Sweden and Norway
16 - 23 August, 2006
The 2006 Adventure racing world championships were held in Northern Sweden and Norway in Lapland, the land of the Sami people. Mikael Nordstrom, adventure racer and Event organiser had taken on the challenge to organise the best world championships course to date and he did not disappoint. 
The course started in Hemavan in Sweden and the first 24 hours saw fast and furious racing with short exciting stages. A le mans start onto a short (2km) uphill rollerblading stage barely spread the field out before the first Mountain-bike stage, a 2hr single-track ride through ski-field tracks. As rollerblading is not exactly a strong suit of our team we found ourselves back in about 25th place (out of 32 starting teams) going into the mountain biking. Other Kiwi teams Port Nelson and Golite were there to keep us company having displayed similarly stunning rollerblading skills. Merrell was the best of the Kiwi’s at this stage, having run the hill carrying their skates rather than bothering to put them on! With overtaking difficult on the narrow technical tracks the mountain biking did little to change positions but allowed leading teams to start making a break on the field as slower riders caused hold ups for those behind.
Off the bikes we grabbed wetsuits and helmets and started making our way back up the ski field towards the start of the canyoneering stage. This stage was one of the highlights of the race, a stunning river gorge with rock slides and high jumps – a good adrenaline
Wetsuits were a necessity though with the water a chilly 8 degrees. There were no chicken lines either, in the words of Mika who gave the safety briefing – “any competitor who doesn’t do one of the jumps can walk out of the canyon, go back to the hotel, pack their bags, take a bus, get on the plane, fly home, take a taxi, unpack, sit on the couch, watch a movie… etc until someone stopped him (I guess doing the same safety speech 30 times must get a little tedious). Nobody was sent home, there was too much at stake for a team to let one member chicken out. 
Returning to TA1 again (the first day was well organised for spectators and media – we visited TA1 4 times) we got back on our bikes and headed out once more. The bike took us to a lake where one lucky racer (Wayne in our case) got to swim out to a buoy and dive to retrieve the map for the next section. This was a short trekking stage with some tricky navigation. With Brent in the lead we posted a good time through this stage and made up a few places. Unfortunately though, I was starting to struggle. I had been unwell just before the race and the fast start was taking its toll. Before getting on the bikes again I offloaded some gear on to the other guys but continued to struggle as we biked towards the next trekking stage. Transitioning for the trek I thought I was good to go again but not more than an hour into the climb I had really hit the wall. Sonya was carrying my pack and the gear that I had not given to the other guys but even carrying nothing I had no strength left. The decision was made to stop and have an hours rest under an overhanging rock on the hill-side. By this time (around midnight) I was feeling so shot that I could not see how I was going to be able to finish the stage, let alone the race. With rain starting to set in we crammed into the dry spot under the overhang and got into our sleeping bags, boots and all, to try and get a few minutes of uncomfortable sleep. 
What a difference a bit of rest makes! Even though we struggled to get any sleep, after an hour of rest I was good to go again and we were back on our way. Moving faster now and with Brent doing some superb navigation in the thick fog we made good time on the rest of the stage, returning to our bikes mid morning in about 10th place. A few more hours on the bikes and we were back at TA1 once again. After leaving this time we would not return until the finish of the race, nearly 5 days later.
Now the stages became longer and we travelled to more remote locations with fewer spectators about. The race took on more of an expedition feel rather than the fast multisport race it had been so far.
150km of mountain biking took us well into Norway next. This ride was split into two by the “Red bull challenge”. A flying fox on steroids, this fast way to the bottom of the ravine reached speeds over 100kph and was stopped at the bottom end by a complex setup of ropes and bungys and a not insignificant amount of whiplash. Emerging mostly unscathed (Fatboy Wayne managed to clip some rocks upon launch) we completed the 2nd half of the bike and took our first real sleep (2 • hours) before starting the first mountaineering stage. The highest point of the race was reached on this stage at about 1800m. The stage also included hundreds of metres of fixed ropes as we traversed a knife edge ridge and also put our ice axes, crampons and climbing rope into use for the first time as we descended the Okstindan Glacier. Unfortunately the usually stunning views were obscured by mist and fog. However this probably suited us as the tricky navigation slowed some of our competitors while Brent led us through again with scarcely a step in the wrong direction. 
A short downhill mountain bike stage took us to TA4 where an Orienteering course had to be completed before continuing. The orienteering was extremely difficult navigation through often dense bush. Nike Powerblast worked closely with Golite to complete this stage and in return gave Golite a ride back across the river to TA4 in a rowboat that Nike had “borrowed” for that purpose. We also managed to find craft with which to cross the river and avoid a few extra kms of running (or a cold swim). We completed the orienteering just before night fell at the end of day 3.
