2016 XTrail Altay Expedition

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International Teams Chasing the Chinese Dream

Rob Howard / 23.09.2016See All Event Posts Follow Event
/ © Xtrail

With 28 teams arriving in the far northern part of Xinjiang, China, the first true non-stop adventure race in China is about to begin. It’s a dream destination for the teams, an exotic and culturally different destination close to Mongolia and Russia, with a spectacular and mountainous terrain that promises a unique and breathtaking course.

The race is a dream come true for the Race Director Wei Jun too.  For many years he was the principal planner of the multi-sport race programme in China, under the Chinese Mountaineering Association. Now working independently it’s been his dream to hold an expedition race and with the help of the AR World Series his 300km XTrail Expedition Race is about to get underway.

Some of the racers who have just arrived will know him well from racing in China over the past decade, and it’s always good to know your Race Director at any event, how he works, plans and thinks. Every advantage counts, especially in this race, which promises to be very fast and competitive. The old China hands won’t be stressed about what to expect, how to cope with the very different food or how the planning and logistics will work.

Among the 26 international teams are some very strong teams, both at the faster stage race format and in expedition racing, and as the race is something of mix of the two it will be fascinating to see who comes out on top. It’s probably the strongest field outside of the World Champs this year.

Highest in the ARWS rankings are the Adventure Medical Kits/Peak Adventure team (USA/Australia), who are #3 ranked, and top rankled team are Tecnu Adventure Racing (Canada/Spain) who are rebuilding their ranking after most of the team left to form AMK and took the ranking with them. Neither has much China experience behind them.

The Estonian ACE Adventure Team were 3rd in last year’s World Champs and currently rank 12th.  They recently won the Raid Gaspesie International in Canada (a fast 4 day multisport race) and are coming to the race from another event in China so are a very active team at the moment.

Haglof’s Silva (Sweden) are fielding a strong team (rank #8) and have been one of the most consistent and successful performers at expedition races over many years so will be marked down as favourites by many. However, AR World Series performance may not be the best guide to race form in this race.

Other contenders are Team Redbull (NZ/France) and Thule Adventure Team (Sweden/NZ) and this is where the China experience lies.  Redbull have two former World Champs in Marcel Hagener and Jacky Boisset and they’ve been regular racers in China for years, preferring the shorter, multi-stage format, and the prize money.  The same could be said for Thule and they are lead by Martin Flinta, another former World Champ. Thule also recently won the AR European Champs in Spain and the Wulong Outdoor Quest in China, which has declared itself the World Multi-sport Championship.

There are other strong teams too, all with lots of experience. Blackhill/Opavanet (Czech Republic), Mountain Design (Aus), Next Generation (NZ), and the very multinational Team Multisport.fi lead by Petri Forsman who was World Champion back in 2001, and is racing with Staffan Bjorklund of Sweden and Guilherme Pahl and Camila Nicolau of Brazil.  (With this exhibition race not being part of the AR World Series yet teams don’t have to worry about the line up affecting ranking points or any kind of nationality rules.)

The race starts at 09.30 local time on the 25th at the Kanas Tourist Centre and there will be live race tracking with YB satellite trackers so you can follow along and see how it all pans out. It’s going to be compulsive dot watching.

The full team list is as follows;

No.编号

Team 队名

Team Member 队员

 

 

1

 

Ongoing Concern

不断思考队

Elizabeth Woodgate 伊丽莎白 伍德黑特

James Rush 詹姆斯 拉什

Destry Harte 戴里特斯 哈特

Adrian Whatmore 安德里安 沃特莫尔

 

 

2

 

RSS Tiger Adventure RSS

老虎队

David Jennings 大卫 简宁斯

Christine Perry 克莉丝汀 佩里

Eugenio Della Valle 欧津尼亚

Thor Harrison 托尔 哈里森

 

 

3

 

Tiger Adventure International Renegades

老虎探险叛逆队

Trevor Mullens 特弗雷 马伦

Ricky Thackray 里奇 萨克里

Melody Hazi 麦乐迪 哈齐

Julie Ardoin 朱莉 阿杜安

 

 

4

 

Licorish Allsorts Tiger Adventure 李肯全方位老虎探险队

Jeremy Gibson 杰里米 吉布森

Gustavo de Araujo Fiuza 吉斯塔沃

Tahlia Royce 塔汉 劳斯

Todd Anthony Vickery 托德 维克里

 

 

5

 

Estonian Ace Adventure Team      艾斯坦尼亚王牌探险队

Silver Eensaar 西尔维 艾斯坦尼亚

Rain Eensaar 润恩 艾斯坦尼亚

Timoo Tammemäe 提莫

Mariann Sulg 玛丽安

 

 

6

 

Omjaken

欧姆杰肯

Outi Seppä 欧迪

Heikki Hihnala 哈齐齐

Hannu Oja 汉努

Heiti Hallikma 哈齐

 

 

7

 

Team Suncity Travel

阳光城市旅游队

Leo Theoharis 利欧 西奥哈里斯

Dave Schloss 戴维 斯特劳斯

Jodie Willet  朱迪 威列特

Thierry Ellena 蒂埃里 艾伦呐

 

 

8

 

Tecnu Adventure Racing

特克努户外探险队

Greg Mchale 格雷 麦克黑尔

Denise Mchale 德尼斯 麦克黑尔

Benjamin Medina 本杰明 麦迪那

Alexandre Provost 亚历山大 普罗沃

 

