Wenger Czech Adventure Race 2017
A Weather Change at the Wenger Czech Adventure Race
Jan Smolik / 01.09.2017
The second day of the Wenger Czech Adventure Race saw an aburpt weather change. After very hot Wednesday the weather started to change and in the afternoon it started to rain. This is causing huge damage in the field causing many teams to withdraw from the race.
After the trekking stage, teams picked up their bikes in the race center and moved to the second transition area in Boreček. The path there leads through an area of deep valleys with sandstone rocks and very narrow roads where two cars can hardly miss each other, and at the other end teams emerged at a geologically completely different place. The second part of the race has undulating terrain with basaltic hills rising out of nowhere. The most interesting feature are basaltic organ pipes which teams visited during the skating section.
However, the biking stage was relatively uneventful (as far as we know), but TA2 in Boreček is where the fun began. The first team to reach the transition was Finnish Multisport.fi just before 9 a.m. They were lucky because they managed to get through the paddling stage in warm weather.
The river Ploučnice is about 5 to 8 meters wide. It flows very slowly and it is meandering a lot. There are really a lot of curves. It was hard work, but the stage would be uneventful if it were not for the weather. During the afternoon, the sky became overcast and it started to rain. Interestingly it first rained only at the end of the paddling stage but not at the beginning. But this changed around 7 p.m. and it rained really hard. It was also dark very early and cold.
Team Multisport.fi managed to get through the paddling stage in six and a half hours. At the end of the stage they were two hours ahead of second placed EPO/Sport nás baví. From there the teams walked about 4 km to the start of cycling track built on an old railroad. There they put on their skates and started a slow but steady climb up to the organ-pipe rock.
Even the Finnish team looked tired and they asked if there is some place to sleep. The organizers recommended them caves a little down the road, but when they arrived at the next CP (which was climbing) they said they managed to sleep at somebody’s house in the warm. And because the climbing was cancelled because of heavy rain, they only drank two beers and pulled on.
This stage they were on is a trekking stage which will bring them to yet another skating stage and back to TA2 in Boreček.
Heavy rain and cold again took its toll on the racing field. The race is rather confusing now as many teams decided to withdraw from the paddling stage, but later on managed to find some place to sleep in the village and decided to continue again. Some teams decided to skip some sections. We need to sort through all the information and we will inform you in the following report.
You can follow the race live on www.adventurerace.cz/live
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