Lycian Challenge Adventure Race LC 2014 - AREC
The Race to the Finish Line
Rob Howard / 03.05.2014
As teams moved towards the finish of the Lycian Challenge they faced a race against time to meet the 17.00 course closure deadline and the punishing descent of the canyonnstage on the hottest day of the race.
A large group of teams were in the canyon on the final afternoon of the race, descending back to the otherwise inaccessible ‘Butterfly Valley’ and they were suffering in the heat and wondering why they were wearing wetsuits in a dry canyon! “This is crazy,” one of them said, “It does not make any sense.” He added, “I was here 10 days ago and even the water in the waterfalls is not so cold.
Having made their way down the canyon they then had to find the start of the 3 waterfall abseils, which was difficult, and begin the descent into the valley. The first descent was a big one, down a sheer face of cascading water, which was covered in lichen and algae in places and quite slippery. (It was less slippery in the water itself.) After this there were more hand rails and descents to get down into the valley and back to the kayaks.
Unfortunately there was another big queue and wait to get down the single rope, as the descent was taking some time. (Naturally enough – it was big and scary drop.) One of the Russian all female Red Fox team said, “We’d been racing really hard and under a lot of stress to make good time to reach the finish, then we just had to sit waiting for an hour!”
One team who have suffered with ropes delays are Skandia Adventure who were delayed 3 hours at the first ropes, and arrived at the abseils behind a big queue of teams. The queue could mean they, and other teams, will finish after the 17.00 deadline, which was declared absolute at the briefing – i.e. teams finishing later would not be ranked. Given the circumstances that may change but there are sure to be some contentious decisions in the calculation of the results, which will be announced at the prize giving tonight. Until then no one knows who has done what or finished where.
Many teams did time it well and make it just before the course closure, and these included Red Fox Russia (who arrived clutching briefly coloured lilo’s), and Irish team Beast of Ballyhoura/Roe Valley, who were unranked but still completed as much of the course as they could. British team Endurancelife were also among the ‘just-in-time’ finishers and have run a good tactical race, making choices to miss checkpoints from early in the course to get the best result possible.
It will be interesting to see where they finish when the results are announced tonight. There is going to be a lot of suspense at this particular prize giving! (Unofficially both the Estonian ACE Adventure Team and the Salomon/Suunto-Nutrend CZ AR Team have cleared the course, along with race winners adidas TERREX.)
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