The AR World Championships have come to an end at the Bimbache Extrem in Spain, with the home team, Buff Thermocool claiming the victory. They crossed the finish line at 5:30PM local time last night after completing the final paddle and a short orienteering course through the city. They were followed by Team Blackwater about an hour and a half later. As of this writing, those are the only two teams to have finished the race, although it appears that Team Silva/Gerber Adventures will hold on for third place.
Buff said that the final paddle was a really long and tough one, and it took them about nine hours to complete. They credit their strength on the trekking sections in the mountains as helping to power them through to the win. Meanwhile, Blackwater said that a few crucial mistakes prevented them from contending the way they would have liked and indicated that AR legend Nathan Fa’ave really suffered down the stretch. As I indicated yesterday, he had to complete a trekking stage without shoes by inserting his insoles into his socks, and apparently he had a bad case of the sleepmonsters while on one of the final mountain bike legs, nearly crashing more than once.
Speaking of SleepMonsters, checkout their coverage of the race by clicking here. They’ve done a good job recapping events as they’ve happened all week long. Also, checkout Adventure World Magazine for photos and reports on the race as well.
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