AR World Championships: Buff Thermocool Leads After Four Days

The Adventure Racing World Championships is well underway in Spain, with the best teams in the world slugging it out on a tough and demanding course that has already involved a lot of trekking, riding, and paddling. Now, well into the fourth straight day of racing, three teams have emerged at the top, and are battling it out for the title.

At the moment, Buff Thermocool is in the lead by about four and a half hours on Blackwater, who are approximately two hours up on Team Silva/Gerber Adventures. All three are currently on the 17th stage of the race, which is a mountain biking leg. The leaders are being chased by Team Outdry and Team DareDevils Adventure Racing, who are in fourth and fifth place respectively, but a considerable distance behind the front runners.

In all, there are 22 stages to the race, so the leading teams will have to contend with two trekking stages, a paddling stage, a mountain bike stage, and a inline skating stage before they are done. They'll also have to tackle a tough climbing section as well, so they're far from done and there are plenty of chances for the teams to catch one another before they reach the finish line.

For online coverage, SleepMonsters is offering regular updates to what is happening each day and Adventure World Magazine has been posting some great photos each day as well.

As a side note, it's interesting to see Team Blackwater, formerly Nike, still at the top and contending. The team continues to plug in some of the best racers around, and compete on a high level. I've heard through the grapevine however that Captain Mike Kloser, arguably the top adventure racer of all time, is preparing to retire after this event. We'll see if that's true or not, as he has been the face of adventure racing in the U.S. for some time, and with his competitive spirit, it's difficult to think about him walking away.