A 2 hour sleep at transition to recharge the batteries and then we headed out into the night on another 75km bike leg which would take us to another trekking stage along the Seven Sisters range. Biking most of the way with Merryl and Team FJS we arrived at the start of the trek just as Golite and Aberdeen were heading out.
This stage saw the changing fortunes of a few teams. Golite finished the trek first out of this group, followed by us just under an hour later and FJS a similar distance back again. Unfortunately for Merryl, Robyn Beincasa was suffering from a case of trenchfoot on this stage and had to endure severe pain as the steep terrain played havoc on her injured feet. Merryl was not the only team with foot trouble on this leg, Warren from Aberdeen had a toe crushed by a “chilly-bin sized rock” that was dislodged while ascending a steep gully. Although Aberdeen continued on they eventually had to withdraw from the stage and the race when the pain became too much. Consolation for Warren came from Merryl who commented on what a “hard bastard” he was for continuing as far as he did. This comment coming from the original “hard bastards” of adventure racing. 
The first significant roller blading stage was tackled after a short sleep. Our departure from transition on rollerblades provided great amusement for all around, stiff muscles combined with a general lack of skills resulting in one crash and some very inelegant skating. Once into the stage we managed to get things going a bit better and completed it in reasonable time (although still almost an hour slower than the fast skating Scandinavian teams).
Now came the stage that gave the kiwi teams an edge. A mammoth 12 hr sea kayak stage through the islands and fiords off the coast of Norway. Sleepmonsters attacked all of us at some point on this stage although we pushed through and made up time on all the teams ahead of us which at this point was only Finland, Nike, Lundhags and Golite.
Finishing the stage minutes behind Golite and not much further behind Nike and Lundhags it was tempting to push on to try and stay with these teams. We were behind on sleep though and to do so would have only resulted in us struggling with sleepmonsters and exhaustion. So we took a 3 hour sleep before starting the last major leg – a mountaineering stage that would take us up and onto the stunning Svartisen Glacier. 
Well rested we quickly caught up with FJS who had passed us while we were sleeping and as we dropped down to a river crossing we also caught Merrell. Merrell were in trouble at this point – Robyn Benicasa was having to endure severe pain her injured feet and Merrell were deciding whether or not to continue with the race. (They did continue but were eventually forced to retire on the Svartisen glacier where the extra pressure caused by using crampons proved too much for Robyn – that she made it that far is a tribute to her endurance and determination.)
Back at the river we were having trouble getting across. Our first attempt at fording nearly turned to disaster with Wayne almost getting swept away and we backed out again a little shaken. With a footbridge marked only a kilometre downstream we decided to cut our losses and cross the river there. Unfortunately the bridge had long since fallen down. After another unsuccessful fording attempt and with night falling we decided with Merrell and FJS that the best option was to travel a further 2km through untracked bush to where the main road crossed the river. Progress was slow through the bush and even slower when a wasp nest was stirred up and both Brent and Jeff Mitchell from Merrell were stung. Finally we made it to the bridge and back up the road to where we should have crossed the river. Our detour had cost us over three hours and with it any chance of catching any of the top four teams. We now had to focus on catching Spyder who had crossed successfully behind us and now had a 2 ½ lead over us. 
Leaving Merrell and FJS behind we made our way through the night up a rocky river valley. By day break we had made up ½ an hour on Spyder but they were running on empty and an hour later as we reached the glacier we were only an hour behind. The glacier section was a marked path through a labyrinth of crevasses and even included an ice cave to travel through.
Cheered on by my partner Fiona who was a safety volunteer on the glacier section we raced off the glacier and caught up with Spyder as we reached the end of the trek and transitioned into kayaks.
4 stages now remained in the race. Spyder stopped for a rest on the kayak and so by the time we finished the next stage (uphill rollerblading with 6km of gravel – thanks Mikael) we were reasonably safe in 5th with a healthy 2hr lead over Spyder. 
With our position secure we could relax a little and enjoy the caving, although ascending ropes in waterfalls and crawling through a cave where the water temperature was a chilling 4 degrees was sometimes a little hard to enjoy. Finishing the stage as the sky darkened once more we transitioned for the last time for the final leg – a 60km road ride to the finish. The Sleepmonster wasn’t quite done with us yet though and the 2nd half of the ride was a stressful affair as we had to work hard as a team to keep Wayne from falling asleep on the bike (This happened to a member of team Kustjagarna, the rider suffering concussion and the team having to pull out of the race less than 50km from finishing). Finally we made it back to Hemavan and the race finish at about 2am, in 5th place, after 5 ½ days of tough racing on a spectacular course.
We’re stoked to have placed 5th at the world championships of adventure racing. Better still to know that eliminating a few mistakes would have put us in the chase for 3rd. We’re always grateful for the fantastic support we get from all our sponsors and are looking forward to more racing over the coming year. For now though, I have to return to work and try and catch up after 10 weeks off – I think I’d rather be racing…
Finished! From Left, Brent, Sonya, Myself and Wayne 