Team Blackheart finishes 5th

Hi guys,
its Rob checking back in touch after a few good days recovering in New York with my Uncle Pete and Aunt Gail.

Thanks to Dave for attempting to keep the blog updated. I know it must be frustrating for everyone at home when the race coverage is so bad. I'm pretty confident the World Champs in Portugal later this year will have a good online presence, and my parents Robert and Julia will be on ground to keep everyone updated.

The Bimbache Extrem was a great experience. I don't think any of us expected the course and location to be so good. The caving/canyoning was certainly a highlight for us all, and hopefully some of the video I took with the waterproof Sanyo will turn out ok. There was plenty of tough trekking out there, probably not our strength but we gave it a good shot. The competition was super tough like we expected, and it will only be harder at the World Champs in November.

Here are some of our photos before and during the race, and some from the official photographers.

Stay tuned for Damon's full race report.

If you can't wait for more details- Kim has written a great summary on your Attackpoint training log
here

FINISHED 5th ... (I Think)

Ok, so, I'm 99% sure the team has finished and 99% sure they finished 5th. The broken English updates on the event website says that only 2 teams are left to arrive at the finish (Culerello and Nature). So judging by that, means our guys have already crossed the line.

One of the updates also confirms that the team listed in 5th place just in front (Oxigen) of Blackheart.com.au definitely didn't complete the rafting section as I suspected. So I reckon 5th ... and collecting 1000 euros prize money for just under 90 hours continuous effort.

CONGRATULATIONS

2nd, 3rd and 4th

Team Explore (Sweeden) finished in 2nd place about 5.5 hours after the 1st team. Jarad's team Vibram Sport 2000 finished in 3rd another 3 hours back. South African Team McCain just finished in 4th place another 4 hours behind.

Our guys are listed in 6th place currently but I'm hoping that the Team in 5th is a short course team which would put the guys in 5th and a shot at the 1000 euro prizemoney. Blackheart.com.au were only 1.5 hours behind McCain on the 2nd last stage so they should be crossing the line about 9:30 am this morning our time ...

Winners - TEAM MULTISPORT.FL

Team Multisport.fl (Finland) crossed the finish line a short time ago to take out the 7th edition of the Bimbache Extrem. Congratulations. They pretty much lead the race from start to finish. Judging by the time gaps from a couple of stages ago, the next team won't arrive for a couple of hours (maybe 4 or so) and at this stage might be Jarad's team Vibram Sport 2000. A lot can still happen so it's hard to predict what the next placings will be, our guys might still be 8-10 hours away.

Race isn't over yet

The coverage of the race hasn't improved. And while it seems the Finnish team still have a good lead (if they haven't finished already), one of the team members of 3rd placed team Buff Thermocool apparently crashed on the bike leg and will struggle on the last trekking section. I can't really work out the placings but our guys could be anywhere from 5th to 7th. Is it too much to expect some kind of decent update soon ... Probably.

There is a cool new video that's been posted where our guys make a couple of appearences.

Day 3 ...

It appears as though Team Multisport (Finland) are onto the last trekking and orienteering leg with a 3-4 hour lead over Jarad's team - Vibram Sport 2000. Our guys seem to have slipped a spot or 2 on the rankings but I'm hoping 1 or 2 of the teams in front are the short course teams that missed the rafting leg with the dark zone.

Team Blackheart.com.au dropped a bit of time yesterday - there's a new sleepmonsters report which says the guys had a problem with one of the inflateable kayaks. Apparently one side and the bottom went flat and 2 of the team had to run most of the paddle on the bank of the lake. Wonder who drew the short straw for that?

The course seems very hilly and teams even came across a fair amount of snow during one of the last treks. There's some photos up on the event website, but I couldn't find any of the guys. At this stage I'm hoping their still in 6th place overall but can't be sure.

Another Video

So here's the video that I mentioned in the last post.

There's an update on the event website that says 3 teams have now completed the compulsory 4 hours rest stop and have moved onto the final 6 stages of the race which involves; inline skate, trek, MTB, inline skate, trek and orienteering.

The time gaps for the first 3 appear a bit bigger now with 5.5 hours seperating these 3 teams. Not sure if the first team has moved further ahead or the other teams have dropped back. Hopefully our guys are still right behind!

The race clock should be just past 48 hours and the organisers estimated 65-70 hours for the fastest teams ... One day to go!

