ITERA Ireland
An International Entry for ITERA
Rob Howard / 16.08.2016
There is team list at ITERA, and it’s fairly hot off the press simply because it wasn’t clear who exactly would be here until they’d signed on the dotted line and collected their race bibs. That’s always the case with a big race as there are inevitably last minute changes but in this race there have been more last minute pull outs and injuries than usual. The race facebook group has facilitated a lot of head hunting and cajoling, or as James Thurlow says, “There has been a lot of swinging going on!”
All the teams have now arrived and checked in and the race media are getting to know who is who from a very international gathering of racers. There are teams here from Japan, the USA, France, New Zealand, UK, Canada, Holland and Sweden, though sadly the Ecuadorian team entered never made it, and about half of the teams are from Ireland. There are a couple of all-male teams and one all female team from Canada, which are non-competitive and 33 teams in ARWS category.
The winners of the previous ITERA races and the UK’s top international team for many years are here, now racing as Godzone Mountain Hardwear with regulars Nick Gracie and Warren Bates, more recent team member Sarah Fairmaid (NZ) and Kevin Stephens who was pulled in as a late replacement from another team after an injury stopped Tom Gibbs making his return to international racing. They must start as favourites.
Other strong teams are SWECO (Sweden) who raced well in the last ITERA in Wales, until unfortunately missing a checkpoint towards the end, and there are strong challengers in the most experienced Irish teams, Moxie Racers, DAR Dingle and Columbia Ireland. Many of the home based racers will know the areas the race visits extremely well and Eoin Keith of Columbia Ireland joked, “I might not need those,” when collecting his maps. There is also a strong French entry here of which the fastest are likely to be FMR.
On such a long course the aim of many will be to complete as much as possible, though the distance is a little deceptive as there is a relatively fast and very long biking section mid-race. Those going for the podium or the title will expect to complete the full course.
You can see the full team list and details on the live race tracking page at http://www.itera.ie/live/
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