Czech Adventure Race 2013
A Final Report - On all the Finishers (not just the Podium Teams)
Jan Smolik (Czech Adventure Race) / 27.08.2013
Most adventure races do not end with third team crossing the finish line. Press releases tend to end at this moment as the general media are only interested in the podium teams, but there are a lot more things happening: most of the teams racing still have to cross finish line.
An hour after our fourth team had finished the fifth team in the overall results was just setting off for the penultimate stage – the monster bike ride. They still had 15 hours to go. The battle for the fifth place was less intense but probably tougher for the teams as the third night of the race is always hard.
On Friday afternoon it became clear that Russian team Red-Fox had left the race. They arrived at the TA before the last biking section shortly after first four teams. They announced one of them was sick. They had plenty of time for full eight hours of sleep and they still could finish the race, but they had lost their motivation. This left three teams on the full course: Kompar XStream, Wenger and Vertical Disidents from The Netherlands.
Kompar XStream had a slight advantage over the other two and they managed to keep it to the finish. They placed fifth and it was a job well done for a team with two girls. They were also former team of Karel Skřivánek, who deceased this year. He would be proud of his former team.
On the other hand Wenger kept slowing down. Martina from the team had huge blisters on her feet and was in a lot of pain with every single step. At the end they had difficulty finishing before the race cut-off. They only finished 45 minutes inside the limit.
Vertical Disidents from The Netherlands managed to pull themselves together and were fastest of the three teams. They finally finished sixth leaving seventh place for Wenger. We have seen a huge improvement from Vertical Disidents over the years. When they first arrived at the Czech Adventure Race in 2011 they had no experience and struggled with skating stages and time limits. Now, after two more years they have become a mid-level team that can complete full course and be competitive.
Maybe the same future awaits one of four novice teams. This year they struggled with basic things, but maybe next year they will use their experience to become faster. From early on in the race it was clear that at least three of those teams would not make full course. The gap between the front and back of the race became huge.
Team Israel and The Czech all girl team Masakr (the English spelling of the word is a bit different, but the meaning is the same) were soon way behind. But both teams managed to complete for full three days although they had to miss many CPs. They both seemed to enjoy the experience. Team Israel came with a funny moment in the diving event in the race center just before the final stage. They had to read letters from the brick at the bottom of the pond. They pulled the brick up instead, laughing.
The Dutch team Leopard arrived thanks to a funny video Vertical Dissidents made about last year’s Czech Adventure Race. One of them approached Janne Geurts on one of Dutch races with the words “You are the girl from the video.” Janne commented she felt like a Hollywood star at that moment, but anyway this had lead to conversation that brought four guys between forty and fifty (they could not find woman so they raced off-category) to The Czech Adventure Race.
They were the last team to finish the race (although they were not last). Their finish was also a funny moment. Suddenly only one of them appeared at the race center. He shushed the applause and gave somebody a camera. Then he ran back. Only then did the full team appear.
The strongest of novice teams was “EPO – It hurts the first time”. For a long time it seemed they will make full course, but they correctly decided to short course. They arrived three hours before cut-off which proved them right.
The only unranked team was “Bez keců a výmluv” (No swap lies, no excuses), who lost a team member early in the race. They had the same bad luck last year. They would have been eighth if they had managed to complete the race as a full team.
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