Cowboy Tough Adventure Race
Choices to Make From Day 1 at Cowboy Tough
Randy Eriksen / 19.07.2013
Day one of the Cameco Cowboy Tough adventure started with a bang. Literally. Wyoming Governor Matt Mead fired the gun that sent 29 teams off on their 3 and a half day race.
The racers started with 4 optional orienteering CPs. Any team that hoped to win will most likely need all the optional points. Next wcame 5 more points on bikes. The technical singletrack of Curt Gowdy State Park surprised a couple of riders, but there were no serious injuries.The riders then had a 25 mile bike to the rappel section in the Vedauwoo recreation area.
The racers had a choice of hard,easy, or really scary rappels. After the rappel they were back on the bikes to the Happy Jack forest area for another series of optional orienteering points where the middle of the pack teams got hammered with heavy rain and lighting.
Next up was the high/low point of the race, a 60 mile plus road ride to TA1 - the "End of day". Once teams arrive they have the option of more points, or they can rest as it is a Dark Zone until 6 am. Slower teams do not have to arrive until 6.00 but they must leave by 8 am. If a team has cleared the course they will get a time bonus.
As of dark time, the top 3 teams are Tecnu,Team Dart, and Rev3 and it looks like they will make TA1 with time to spare.
Day 2 starts with a short mountain bike, a 10 mile run and a huge paddle. Race officials are predicting a 6-8 hour lake canoe and if the wind comes up (and we are in Wyoming where the wind always comes up) there could be 2-4 foot waves.
After the paddle the teams have a trek to TA2. There are 20 plus optional controls on the trek and this could be where the race is won or lost.
The race is organised by REV3 but more detailed updates are on their Facebook page rather than the website. - see https://www.facebook.com/Rev3Adventure
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