NORCHA Adventure Race
Planning for the Unknown
Anne-Marie Dunhill / 23.09.2016
Teams preparing for the first edition of the NORCHA race have spent today planning for the unknown. Race registration and gear checks took place throughout the day in the gymnasium of the Agrupamento de escolos de Vila Pouce de Aguiar. The process was well organized with teams issued a standard cardboard bike box. The gear checks went smoothly thanks to the giant “bingo square” system of squares for each piece of mandatory gear taped onto the gym floor. Teams had only to fill the designated square with their kit and the list was quickly checked off.
At 10:15 this morning the race also organized a conference for several classes of secondary school students. The race general manager, Pedro Pinto, explained what adventure racing is and presented the NORCHA race with a Powerpoint presentation.
Afterwards, three women racers, Claudia from Colombia, Stephanie from Malaysia and Marina from Brazil spoke in Spanish, English and Portuguese and explained to the students their background in sports, what had brought them to adventure racing and why they are so passionate about the sport.
Students gasped during the powerpoint presentation at a picture taken during the World Champs in Ecuador showing teams sleeping between their bike boxes. Their interest was piqued and the three ladies fielded several questions during the question and answer session that followed their presentation.
The pupils wanted to know how much time the women spent training in a week, what food they ate during a race, what age was ideal to start competing and a question that is likely to make every feminist groan: how do they reconcile adventure racing with the demands of family life. The discussion was lively and the students listened intently to all of the information.
Meanwhile, back in the gymnasium, teams continued to sort out their gear and size up the competition. Jerome Cadhilac of the French team Issy Absolu Raid said, “There are so many international teams that we don’t know here that it’s difficult to judge how strong they are. We know that the guys from the Brazilian team are really strong, as are the Swedes.”
Each team was offered a free Orifix biking map holder; the only condition was that they display the company sticker on their race helmet and use the map holder during the race.
There are 11 nationalities represented on the team list and along with the usual pre-race jitters, many expressed their excitement to be racing in Portugal with such an international line-up.
At the time of this writing the international media is as much in the dark as the racers about what is to come but I did manage to find out that there will be 17 sections with maps given right before the start of each section.
The maps will be 1:25 scale. The Danish team GIV.DK said that this system actually made it easier for them because it took away the stress of tracing the route on the maps prior to the race start. They added that they were looking forward to thinking on their feet instead of simply following a pre-determined line on the maps.
The official opening ceremony will be this evening at 21:30 and then teams will have one last solid nights sleep before the adventure of racing 72 hours non-stop begins.
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