, including Sweco Adventure, ACE Adventure, Adidas Czech Adventure Team and Team Multisport.fi. During the quick briefing, the teams were told that a total of 140 controls were placed, spread over 17 maps and that the winners are expected to complete the course in 14 hours.
At 9.04 the start gun went off, with 3 prologue loops, which were completed in different orders to spread the teams out. One of the prologue loops had a mirrored map, which caused mass confusion, sending almost all teams in the wrong direction from the start. Some went farther than others, but after approximately an hour, the top teams were ready to bike to the first proper stages, which were done in a different order; a kayak loop, a trail run/high rope course and a MTB stage. One of the first teams on the water was Danish AdventureTeam.dk, part of the winners of the Danish Adventure Race cup for the last two years, with many top teams right on their tail and top 4 within 10 minutes.
During the paddling, Swedish Sweco caught up and took the lead. Most teams were covered in warm clothes, hats and gloves to cope with the below-freezing temperatures and the wind, but Pavel from Adidas Czech Adventure Team decides to go out wearing a thin shirt, a longjohn-wetsuit and a thin hat. When asked at the first kayak CP if he was cold, he replied it was slightly chilly to begin with, but now he’s paddled himself warm.
On to the trail/high rope course, all the top teams are very determined and some forget to take a deep breath, resulting in cursing in many different languages. Meanwhile AdventureTeam.dk have locked their sights on Sweco, who beat them last time they raced in Denmark at the Raid 450 back in 2007.
They arrived minutes after Sweco at the climbing stage, and matched their time on the course, only to realize they had forgotten the map for the two CPs. After some cursing, they ran like hell to catch up to Sweco, however they didn’t succeed and spent 20 minutes and put an extra 4 km in their legs, costing them their second place. Leaving on the final MTB loop, Sweco are still in front, followed by Danish team Skandia-Salomon 23 minutes behind, then AdventureTeam.dk 26 minutes behind and Delta and multisport.fi 40 minutes behind to round off top 5 after 4-5 hours into the race.
Meanwhile, one of the favorites, Multisport.fi, with former world champion Petri Forsmann struggled from the start, had the rear derailleur break off on one of the bikes they had borrowed for the race, and had the chain break when they tried turning the bike into a singlespeed. After much trouble, they decided to pull the plug shortly into the MTB stage.
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