In the sport of adventure racing, the discipline of mountain biking is a distance gobbler. You can be assured that at least, if not two-thirds, of the course distance will be covered on two-wheels, whether a 25km sprint or 800km expedition race.
If there’s one thing more difficult and challenging than doing an overnight or multiday adventure race, it is getting to the race. Finding teammates, recruiting support crew (assisted events) and coordinating team gear, support equipment, catering, booking accommodation, transferring entry fees is an administrative nightmare.
Paddling, like running/trekking and mountain biking, is a core discipline of adventure racing. In races we can be expected to paddle on flat water (dams and lakes), rivers (graded or white water) and the sea. We paddle traditional craft, racing kayaks, sit-on-tops, sea kayaks and rafts.
Browse any article, book or web resource on the sport of adventure racing and you’ll find the word ‘team’ spread throughout: teams, teammates, teamwork, team skills, team dynamics. You’ll also find other words like communication, compatible, together and success.
Aside from wilderness navigation, the other element that makes this sport of adventure racing what it is is the unknown, where successful teams and participants are those able to adapt to situations and conditions as they arise.
If the words ‘International Race’ colour your thoughts with Dollar signs and a feeling of financial despair instead of exuberant optimism, reconsider your options.
This document puts the standard rules and regulations of adventure racing in writing. These have been added to and adapted from Zirk Botha’s original adventure racing rules, which were originally created in 1999.
I put this document together in April 2003, following a number of badly organised races where CPs were in the wrong place, race briefings were delayed and very, very long and unnecessary.
The purpose of a bike tow system is to assist slower and fatigued teammates; faster riders slow down and slower riders speed up such that the team’s overall speed increases. Towing systems are usually anchored to the seat post of the stronger rider’s bike (tower) and attached to the front of the weaker rider’s bike (towee).
I’m not crazy about wet cold and my constitution doesn’t hold up to rolling swell on the open ocean; this explains why you are unlikely to find me doing a race in a wintery Scotland and I hesitate to enter a local event on the Wildcoast if it features a large sea kayaking leg. Race location is an important participation decider.
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