ARWC 2007 Update

The Adventure Racing World Championship continues today in Lochaber, Scotland but the long, cold, and wet course seems to be taking it's toll on the teams. This is reflected on the leaderboard where things look very different today.

At this point in the race, only five teams remain on the full course, as most teams have now either missed cut-off times, or have simply had to drop out altogether. The biggest surprise for me was seeing Team Balance Vector out of the top five, and now listed as one of the "short course" teams, which means they have no chance at a podium finish. A quick glance at the latest race reports reveals that the team lost precious time because Captain Richard Ussher was borderline hypothermic and was forced to find shelter and warmth. They're not alone on the short course however, as perennially strong teams such as Merrell Wigwam and Salomon / Crested Butte are also racing for pride rather than the podium.

So who is left in the running to win the race? Well, it seems the best team adventure racing team in the World hasn't slipped much with Ian Adamson retiring, as Team Nike still holds on to the top spot and it's their race to lose at this point. They're followed by Wilsa Helly Hansen, who have run a very strong race, but are now pretty far behind Nike and have some tough sections to overcome if they want to make up time. In third place is BUFF COOLMAX, who surged past OrionHealth.com yesterday. OrionHealth is still in fourth however, with Bjurfors Adventure Racing rounding out not only the top five, but the list of the teams still going for the full course, and possible podium finishes.

The winners should cross the finish line sometime tomorrow, as there are still two tough mountain stages to come. But honestly, it looks like Nike will lock down the top spot, and the real race is now for second and third. The third position could be hotly contested down the stretch as OrionHealth still has a time penalty to sit out. It should be an exciting finish to be sure.

If you would like to catch up on all the action so far, be sure to check out this video over at CheckPointZero.com. It's a nice recap of racing from Day 2 to Day 4. And in case you missed, it, the video recap for Day 1 can be found here.