AR World Championships Pre-Race Coverage (Part 1)
The 2009 AR World Championship starts this coming Sunday; as I write this, teams from around the world are making their way to Portugal, where the weather forecast looks downright perfect for a race such as this (sunny each day and around 60 degrees).
The race organization in Portugal has been very open about the layout of the race, and we can share some observations about the flow of the course and what teams can expect. All of this is gathered from public sources, so I’m not spilling the beans or anything . . . but a very interesting picture can be developed from all the various tidbits of information out there. This is the first of a multi-part series I’ll be posting as pre-race coverage here on the Adventure World ARWS blog. Be sure to check back tomorrow for the next installment.
Let me begin with a few basics: the race is roughly 5 days in duration, starting on Sunday Nov 8 at 10 AM and the course closing on Saturday the 14th (but the race winners, the future Adventure Racing World Champions for 2009, finishing earlier on lucky Friday the 13th).
Moving on to some more interesting material, I’m going to review the race step by step using the information at my disposal.
1) RACE START
The race is going to start with an exciting sprint-style showcase of adventure: climbing, swimming, kayak surfing and other media-friendly spectacle — the Untamed Adventure man on the scene, Colin (working as the English language media liaison for the World Championships), had better not forget his camera! Teams will transition from this party on the Portugese beaches to a short stretch of rollerblading and/or Trikke (a Trikke is a 3-wheeled scooter); mercifully, it looks like 10 km or less of this scooting shenanigans.
Another quick transition and teams will be trekking, and at this early junction of the race that means running for the top teams. It looks to be around 15 or 20 km of distance, so just a gentle warm-up for these world class athletes. After the run, teams hit the mountain bikes and will knock out another 15 km or so. This is all just “light and friendly” stuff, as I like to say . This is a warm-up for the real challenges ahead. Another quick 5 km on foot (more running!), and teams are done with this opening set of activities and the real fun can begin. Race organizers estimate all this taking around 7-8 hours, and since the total elevation gain for this portion of the race is under 2000 meters, I suspect that there must be a bit of orienteering in there to bump the times up to over 7 hours, or maybe the beach shenanigans will be more intensive and will take several hours? Swimming, for me, can be exhausting so I feel for any teams starting a race like this if there are oodles and oodles of swimming…
So that’s the race start, in a nutshell. Again, I’m painting this picture from the public bulletins the race organization has sent to teams, as well as other generally “public” knowledge out there so I’m not compromising the course. I have no clue where the racers will go, but I do know how their first 8 hours will generally be spent!
2) STAGE 2
After a race start characterized by several short, quick legs and transitions, the race switches gears. Teams will start a big trekking section, so they best take care of their feet from all that sand and salt water exposure at the race start! The trek looks to be around 50 km and should take teams well into the first night on Sunday Nov 8. Teams will move to a 100 km (approximately) mountain biking leg after this trek, so again another long leg in contrast to the short/quick start to the race. By now, the race should be well into Monday and there should be plenty of separation between teams. Further complicating this stretch of the race, the organizer notes have nearly 11,000 meters of climb on this Stage 2 . . . which is monstrous and signals that the race is all business after the easy opening sections. The end of this stage has another trek, but “only” 20 km or so. Based on the elevation profile, distances involved, and taking a peak at Stage 3 (lots of downhill) it’s safe to say this Stage is going to be mountainous and culminate up high in the Portugese mountains or plateaus. Does Portugal have real mountains? I guess I can check with the race teams on Monday and see what they say! Race organizers are giving about 24-hours for this Stage of the race to unfold, so the leaders should be wrapping up this Stage around Monday afternoon.
Stay tuned for my post tomorrow, where I’ll cover the rest of the race course. Later in the week, I’ll turn my attention to some of the race favorites and other pre-race fun.