Night 2 ...

We all know that the race coverage is rubbish ... but at least we've got some kind of update this morning. Looks like the Team from Finland has arrived at the compulsory 4 hour stop (Approx. 60% through the race). they have a 2.5 hour lead over Jarad's Team Vibram Sport 2000. Our guys are in 6th but that's only 2.5 hours behind 2nd at the moment and still more than 30 hours of racing.

Since the last update on the split Kayak / Trek leg, they have completed a 49km MTB where it looked like the guys were moving a fair bit faster than some of the other teams in front of them. There was then a river paddle where apparently the guys fell in (check sleepmonsters report). Then a trekking leg that was supposed to have an adseil that was dissappointingly cancelled at the last minute. The next leg looked like a heap of fun and a real highlight - 22km of Grade 2/3 white-water rafting.There's also a video of the first day of racing on the race website. Rob and Josh make a brief appearance on their bikes. Looks like it's been very cold at night, judging by the clothing most teams are wearing and the couple of teams that have pulled out. There's only 9 teams left on the full course as the rest missed the daylight 8pm cut-off for the rafting leg last night. It's about 2:30am there now on the 2nd night so at least the 4 hour stop has been timed well and the guys will hopefully arrive and get to sleep while it's still dark.

Still waiting ...

Still can't find any race updates, but the organisers have created the provision for us to send messages to the team. Not sure if they'll get them but I've tried anyway. They have also posted team video's from the registration.

I'm glad that I've also found a website streaming live Eurosport coverage of the Giro de Italia so there's a reason to be staying up so late on a school night. The race has been going about 32 hours which puts them about half way through going on the organisers timings. Would be great to know where they are and how they're doing. Hopefully I'll have another update later tonight!

Sleepmonsters Photos

Still no race updates ... but whoever is reporting from sleepmonsters has uploaded some photos from the first day. Below are the one's of the guys.
Above: Getting into the wetsuits for the start of the caving. Hurry up Josh ... Nice Salomon Amphibians (shoes) Kim - Thanks Blackheart!
Above: Wonder who Rob is txt'in?

Promo

Still no update on progress. Nearly 2pm (race time on Day 2) and approaching 30 hours into the race. Anyway, I'm sure the guys are cruizin and I came across a 6 month old promotional video for the race. If your as sick of pressing the refresh button on your browser as I am, this should take your mind off it for 5 min.

Deafening Silence ...

So it's been about 8 hours since the last update I've found which said that 2 teams had finished the split leg and 7 teams were presently on it. That would have been about 2am in the morning - race time. Figured the organisers / media team had gone to sleep and we'd hear again in the morning. So it's now about 10am, bearing in mind it is Spain so that's like 6am in any other country. Now 25 hours into the race.

From the split leg they were onto a 49km MTB leg that finished 1000m lower than it started but the organisers predicted 4 hours for the fastest teams. There must be either a heap of climbing in there as well or really bad trails. From there it was Stage 7 Kayak then stage 8 trekking / roping section. With no leg distances or times your guesses are as good as mine for what discipline they're on at the moment, where they're headed, what place they're in ... etc.

Since there's no race news to mention how about a shout out to their main sponsor Blackheart. Check out the adventure gear in their on-line shop at http://www.blackheart.com.au/ for great discounts.

Day 1 Photos

The photos and video section have been updated on the race website. http://www.meridianoraid.com/raid/bimbache09/en/photos.html. I've pasted a couple of the interesting one's below. Looks like cracker weather for the first MTB.

Pre-race Video

Found a brief pre-race video hiding on you-tube ... Damon and Rob make an appearance at around the 3:10 mark for the last few seconds.

Night 1

There haven't been too many updates since the end of the caving but I'm sure that's because it's presently 2:30am in Spain. The guys were just over an hour behind the leaders after the first 3 legs but they took a bit longer in the caving than some of the teams in front and that time will come off their total. By my calculations they are well less than an hour behind the leaders. Probably at this stage they're happy just to have not crashed on the first skating leg of the race.

The first MTB leg of the race was supposedly 56km (far left to far right above) but would take the fastest team 7 hours. Judging by that sort of average speed the 3 mountain ranges they had to climb must have been pretty serious hills! The race passes the small mountain town of Valdorria, mentioned in the latest sleepmonsters report before the first kayaking leg.

