Rocky Man Adventure Challenge
Rockyman 2013 – A New Adventure Twist in a Stunning Location
Alexandre Carrijo (www.vivabrasilia.com) / 08.11.2013
This weekend the stunning city of Rio de Janeiro is going to host the second edition of the multisport event named Rockyman. It comprises one hundred athletes in 20 teams, on a mixture of specialists and all round adventure racers who will battle for a purse of US$ 25,000 for the first five finishers. Besides team prizes, there's also US$ 1,000 for the best athletes in each sport: trail run for males and females, stand up paddling, MTB, surfing and rock climbing. To conclude the almost 130km urban course, all 5 teammates must paddle an outrigger canoe and tackle a beach run together to the finish line.
Last year in its debut, Rockyman set out an innovation on the multisport format, combining individuals competing at their very best sport with team dynamics. Twenty captains were invited to form a team and they had to consider a balance of performance between the legs where athletes were supposed to race as individuals and as a group. As an example of this "chess challenge" on gathering a team, the American Team led by Paul Romero didn’t win any of the solo legs, but accomplished the full course with the fastest time to win the race. Other teams such BMS Multisport relied on teamwork synergy to gain terrain on the last two legs. They took out more than ten minutes on these group stages to finish 4th overall on the heels of the third placed team.
This year the race has kept the same concept with some improvements. Women are mandatory for a solo trail run leg and paragliding was replaced by top rope rock climbing where time will be counted for a grade 6C route. Also, more distance were allowed for the SUP race from 4 to 8km and more extra time will be added to the surf rankings ( winner gets nil minutes, second gets 1 minute, third gets 3 and so on).
With this model that blends together Multisport and Adventure Race, the event attracts the best of both worlds and increases greatly the media attention and public exposure towards adventure sport - which adventure racing lacks a bit. Rockyman manages to put together world class athletes, a challenging urban/natural course design (actually, just a few cities in the world could hold an adventure course like) and lots of funding.
All athletes were invited and had their expenses with travel arrangements, accomodation and rental car covered by organization;. something that is only seen in China nowadays. Based on a federal law that supports sport allowing companies to invest a small part of their income tax on sport projects, Rockyman is successful in bringing on a sparkling event that enhances the profile both of the city of Rio and, furthermore, Brazil as a destination.
Captains could invite the best they could find and naturally teams got even stronger this year. In fact, we are just about to watch a battle for top 5 finishes with 14 Brazilian teams and the other five from EUA, Argentina, France, Spain and New Zealand.
Who has assembled the best squad and the best strategies? Who are going to be the fastest athletes at each disciplines? Rockyman launches its prologue Friday with Rock Climbing and I’ll bring you more news as the race develops – it’s going to be an amazing spectacle.
Alexandre Carrijo
www.vivabrasilia.com
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