Wenger Czech Adventure Race 2017
Caves and Climbs at the Wenger Czech Adventure Race
Jan Smolik (Czech Adventure Race) / 30.08.2017
The Wenger Czech Adventure Race has just started. And it is a record setting edition. Eleven foreign teams have arrived to race center in Kokořín more than doubling record from year 2011 when the race hosted European Championship.
A total of 19 teams promises tough racing. As far as we can guess there will be teams on both sides of the racing spectrum – both fast competitors and people who came to try, to finish but not really compete. Teams like Multisport.fi with the legendary Petri Forsman, Fortsätt Adventure Team, the biggest adventure racing team in Denmark Copenhagen Adventure Sport or the Polish ColcaPeru/ Team360 promise fast racing right from the start. And we have probably missed some strong teams. Sorry.
On the other hand the top Czech teams are missing as they have recently returned from the World Championships. We expect only team Rockpoint Klacky.cz / EPO to be racing toward the top of the field. However some of the rest might surprise us, as some of them are novices into adventure racing. However Czech legend Martin Šebánek of Kompar XStream team who have competed in all previous editions is present. We expect him to be in the middle.
As for the course – it will be a race in geology. There will be two different areas with very interesting geological features. The race center in Kokořín itself is located among sandstone rocks. The general area is rather flat, but the sandstone rocks change it all. The terrain is formed by narrow valleys (the valley the race center is in is about 20 meters wide) framed by steep walls of sandstone rocks. Check points might be very close to each other, but you have to either go a long way around, or climb a long way up and down. At least if you can find a way that is not too steep to climb. There are also many caves in the area. Most of the checkpoints are in caves.
After a long biking and trekking stage, teams will bike to a completely different section. This area is of volcanic origin and many interesting volcanic features are to be seen. The most interesting of them is a basaltic organ pipes. This section includes 35 kilometers of paddling, two rather flat skating sections and also some trekking in between. As for walking, teams can expect flat areas with hills climbing out of nowhere.
The river will be also be interesting. It is very narrow with a lot of meanders. Teams will need to turn left and right constantly. The water level has climbed a little recently so that it is about one centimeter above the level of navigability (which is fairly good for Czech Adventure Race – in 2015 water was about 10 centimeters bellow navigability). So the stage will be physically hard and there will be no rest.
After that, teams will bike back to the race center for a trademark ‘Bols cross’, canoyoning and the final trekking stage.
You can follow the race live on www.adventurerace.cz/live and here on Sleepmonsters.com.
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