Looking at Google earth ... again, there is a fairly big dam that (I now think) seems to be the logical place for this paddle (picture below). Although this is Adventure Racing so remember this is only my guess!
Section 5 (Kayak / Run) is referred to on the race web-site as what's commonly called a "Split" leg. The team of 4 will split into 2 teams of 2. One pair will start the leg kayaking while the other pair run. They will meet up and swap disciplines. The time for this leg appears to be a sum of the time of both pairs. These legs really test the teams that rely on only 1 navigator.

Google Earth

Ok ... So curiosity go the better of me so I've done a bit of searching around Google Earth and You Tube. The guys are skating from the Start town of Vengacervera (bottom right) to the lookout at Valporquero (Centre top). I expect that they travel up beside the river to the town of Felmin before climbing the switch backs to the summit.

Apparently the leading team from Finland reached the summit after 38 min and this is the view awaiting them.

Following an 18km "Hilly" Trekking section they complete a 3 hour caving section. Without knowing the rest of the course, judging by the following photos and video this will definitely be a highlight of the race.

Race Start

The 7th edition of the AR World Series Race - Bimbache Extrem started a couple of hours ago. I spoke briefly with the team just before the start and they were looking forward to getting going after almost a week of travelling and prepartions. I haven't found too many updates in the event website and Sleepmonsters, except for this photo. If anyone finds anything somewhere other than these 2 sites please add the link to the comments sections of this blog. Thanks.

Live Race Website

Hi again, looks like the Race Organisers have kicked-off their live website at http://www.meridianoraid.com/raid/bimbache09/en/inicio.html. Looks like they also have provision for satellite tracking or similar at "on-line follow up". Not all the information is available in English at present.

Sleepmonsters Update

The guys were right ... Sleepmonsters have started their coverage today. The race start is approx. 5pm AEST today!

http://www.sleepmonsters.com/racereport.php?race_id=7278&article_id=5815&page_count=1&page_action=rep

Course Handout

I just spoke with the team in the North of Spain. Today they had to complete some competency checks and then got a few hours rest in between the final packing. Presently they are busy marking up maps and planning the race.

The race will start tomorrow morning with an uphill 8km Inline Skate which the team says they are looking forward to. It will be the first time they have completed this discipline during a race. After that there is an 18km off-road hilly trek then a 3 hour caving and ropes section.

Apparently the caving and ropes section will be untimed so the team will take it easy and really enjoy it. From there, it's onto the first mountain bike leg and the race begins. Kim said, the course looks really fun and interesting. The guys think that http://www.sleepmonsters.com/ should have ok coverage of the event if the event website doesn't.

Hi from Madrid,
we are back at the airport waiting for the race organisers to pick us up an transport to the race location, near Leon in North West Spain.

We have had 3 days in Madrid preparing for the race. We all arrived safely Wednesday at various times as did all our luggage. We spent the rest of Wednesday finding our shuttle bus and then attempting to direct our driver to the accommodation. On the first day walked around the city centre checking the sights and generally stretching the legs out. We checked out Plaza Mayor, the Royal palace and a few churches and muesums as you do. There was even a massive demonstration in the streets for better work rights or something. The sun stays up past 10pm so it's easy to get sucked into late nights.

Yesterday was Spain’s equivalent to Australia Day there have been no shops open, and strangely very few cars on the road. We have spent the day sleeping in, phaffing, getting out for a skate then for a ride, phaffing, fixing Rob’s tyre which he split riding up some stairs. Stupid! We had dinner in town and there were heaps of people about.

This morning we finished off the huge shopping lift before heading back to the airport.

XPD Australia and Beyond ...

Last November team blackheart.com.au endured unseasonally cold November weather in the high-country of Australia to win XPD 4th Edition by 15 hours. In a race that included; a mid-race re-start to let the extreme weather pass, over 18'000 vertical metres of altitude gain, and a last leg, night time summit of Australia's highest peak the team managed one better than their 2nd place in the Whitsunday's in 2007.

Today Kim, Josh and Rob left Australia to join Damon in Europe to take on an international field in the Adventure Racing World Series Race in Spain - the Bimbache Extrem. The 4-5 day, non-stop race starts next monday and the team is hoping for some good experience prior to the 2009 World Championships in Portugal this November, and hopefully a good result along the way ... Good Luck.