Wenzhou Outdoor Challenge
Team NZ Adventure Surive The Inline Skates and Lead The Race
Team NZ Adventure / 13.04.2014
Day one for Team NZ Adventure at Wenzhou has been feared for the past couple of months due to the inclusion of an 'inline skating' 'roller-blading section! Not commonly seen in New Zealand races due to adventure racing being seen as anti tarseal/bitumen as much as possible! The team knew the first day would be a matter of survival, aiming to minimise the losses and just raced controlled.
Dougal was the most fearful of the inline skating with a high centre of mass not assisting with the balance issues found in inline skating. As well as this everybody was well aware that rollerblading is one thing, yet rollerblading with a hundred of other athletes; on Chinese roads with cCinese pedestrians was another challenge in itself.
They managed to survive the stage with no major incidents and arrived at the non-timed descent into the kayaks in tenth place. The team losing Glen in the late stages were fortunate to acquire Bob Maclachlan a bit of an enigma in the New Zealand white water scene, Bob will pretty much make any self propelled water craft go fast. They chewed through a few places in the kayak.
Next up was the Mountain Bike, the team reportedly made an early mistake and forgot maps, a team decision was made to work off memory, which they managed to do arriving at the flying fox discipline in second place just after Red Bull NZ team.
Following this was the final run section, hilly and technical! Couldn't have suited the team more! They managed to pass all teams and finish in first place on day, nine minutes up on Red Bull.
Considering the goal was top five for the day the team was stoked with the result, and felt due to the loss of maps they actually paced themselves reasonably well.
Conditions are reportedly HOT. Day two has a large Mountain Bike leg and long run leg which will suit the team and hopefully allow them to extend their lead.
Anything can happen in China however, the focus will be guarding the lead and minimising mistakes.
You can follow the Team NZ Adventure team blog at http://www.teamnzadventure.com/#!blog/c1ixl
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