Yeti Adventure Challenge Silkeborg
Team Yeti Win The First YACS Expedition Race
Rob Howard / 18.08.2018
After more than 43 hours of non-stop racing Team Yeti cycled across the finish line in Silkeborg to win the Masters course, the first expedition length race at the event, and the first AR European Series race in Denmark.
The team are made up of some of Denmark’s most accomplished adventure racers are serial winners of this race, so they were clear favourites before the start, and lived up to their reputation and others expectations. They lead almost from start to finish and opened up a big lead but never let their concentration lapse or their pace drop.
After completing the final mountain bike stage in the forests around Silkeborg they rode through the town into the Papirfabrikken complex which is the hub for all the races to the applause of the gathered crowds. This was one of the best supported expedition race finish I’ve seen! They crossed the line at 1.40pm and their race time for the 400km course was 43 hours 40 minutes.
Four seats were set out for them and a table of drinks, plus huge sandwiches and fruit ... and there were 4 medals on the table too. They were in no hurry to sit straight away, and were happy to chat to reporters and organisers under the finish arch for a while but then looked relieved to pull off their shoes and socks and sit for a while. That is except for Laura Knudsen who ignored the chair and sat on the pavement to tuck into her sandwich.
On the finish line Bjarke Refslund told me; “We have experienced of maybe 20 World Series races between us but it was good to race a long course here at home. I think it was a good course with plenty of challenge and some beautiful places, they did a good job on that.
“For me the hardest part was on the trekking and canoeing. I’d had a tough time on the trek and the team pulled me through. Then we were struggling to stay awake in the canoes and had to take turns to sleep. During the whole race we had only 10 minutes sleep after the trekking.” He added, “We would like to see more international teams come here to race, so maybe next year.”
Knudsen agreed the trek was tough. “We ran it all the way,” she said, “and it took us 6 hours so I think slower teams will find it a hard challenge.” She too added how good it would be to have more international teams come next time, but if they do they will have a hard time beating this Yeti squad.
The team win a first prize of 5000Euro and retain their title as YACS champions.
You can follow the progress of all the teams at www.yacs.dk
SleepMonsters
