Yeti Adventure Challenge Silkeborg
In Pursuit of Yeti
Rob Howard / 17.08.2018
The first full day of action on the Masters Course at the Yeti Adventure Challenge Silkeborg included all of the climbing activity in the race (and there was a lot), lots of mountain biking, and for those at the front of the race the first (and only) long trekking stage of the race.
Through the morning all the teams were on their bikes, with French team ASL Raid the last to get to the climbing at TA2 and pick up theirs. (I don’t know if they used their skates at all, or just ran with them, but they fell a long way back from the rest of the race field.) The bike stage between TA2 and TA3 was 90km and given as 5 hours for the quickest, but teams were not in the saddle all of the time.
Their first stop off was at Daugbjerg Kalkgruber, a tourist show cave in the extensive limestone mine remains in the area, and just for today there was a checkpoint outside and two inside. For today only too the lights were turned off, though it didn’t really make finding the checkpoints in the low passageways much more difficult. (One was at the entrance to closed passage used for maturing and storing cheese, and another at Jenz Langkniv’s Hule, said to be one of the hideaways of an infamous 17C highwayman. (There were lots of bats flying around inside and perhaps they were encourage to fly with the lights out.)
For some teams at least the cafe outside was of more interest than the history and Team Adventure Race ALS Denmark certainly made the most of it. A prolonged stop for coke, then coffee and biscuits, then hot dogs saw them on their way! (I think this team had already taken some short cuts on the course so they are clearly going to enjoy themselves and make sure they get to the finish.)
Sadly the cave was the end for Team Delta Mix. They raced Untamed New England just a couple of weeks ago and knew it was a tough ask to come here, but were determined to give it a go. “We entered Untamed, then this long course was announced in Denmark,” said Thomas Guldman. “We wanted to support this race was we know everyone and organise our own race too, so we came to the start line, but knew we’d probably not make the finish. We did well in the USA but it was a really tough and exhausting race. As a result it’s been hard from the start and this is far enough for us.” Despite being so weary the team could still smile for a photo outside the cafe. They knew they’d given their best.
The next break in the ride was an ascent and abseil up and down a 12m high bridge, and the racers did this one at a time. That allowed time for some naps down at the bottom on the grass, and it was a good day for napping and for racing, the temperature was in the low 20’s with a slight breeze and no rain.
The stage finished back in Viborg, quite close to the start, with yet more climbing. The TA was set up at a remarkable outdoor man- made rock wall next to a big sports college. Everyone had to climb and there was a choice of routes to try. (The marshal told me some were a bit harder than others ... but he wasn’t volunteering the information!) Lars Bukkehave was belaying Simon Grimstrup and seemed to be putting in the more effort of the two pulling on the top rope. “Its adventure race climbing,” he said with a smile.
Stage 5 was a combination of this climbing and foot orienteering in the forest and heath just across the road. Teams were given a 1:10,000 map of the Broddingbjerg area prepared by the Viborg O club, with 5 controls marked for them to find. It’s a hilly area and there were lots of foot and mtb trails over the whole area so once again good concentration on the map was vital.
Next up was more mountain biking, this time following a route south back towards Silkeborg and through extensive forest plantations. It was fast riding and the given fastest time for the 60km route was 3 hours.
By this stage Team Yeti had already extended their lead and they were to pull further ahead on the ride. The team has won the past two years (beating Seagate in 2016), and have two former MTBO World Champs with them. The Race Director (who won with them last year) told me their greatest strength is maintaining speed while navigating on bikes.
The reached stage 7, the 38km trek with enough time to complete most of it in daylight, and with the RD saying the navigation on this stage is very hard this will give them a further advantage. They will pass close by the finish in Silkeborg later tonight, but will still have long Canoe and MTB stages to complete before they get to the finish.
Behind them a tight race developed in the afternoon between Racing Denmark Adventures and Sue and the Powerpuff Girls. The were within sight of each other for much of the afternoon as they rode the forest trails on stage 6 and look likely to contest the podium places at present.
Things can change of course, especially going into the second night without sleep so keep watching the dots at www.yacs.dk
[No sooner had I written that than I heard Team 10, Sue and the Powerpuff Girls had put the wrong maps into a their bag for TA4, so they are riding to Silkeborg and back to get them. In case you were watching the trackers and wondering!]
SleepMonsters