No.编号

Team 队名

Team Member 队员

 

 

9

 

www.adventureracing.co.nz

探险赛队

Chris Bennett 克里斯 班尼特

Jonathan Brewer 乔纳森 布鲁尔

Dan Cullen 丹 卡伦

Tara Spencer 塔尔 斯潘塞

 

 

10

 

NZ Adventure Team

新西兰探险队

Simon Bowden 西蒙 鲍登

George Lucas 乔治 卢卡斯

Joanna Williams 乔安 威廉姆斯

Tomas Lucas 托马斯 卢卡斯

 

 

11

 

Next Generation

下一代队

Theo Wordsworth 西奥 华兹华斯

Emily Wilson 艾米莉 威尔森

Tim Farrant 提姆 法兰特

Milan Brodina 米兰 博迪那

 

 

12

 

Team Multisport.fi

芬兰多项队

Petri Forsman 佩特利 福斯曼

Guilherme Pahl 吉列尔梅 帕尔

Staffan Bj尔rklund

Camila Nicolau 卡米拉 尼古劳

 

 

13

 

Adventure Medical Kit AMK / Peak Adventure

顶峰探险队

Kyle Peter 凯尔 皮特

Robert Preston 罗布特 普勒斯顿

Marianne Chandler 玛丽安 钱德勒

Bob McLochIan

 

 

14

 

hARd days night

艰难日夜队

Shane Lewis 肖 路易斯

David Symons 大卫 西蒙斯

Joel Tate 乔尔 塔特

Bronwyn Sax 布朗温 萨克斯

 

 

15

 

Adventure Russia-Ukraine Team        俄罗斯-乌克兰探险队

Levchenko Vladimir

列夫琴科 弗拉基米尔

Dmitruk Aleksandr 德米特里 亚历山大

Zarina Victoria 扎里娜 维多利亚

Artemenko Ivan 亚特蒙口 伊凡

 

 

16

 

Mont Adventure Racing

山峰探险队

Lee Rice 李 莱斯

Thorlene Egerton 莎琳 埃杰顿

Dave Meyer  戴维 迈耶

Cameron Darragh 卡梅隆 达拉赫

 

 

No.编号

Team 队名

Team Member 队员

 

 

17

 

After Work Athletes 下班后 运动员队

Daniel Murphy  丹尼尔 墨菲

Helen Murphy 海伦 墨菲

Kimberly Selby 金伯利 塞尔比

Joseph Selby 乔瑟夫 塞尔比

 

 

18

 

Freemind 自由意志队

Marco Ponteri  马可 旁特里

GIUSEPPE  SCOTTI 朱塞佩 斯科蒂

Chiara Casari 奇亚拉 凯撒里

Telemaco Murgia 特莱马科 穆尔贾

 

 

19

 

Team Merrell Denmark 梅里 尔丹麦队

Lars Bukkehave 莱斯 布可哈弗

Jonas Schwartz 乔纳斯 施瓦兹

Erik Westerberg 艾瑞克 韦斯特贝里

Eva Persson 伊娃 帕森

 

 

20

 

Moutain Design 山地设计队

Kirk Jackson 柯克 杰克森

Russell Stringer 拉塞尔 施特林格

Selby Mielke 塞尔比 米尔克

Jody Mielke 乔迪 米尔克

 

 

21

 

Team Hagl尔fs Silva 哈克罗 夫西尔瓦队

Robert Lindberg 罗布特 林贝尔

Mattias Nystr尔m 马蒂亚斯 奈斯特龙

Aaron Prince 艾伦 普林斯

Marika Wagner 玛丽卡 瓦格纳

 

 

22

 

cocoSAMU 可可山姆队

Andrea Peebles 安德里 皮伯斯

John Mezger 约翰梅兹格

Andris Ansaberges 安德里斯 安萨贝格

Joosep Tammamae 乔瑟夫 塔玛

 

 

23

 

Team Redbull 红牛队

Marcel Hagener 马塞尔 哈根

Simone Maier 西蒙 迈尔

Daniel Jones 丹尼尔 琼斯

Jacky Boisset 杰克 波尔塞特

 

 

24

 

Thule Adventure Team 世界 北端探险队

Martin Flinta 马丁 弗林特

Samuel Clark 山姆 克劳克

Corrinne Smit 康尼 施密特

Rickard Norlin 理查德 诺林

 

 

No.编号

Team 队名

Team Member 队员

 

 

25

 

No Name 无名队

Olga Curtova 欧里亚 科托娃

Robert Phillips 罗布特 菲利普斯

Aleksei Ponomarev 亚历克斯 波诺马维

Aleksandr Ramazanov 亚历山大 罗曼扎诺

 

 

26

 

Blackhill/Opavanet 黑山峰队

Roman Sinkovsky 罗曼 新科夫斯

Jaroslav Krajnik 杰若斯拉 克拉伊尼克

Barbora Valkova 巴博拉 沃尔科娃

Pavel Kurz 帕韦 克斯

 

 

27

 

Team Koosa 酷赛队

Kasimu Paizula 排祖拉卡斯木

Yiersen 叶尔森

Fuzhao Xiang 向付召

Qiaoping Li 李巧平

 

 

28

 

Team Kailas sun 凯乐石小 太阳队

Biao Luo 罗彪

Chungui Huang 黄春贵

Bada 巴达

Ayijiang Duishan 阿衣江·对山

 

 

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