Low Water Torture at Czech AR

Jan Smolik (Czech Adventure Race) / 29.08.2015

The biggest news of day two of the Wenger Czech Adventure Race is that nobody haswithdrawn from the race. Although the paddling stage was a really demanding one, all the teams have managed to complete it and they continue in the race.

The longstanding drought has changed the plans of the organizers as the paddling stage was not supposed to be this long.  In the end it took over 20 hours for the slowest teams to finish which is a large chunk of the 55 km race. But weather is part of the race and experienced teams at the front almost did not complain.

When we managed to speak to the teams as they were arriving to special tasks in Tábor and back to the race center, we have learned that many teams have skipped the orienteering sections along the way. Some of them (for example British Beacon AR) have skipped all of them which means they have only collected two checkpoints during whole long section. People were cold as they had to often go into the water and push their boat and the night was not all that warm as it originally looked. But all the teams were fond of getting this stage behind them and to really start racing.

The following stage was biking (roughly 90 km long) with included a second skating section. Missing the skating section was quite a popular decision and two teams have decided to skip the stage completely (those were two of three teams that have stayed on the water the longest).

The following trekking stage is relatively short (only 35 km) and it involves three special tasks which are mandatory. There is an abseil section, ‘Bolscross’ and via ferrata. This year’s ‘Bolscross’ in on both banks of the Lužnice River and the teams have to swim across. There is a lot of climbing on the nets and ropes. Even Mr. Bols has said it is a difficult one. People I spoke to after this task said their arms were sore.

But it was not all. Only a few kilometers further along there is the second via ferrata of the race. This is the more difficult one as it takes about 30 minutes to complete. You have to first descend to the river on this ferrata and then there is a long traverse just about meter above the river. The rock is slightly over-hanging which makes it very challenging, especially after the previous disciplines that were more demanding to the arms than to the legs.

As for the racing for the podium, two Czech teams managed to separate themselves from the Russian-Ukrainian team MDK and the time difference is growing since then. Salomon-Suunto was in the lead after the paddling stage but they were passed by BlackHILL/OpavaNet during the biking stage. This order stayed even after the trekking stage.

The fourth team of the strong quartet is Fenix Multisport/Adidas. They have lost time due to technical difficulties on first skating stage, but they are also losing time since then. At the second via ferrata section they looked tired and it does not seem they will be able to attack the leading trio. The remaining teams seem to be in survival mode and mainly want to finish. It seems the podium places are given and we will see a battle between two Czech teams until the finish line.

That is if nobody makes any huge mistake. As the race ends with bike and foot orienteering sections which both have many points to collect it is important to have enough time for these sections. If somebody pushes too hard and misses some chechkpoints at the end – they can lose the whole race.

You can follow the race live at http://www.adventurerace.cz/live

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