Wenger Czech Adventure Race 2014
Race to the Finish
Jan Smolik (Czech Adventure Race) / 24.08.2014
Nothing is ever sure in adventure racing, until it’s all over.
During the trekking stage it was almost clear that first three places are taken. The gap behind the leading trio was almost four hours and it seemed that the remaining teams will only compete for the fourth place. Then suddenly team Adidas returned from the trek and told us they were leaving the race, opening a podium spot for a bunch of four teams racing behind them.
As the race ranking is based on the number of checkpoints and time when they pass the finish line, it was possible for them to actually finish the race as they only missed the final two stages and crossed the finish line early. (They moved to the ninth place.)
The final two stages were fairly straightforward. First came 115 kilometers of biking, then 50 km of trekking. However, with the race cut-off approaching it became a strategic game as to which checkpoints to miss as it became clear that noone would be able to finish full course.
The two Salomon-Suunto teams were the only ones who were able to complete full biking stage. But with two hours lead it was obvious that Salomont-Suunto/Accom cannot catch Salomon-Suunto/Nutrend unless they make some mistake that would make them miss the race cut-off.
Nutrends originally tried to complete the full stage but even at the TA they were uncertain if they could make it. Accoms knew they would not be able to do it and mostly concentrated on securing the second place. They only tried to threaten Nutrends by appearing on the first checkpoint but when it became obvious that Nutrends will not make a mistake they only picked up the last checkpoint and returned to the finish to enjoy the celebrations.
They were actually picking mushrooms on the way down. Accoms went to the farthest checkpoint and then they had to return. They finished just over thirty minutes off the race limit. The risk of losing the race by some stupid mistake was actually there. But they did not make the mistake and so Salomon-Suunto/Nutrend/S21 became winners of the Wenger Czech Adventure Race 2014.
The contest for last podium spot was very difficult to follow as it was not immediately clear who missed which checkpoints. Team Beautiful Men and a Strong Girl was moving up through the leaderboard and they threatened the theoretically stronger teams of MDK and Wenger. Team Dutch Adventure also recovered from the slow start and returned to the podium race.
MDK, Wenger and Beautiful Men went for the trekking stage to collect the last CP which was the closest. Wenger on the other hand finished directly from the biking stage. No one knew what will be enough and everybody raced hard to the last moments.
It was only at the recount of checkpoints at the race center when we discovered that Russian/Ukrainian team MDK took bronze medal with 6 missed checkpoints, Beautiful Men took fourth place with 7, Wenger came forth with 8 and Dutch Adventure were sixth with 10 missed checkpoints.
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