2011 in Review

Rob Howard / 04.01.2012

It's a new year! New races, challenges and adventures await, but before moving on here is my personal review of the highs and lows, and the trends in the year of adventure racing just gone by.

<b>Team of the Year - Thule Adventure Team </b>

The combined Swedish/French team of Martin Flinta, Per Vestling, Miriam Guillot and Jacky Boisset (supported by Eva Nystrom and Andreas Svanebo) have had an exceptional year capped by their World Championship win in Tasmania. They won their place in that race with victory in the Huairasinchi race in Ecuador, and added victories in two other hotly contested international races, Le Grand Raid in France and Expedition Idaho. In Sweden they pretty much swept the board in multi-sport events and the French pairing had further victories as part of an extended tour of Australia, including Guillot winning the Australian Multisport championship.

The team run an excellent <a href="#" onClick="javascript:newsitewindow('http://www.thuleadventureteam.com/')" class="main">website</a> if you want to find out more about them.

<b>AR Athlete of the Year – Miriam Guillot (France)</b>

See above! I don't think anyone else matched the number of competitive races she participated in or her record of wins and podium finishes, in both team and solo events.

<b>Top of the World - Sweden</b>

Sweden had first and second, and 4 of the top 6 finishers in the World Championships – and you can't argue with that! (It was only a matter of seconds from being 3 in the top 4). If you didn't read it at the time feature on why they did so well can be read <a href="http://www.sleepmonsters.co.uk/racereport.php?page_action=rep&race_id=9320&article_id=7423" class="main">here</a>.