Endorphinmag News
Bob Miller the navigator from Team Tecnu interview
1/ Adventure Racing world Series announced a few days ago the Nation ARWC for 2014/2015. What do you think about that ? Is that an advantage for you ? How can you manage this with your partners ?
From a "betterment of the sport" perspective I support these changes as they should make adventure racing more attractive to spectators who may feel more affinity to root for a country-based team versus a trade-team. They also bring the sport in line with most others where world championships are contested by teams, or individuals representing their country. Whether or not these changes will bring in additional sponsorship dollars, and more media exposure remains to be seen, and it will be interesting to see if countries governmental bodies will recognize and support it, and the developement of the sport, and top teams. The changes obviously pose some difficulties for our situation on Team Tecnu (and many other teams currently participating in World Series events), but in the long run I think it will be better for the sport if handled correctly. That being said, expedition-length adventure races attract an incredibly small niche of potential participants willing to tackle such an arduous undertaking. And it takes ALOT of time to build a top team and gain the experience, and chemistry needed to perform at a top level. In the short-term the rule changes could end up decreasing the quality of teams present at the World Championships, or even decrease participation, and benefit countries who already have established top teams from the same nationality."
2/ Regarding ARWC 2013 in Costa-Rica you will be a part of Favourite Team with Thule/Seagate/Haglof-Silva/Columbia VidaRaid and Adidas Terrex. What do you expect of this Race ?
I expect the elements and weather will play a large role with many extremes from super hot and humid to cold, wet and rain. It's hard for the body to adapt to such extremes over and over, so I'm sure this will bring some teams to their knees. The course also sounds daunting at over 800km, I believe it will be one of the longest expedition races in recent memory, so attrition will certainly come into play late in the race. For those pushing for the podium, taking risks and perhaps not pacing themselves properly the last few stages will be tough!
And finally, there is a LOT of wildlife in Costa Rica and not all of it is friendly (I'm thinking snakes!), and with 65 teams traveling through remote terrain, it's a real possibility someone's race will end through no fault of their own!
3/ Can you explain us How you trained last few months to prepare this world Championship ?
Our team raced together many times this year building chemistry. Over the past few months the focus has been on big volume training sessions, coupled with skills and time dedicated to specifics of the course, including heat acclimation. We have also really focussed on our paddling this year, and have really made that one of our teams strengths as we know it will play a huge factor in this years Worlds.
4/ You already did the Costa-Rica ARWS in the past years. Do you think it's an advantage for you ?
One of the reasons we chose to do the race in 2012 was to gain experience for the 2013 World Championships. I expect that will be an advantage for us. It was good to get some local knowledge, and be able to understand the terrain better, gain experience using their maps, and to get a better understanding of what the race directors might throw at us. We also got to experience the flora and fauna, how the tides can greatly affect a race, and how to deal with the issues that are sure to come from dealing with the heat and humidity. I am sure that racing last year will give us some better insight into how to manage ourselves during the race, and how to set a sustainable pace. We are excited to take on this course, and to be back racing in a country we fell in love with last year.
5/ Costa-Rica propose very different weather forecast with rainy and hot days, cold and hot Temperature, High Altitude .... Is this the main difficulty of the Race ?
Yes, the changing climate will be very hard on the body as will be the length of the course. We are expecting a brutal, arduous, and epic race.
6/ Many Teams encountered some problems with their feet ? Will you do a specific preparation for that with your partners ?
Yes, we'll treat our feet with anti-fungal and anti-chafe cream throughout the race. We've also been doing long training on our feet in preparation so they're ready for the abuse! We generally have pretty good feet when we race. It's a matter of preparing for foot abuse pre race, managing your foot care immidiately before it becomes a problem, and changing your socks often.
7/ What do you apprehend during the race ?
Snakes! Heat! Amazing and diverse terrain! Cold! Epic memories, and a complete team effort!
Endorphinmag
November 2013.
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