Musing and Errata on the world of Adventure Racing from the Yak
presented by MPGear.com

We've got an exclusive gallery of spectacular professional photos from the US leg of the Raid World Cup. The race was held this past weekend in Bend, OR. Once again veteran AR triggerman Luis Moreira has delivered:

Raid Gallery

The US leg of the Raid World Cup got underway this morning in much the same way as last year's start. The gate is literally on the slushy mashed potato like snow at the base of the main slope at the Mt. Bachelor ski resort...the racers have to climb straight up the face through the last few inches to hold out this late in the year.

It is as spectacular a way as I have seen to kick a racer square in the nuts (literally or figuratively depending on gender) first and foremost to remind them who decides how painfull this race is going to be :-)

Our good fried Luis Moreira has traveled from the frozen tundra of Toronto out to Bend to capture the action at the US leg of the Raid World Cup. We're going to do what we can to get a gallery up during the race, but 'Net access is only available at the media center at Mt. Bachelor Village so we'll have to see how that goes...may be Monday before we're able to get them uploaded. Regardless, we'll be carrying detailed reports non-stop from start to finish thanks to veteran Raid Guru Mr. Chris Archer.

With such a huge field of top ranked US teams squaring off against some of the best from Europe this leg is likely to be the most exciting and competitive of the series. There is no shortage of US teams looking to qualify for the Raid World Championship in September and with so much talent out on the course predicting this one is a fools errand.

Some of you may have noticed a pattern over the last year or so. If you've paid close attention you've noticed that every time the folks behind either the AR World Series or the Raid World Cup issue a press release the other follows suit within a day or so. This doesn't happen every time, but often enough that I've come to expect it. This isn't really surprising. These two series offer differing models for world-wide competitive adventure racing with the goal of crowning a world champion. Makes sense that if your competitor makes an announcement and draws some attention then you want to quickly divert attention back to onto your series. I would do the same.

So on Wednesday Dan Barger and Maria Burton (PQ's mom and dad) announced their latest creation, The Expedition Challenge. No less than 24 hours later news emerged (though not via press release) that Primal Quest has hired the former Odyssey pain-master Don Mann to direct their next event.

Now this could just be a coincidence. On the other hand it could be that given the one degree of separation between Dan/Maria and the Primal Quest of old, that we are now witnessing the first shots in a coming battle for market share and attention not unlike the AR World Series/Raid World Cup rivalry.

I realize that Primal Quest and The Expedition Challenge represent an entirely different model for adventure racing than either the AR World Series or the Raid World Cup. I don't mean to imply that they are competing in the same way. Neither of these races aspire to establish a standard for competitive racing or crown a bona fide world champion. There is a more subtle way in which any expedition length race must compete with every other expedition length race.

By most any standard the world is a big place and a year is a long time. Not so when it comes to adventure racing. You can't hold a 500 mile race a month after another 500 mile race and expect the same teams to attend. Racers need time to recover...physically and financially. You also don't want to hold your race in the same vicinity as another...takes away from the wow factor that is so critical to the marketing/media component of the sport that is becoming more and more necessary every day.

The fact is there are only so many racers in the world that are going to tackle an expedition race. Of those not all have the time or money to make it to every one they might like to. The best funded teams will of course have the luxury of basing their schedules around their competitive goals and the demands of actually training, racing and recovering. Many others will be forced to choose more selectively due to financial constraints and available vacation time.

When Primal Quest first announced a new event in 2006 they said we should expect to see it scheduled for some time in the spring. With the addition of the Expedition Challenge to the existing lineup of Raid World Cup and AR World Series qualifying events and championship races, the docket for 2006 is getting crowded. Also, lets not forget the other big draws like Patagonia and Hidalgo.

Our little sport is growing. We should all be thrilled that there is a vibrant enough market to support these new events. The competition for racers attendance and spectators eyeballs is going to heat up and with that will come more investment and better races.

If I were Primal Quest...I'd announce a date and open registration yesterday :-)

AR heavyweight duo Dan Barger and Maria Burton made news today when they announced a new expedition length race that will debut in Hawaii next April...oh ya, I'm goin' to this one.

The Expedition Challenge will be comprised of a 10 day race made up of 5 stages each 10-16 hours long, a time trial, an environmental project and a 36-48 hour non-stop race to wrap things up. This new approach is designed to improve the upon the traditional AR experience for the sake of the racers, the media, the fans, the locals, the sport...everyone.

Ok, I agree, it's...different, but I also think the simple fact of the matter is that AR, like all new human endeavors, will mutate over time until some form of balance is established that meets the demands and expectations of everyone involved. It's going to happen...it needs to happen. I used to play competitive paintball and I watched this happen to that sport. The problem with this is that sometimes what you end up with no longer resembles what you started with.

From where I sit this new concept that Dan and Maria have come up with preserves the best aspects of the sport while adapting to the demands of business and the media. Given their track record I have no doubt that they will pull this off with flying colors without sacrificing the "AR experience" that the racers are looking for and deserve.

That's not sarcasm or a joke or a seque or anything. Took the wife to OBX last week and just got back. I'm sure this is not news to you regulars out there. I'm sure you've watched the site stagnate in my absence. Very sorry about that. I left for the beach last weekend with plans in place to ensure that I would be able to check email and update the site.

I didn't realize Murphy was going on vacation the same week in the very same beach house. Alas, phone lines in the disposable houses built within spitting distance of the Atlantic in Kitty Hawk don't play nice with modern technology and I was left unwired.

Should have the site fully updated today. Look for closing reports on the recent Swedish version of the Raid World Cup, an update on the Bull of Africa, yet another race report from the upwardly mobile Dirtworld Adventure Racing Team who can't seem to lose a race to save their life, winners of the MPGear.com Readers Survey prizes, and maybe even some HUGE breaking news :-)