AR World Series Preview (part 7)
February was a busy month for the Adventure Racing World Series, so my posts previewing the full 2010 AR World Series circuit of races took a break. Briefly, while we were away, three teams earned their tickets to the World Championships in Spain later this year:
- Team Ecuador Chevrolet won the race in Ecuador
- Craft Ukraine won the race in Poland
- The race in Argentina was won by Team Merida Laboratorios Abraham
The month of March will let us catch up and finish our look at all the races in the series. We’ll also have more to share about these three winning teams later on this Spring. This preview series started back in January in case you need to catch up or review; now my focus moves to Central America and the Costa Rican race in the World Series.
The Costa Rican Adventure Race is 4 days August 23rd – 27th. This is the first year for this race, so I admit that I don’t have much background to go on in terms of “previewing” the event. I know the organizers are working in concert with the Spanish organizers of Bimbache Extrem, the 2010 World Championships, to bring in some European teams and develop the race program to the fullest. In fact, if you check out the photo galleries on the Costa Rican website you will see Anotinio de La Rosa — the guy behind this year’s World Championships in Spain — in nearly every photo. In fact, the pics look like a travel journal from “Antonio goes to Costa Rica” or something!
Costa Rican AR Mud
All kidding aside, Costa Rica is known as a beautiful outdoor playground and by putting the race in late August the racers will escape the crowds of tourists who come during North America’s winter. In truth, August is the heart of the Costa Rican rainy season but while conventional visitors might not like the sound of that, the jungles of Costa Rica typically just have light showers during the afternoons and it’s rarely a heavy rain. This race does require a support crew, and the rainy season can make dirt roads tough to navigate — so get the extra insurance on the rental car if your team is making the trip!
The race has advertised the standard disciplines of biking, trekking, paddling, and said that there could be rafting and caving mixed in. On careful reading of the race rules, it explains that the race will have a strict paddling dark zone from 5 PM until 6 AM, which means that the water is going to be “energetic” and that teams may have the chance to get a bit more sleep than in a normal non-stop race.
Preparing to Paddle
As I said, this is the first year for the race in Costa Rica so I have no history to highlight. Since the AR World Series has not been in this area of the world, it will open the door to the fast Central American teams and should bolster the Latin American representation at the World Championships in Spain this Fall. Of course, it’s also a chance for international teams to see the rain forest firsthand and race in a different part of the world.
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