There are only a couple more days until the World Championships!  This is a great time to be following adventure racing, and an even better time for somebody with a ticket to Portugal . . . but I digress. This is my second installment in the pre-race coverage for Adventure World on the Adventure Racing World Championship; in case you missed our first piece, we outlined what the first part of the race course will consist of and what teams could be facing.  This post will finish our summary of the course — as compiled from the many team bulletins and other public notices send out by the race organization.

Just as a quick review:

1)  Stage 1 is a short variety show to start the race off; lots of photo opportunities and fun on the beach.

2)  Stage 2 has a long trek and a long bike leg, delivering 11,000 meters of elevation gain and probably culminates on top of something pretty tall!

And now for new material . . .

3)  STAGE 3
What goes up, must come down.  After all the climbing in Stage 2 teams were due for some descent. This Stage begins with a 20-25 KM downhill mountain bike that should be really fun.  I don’t know if they’re providing true “downhill” mountain bikes, or how technical the downhill is, but the race organization advertises this leg as “downhill mountain biking” so this should be a really fun stretch for teams.  I hope they have good bike lights, since it looks like many teams could do at least part of this in the dark.  After the downhill biking, it’s time for whitewater kayaking and the race doesn’t claim to have a “dark zone” in place, so either the whitewater is not that difficult or they’re really confident in their time estimates.  Speaking as a race organizer, you don’t take chances with whitewater at night (no matter how lenient race insurance is in Portugal!), so I expect an alternate route for teams arriving here in the dark.  It will be interesting to see how this plays out . . . because if teams start the “downhill” mountain biking early Monday evening, I imagine knocking out 25 km of downhill biking in just a couple hours, tops.  This would put teams on the whitewater paddle right in the darkest hours of Monday night and Tuesday morning.  I do have some theories on this, but you’ll have to wait for tomorrow for my “special considerations” section.

Regardless, after the whitewater paddling, teams move again to their mountain bikes for another 100 km or so. The organizers have announced 3,400 meters of climb for all of Stage 3, and since they start with “downhill mountain biking” and then switch to river paddling — and last I knew rivers flowed exclusively down hill — all the climb for this section has to be on the bike. Teams should be a bit rested, however, and 3,400 of up over 100 km of distance is not too bad. Regardless, I’d keep the bike tow rope handy here, just in case.

Trikke Scooter Riding At XPD Portugal 2008

After the bike there is another 10-15 km of roller blading and/or Trikkeing (is that even a word?).  This is most likely just a short “bridge” leg to get teams to their proper boat launch, since after the roller blading they move to a healthy 75 km of kayaking.  This is timed so that teams should be paddling most of the day on Tuesday, so keep an eye on weather forecasts for coastal Portugal on Tuesday!

Taking a step back, Stage 3 is clearly taking teams from high up in the mountains and moving them down to the ocean.  Since Portugal is oriented North to South along the Atlantic, there are a plethora of places this could play out and I won’t hazard a guess.  It is safe to say, however, that teams will be treated to a grand tour of Portugal’s high plateaus and lower oceanfront terrain.

Organizers estimate a total of 24 hours for Stage 3. If you’re following along, this Stage should culminate for teams around Tuesday afternoon or early evening.

4)  STAGE 4
This Stage is where the race really takes on a new character.  Teams will be dirty and tired by this point, having raced hard for almost 3 days.  The race started with a quick spectacle on the beach; Stage 2 is where teams first tasted big leg pounding climbs on the bike and on foot — but they were relatively fresh at that point. Stage 3 emphasized downhill and paddle skills, allowing teams to recover a bit (maybe!) and setting the stage for this Stage, Stage 4, to bring on a new dimension of challenge to the teams.  I’m talking about sleep deprivation and fatigue, and I think they will be a significant factor on Stage 4 of the World Championships.

Stage 4 has just two legs: one trek and one bike.  The trek looks to be around 70 km long and the bike, coming after the trek, is approximately 150 km long.  Total climb is around 4,500 meters and this will take teams a full day (23 hours, 15 minutes according to the official race estimates) to complete.  I figure it’s around 12 hours of trekking and 12 hours of biking, so an even dose of these physically taxing activities.

With this Stage wrapping up around Wednesday afternoon, a full 3 1-2 days after the race started, teams will probably need to squeeze in some sleep on this section and any challenging navigation will require additional concentration for teams to be successful.  This is the Stage of the race where experience in long races will be a huge asset to teams, and those less experienced teams will fall off the pace.

Of course, all the teams in this race are fairly experienced, having qualified by racing an official AR World Series event, so maybe we won’t see the chaos that this Stage would bring to a less-seasoned field.  Regardless, I think that Wednesday could very well be the crux of the race because after this Stage, teams can almost smell the finish line and it’s easier to stay motivated and keep pushing when the end is in sight.   Stage 4, however, is still a long way from the finish line and fatigue will be a complicating element for everyone.  Send positive vibes to those racers on Wednesday, they’re all going to need it!

5)  Stage 5
The final stage, according to organizer estimates, should begin for the lead teams on late Wednesday afternoon. It starts with a short trek (under 10 km?) and then teams will start their second long kayaking portion of the race. It’s about a 50 km paddle, so be on the lookout for Atlantic coast weather in Portugal on Wednesday night . . . right now, the forecast is calm and clear, so that could be an idyllic night paddle for the race leaders!

After the kayak paddling, teams finish the race with rougly 60 km of mountain biking, 40 km of trekking, then 90 km of mountain biking, and a final 25 km of trekking to the race finish line.  Alternating biking and trekking like this can actually be a blessing for teams, so they can change muscle groups every 6 hours or so.   There is 7,400 meters of elevation gain on this final Stage, so there is significant climbing involved and while this is the “home stretch” it should still be a leg burner right to the finish.  Based on time estimates from the race organization, Friday afternoon is when the leaders could cross the finish line with stragglers making their way to the finish well into Saturday.

These 5 Stages make up the 2009 AR World Championship course.  This is what teams can look forward to starting this Sunday.

I have some other thoughts on this course and the race format in Portugal, but I’ll save them for my piece tomorrow.  I’ll also take a look at the teams and make some predictions for who to keep an eye on . . . and for anyone from North America, who isn’t familiar with the teams in Europe, brace for some new names and a healthy dose of homefield advantage because there are some extremely fast teams in Europe that have targeted this race as their emphasis for 2009 — so they will be pushing hard for the podium!