Wenger Czech Adventure Race
BlackHILL/OpavaNet Win The Wenger Czech Adventure 2015
Jan Smolik (Czech Adventure Race) / 31.08.2015
Czech team BlackHILL/OpavaNet won Wenger Czech Adventure 2015. BlackHILL along with another Czech team Salomon/Suunto separated themselves from the rest of the pack during the long paddling stage with Salomon having an hour advantage over BlackHILL. But during the following biking stage BlackHILL got the lead and Salomon did not find any answer until the end of the race. Second place was taken by Salomon/Suunto, while yet another Czech team Fenix Multisport-Adidas came third.
After the trekking stage the race continued with a 120-kilometer long section on bikes. As the time limit was approaching all the teams except the leading duo had to skip some checkpoints from this stage. Actually most teams skipped the majority of the checkpoints if not the whole stage. Only Fenix Multisport managed to complete almost the whole stage.
The same was true for the ascent on skates. The climb was about 7 km uphill followed by a descent of about same length on very bad tarmac. It might have been better and safer to descend on foot and this decision was left completely with the teams. However, only the leading duo completed this stage. Most teams simply ran to the checkpoint that started the skating section and back and did not do the climb.
It made sense to save time, because the final two stages were mountain bike orienteering and foot orienteering and these stages had 23 checkpoints (while the long bike and skating only had 16 together) that could have been collected in 5 hours.
Team MDK became the only one to withdraw from the race during long bike stage. Viktoriia suffered health issues from the heat which caused the team to withdraw. If I may add a personal opinion of the author, it seems her teammates did not take good care of her. She was already very tired on the Via Ferrata (10 hours before), she was uncertain about how to use carabiners, yet her teammates rushed on and left her far behind.
BlackHILL/OpavaNet and Salomon/Suunto became the only two teams that managed to complete full course. Fenix Multisport only missed part of the long bike and the skating ascent and finished third. These teams with sponsors in their names were far ahead of the remaining teams.
There were two other teams that were competitive EPO in Bike and Kompar Xtream. These teams were far behind the sponsored ones but they apparently competed against each other. They had enough time to complete both orienteering sections so they had enough points. EPO in Bike finally took fourth place 2 checkpoints ahead of Kompar Xtream.
The remaining teams fell into the category “try and enjoy”. They did not have ambitions to compete, they only wanted to finish the race and test their own capabilities. British team Beacon AR finally took sixth place as they were only ones in this category to save enough time for the orienteering sections and picked all the checkpointst there.
The remaining teams were ordered as follows: ‘EPO Laziness is Evil’, ‘With Strudel in Backpack’ (an all-girls team), ‘Franta & Company’ and ‘Burlaci’.
‘EPO Laziness is Evil’ was the loudest team, you could hear them approaching from several kilometers. An all-girls team ‘With strudel in Backpack’ managed to pull together well. And they actually carried strudel in their backpack! Not an apple strudel but some sort of meat strudel, but strudel anyway.
‘Franta & Company’ kept sending incomprehensible text messages to the race website. When they arrived at the Via Ferrata they were so tired they looked about to give up. But two hours of good sleep really helped them and they continued in a much better mood. ‘Team Burlaci’ did not know how apt their name reference to the Russian ‘burlaks’ who used to tow barges upstream would be for Czech Adventure Race 2015.
A very interesting thing about a fair play gesture of Salomon Suunto was revealed at the prize giving ceremony. BlackHILL/OpavaNet lost their orienteering maps for an early section during the paddling stage. Salomon/Suunto knew they were their main rivals yet they allowed them to run the orienteering section with them. If it were not for this gesture BlackHILL probably would not have won.
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