Team Adventure Junkie Conquering Taining Outdoor Challenge in China
The opening day of the 3 day stage race in China started with a 80 minute high paced Prologue, followed by a 45 min rest and then Race #1, which lasted 4:50 hours. Temperatures were near 30 C plus and the sun was burning hot. Adventure Junkie had a strong start to there first race overseas in this team and in China with a 6th place in the Prologue and a 9th place in Stage 1 giving them 7th place overall. The day’s highlight was the opportunity to race on the local tricycle.The Prologue started with a 200 meter sprint to the tricycle, where one team member pedaled, two sat in the back and one ran alongside and helped to
push. Alex Polizzi pedaled hard and Alex Houghton and Serge traded sprints and the team quickly found themselves in the racing up the field, switching to MTBs and continuing to make strong progress in the field moving into 5th place, once into the paddle section and the first time the team had paddled rudderless boats the lost 1 spot to 6th. A strong run to the finish of the prologue capped of a great start for Adventure Junkies.
Stage 1 started with a run through the urban environment with crowds gathered all along the course, honking horns and cheering. Adventure Junkies took off with a huge amount of energy and excitement, Alex Houghton showing his strength in running pulling the team along before too long the team quickly regained composure. Serge and Maria showed great strength through the muddy hike-a-bike, slipping and sliding on the steep slope while making rapid progress up the steep lops.
Before to long the first bit of hard Luck came to bit with a puncture, this was to inspire and Alex Polizzi to about trying to lead the ride in chasing back lost time. It wasn’t to far from the end of the ride before Adventure Junkies where hit again by a little bit of misfortune on the bike when Serges tyre peeled of the rim of his wheels. Adventure Junkies once on the boat (possibly one of there strongest disciplines), Started reeling back teams and with Chiru / Raide light in there sit made a mistake taking a “short cut on there map which didn’t exist. This was to cost the team 30 mins and make the rest of there day mentally tough. Once on the final run Adventure Junkies got it together to come home in a strong run.
Once through the finish Adventure Junkies found out they sat in 7th Overall 3 Minutes Behind Team RedBull.
Stage 2
25 teams lined up four-abreast for the mass bike start in downtown Taining, China the linup was based on overall results with leaders (Team Thule Adventure) getting front spot. From the start teams swarmed to the front either trying to get a good photo or safe riding space as the course drastically narrowed over a bridge and then into single track. The next major point for team Adventure Junkie and 5 other teams was the path choice when once again we had taken the wrong course failing to miss a sharp turn off. Once back on track the next two hours were dominated with a constant steep climb, where Alex Polizzi showed strong cycling form in assisting his team with steady progress back up the field. The ride was one of incredible views and support as while passing through a small Chinese village with 200 screaming fans created a great deal of enjoyment.
Once into the mid-race pause Adventure Junkies where able to work out where they stood in the proceedings and reset the goals for the day. After 15 minutes team Adventure Junkies clocked-out to start the downriver paddle through a spectacular gorge with class II rapids. At some places the river was only 3 meters wide with towering walls of green moss on both sides creating a near distracting beauty.
The paddle offered up few suprises as being reasonably fast running water it levelled most teams out. Once off the paddle the race was supposed to finish with a short steep run to the high point, an abseil to the canyon and then a short 3 km run to the finish line. With the heat reaching near 40 degrees on the never-ending stair climb Alex Houghton step up the charge helping propel the team through a tough point in the race. This was the first abseil of the event and also the first abseil for both the two Alex’s in team Adventure Junkie, under the guidance of Serge and Maria the decent was relaxing and beautiful. With an expected short sharp run to the finish Adventure junkie elected not to take on board extra water, as who needs extra water when the finish line is only 20 minutes away?
Well, as kindly explained by past competitors even before getting to China the “rounding error” in the estimated distance can be slightly off. Rather than a 3 km run, it became a 15 km trail run complete with technical river running, blazing hot asphalt and slippery mud. This pushed the team right to the edge and in some cases beyond. With cramps and dehydration building up, Maria led the way with a constant steady pace and enthusiasm. Once out on open road Alex Polizzi showed severe signs of dehydration and was placed on tow for what was to be a further 3 km’s. By the time Adventure Junkies had crossed the finish they had clawed there way back up to 10th after at one stage being last on the course.
Stage 3
Day 3 began with a bright and early start, something most Australian multisporters are used to. A 5.50 bus departed to the start line which was a 45 min drive throught the beautiful hills. This gave a good indication of what was to come (climbing). Once arrived at a small mountain village, where the local basketball court was our starting area. It was obvious that some teams had taken the toll of the past day and over extended run.
A particular mention has to go to the courageous effort by Peak Adventure captain Jarad kohlar as he appeared at the start line even after spending the last night in a Chinese hospital.
The tempo started easy, presumably because of the effect of the previous days or the knowledge that the only way out of town was UP. The course wound through some fantastic country-side with steep cliff walls, fine asphalt, and the constant corwds cheering “Jar Jar”. On the long climbs the two Alex’s continued to show there strength in helping Adventure Junkie keep pace with teams further up the ranking and also making gaps on teams close by such as Team Redbull. After a short Abseild /Jump into the lake and long swim to the shoreline, Team Adventure Junkie took off on the bike-and-run trying to reverse a 20 min gap on Team Redbull from the past few days. The team’s tactics were simply push as hard as possiable on the bike – run as they next leg was the favoured paddle. Bike – run is where each team (of four) is given 2 bikes. Generally, two teammates take off biking and lay the bikes down several hundred meters up the road and start running. Then the first two runners catch up to the bikes and bike past the next two. This is repeated continuously for about 18 km. Despite the running skills of team Redbull Adventure Junkies made it on to the paddle around 9 minutes up on Redbull.
Although, it would still going to take a great deal to make the final 11 minutes that Redbull had over Adventure Junkies in the overall classification, the team kept a belief that it was possible.
Straight out on the paddle luck wasn’t on the teams side as Alex Polizzi’s paddle snapped about 2 minutes out of transition. Finally once back on track with a new paddle the team started to turned around there luck with a strong steady paddle. Maria showed great mental strength in the final km’s of the paddle willing the team on. Going in to the last hard urban run to the finish Adventure Junkies pushed to their limits trying to stretch as much time from Redbull as possible.
Once Crossing the line you could feel the adrenalin flowing in the team eagerly waiting to see when Redbull would arrive. Time seemed to stand still till finally around the corner they appeared. From quick mental calculation Team Adventure Junkies couldn’t tell if they had done it. Unfortunately when the final results arrived the team and missed out on making up 20 minutes in the final stage by just 2.
Team Adventure Junkies ended up finishing 10th overall in a respectable effort and the first time the two Alex’s had raced overseas.
The team would like to give special mention to All competitors, organisers and volunteers for the hard work put in before, during and after the race, as with out them there wouldn’t be a competition and such great camaraderie with in the athletes.
Also a big mention must go to team sponsors (naming Sponsor) Adventurejunkie.com.au and (Nutrition Sponsor) Shotz Sports Nutrition, for Helping us get there to compete and fuelling us with everything we needed to compete at the highest level.
On a personal (Alex Polizzi) note I would like to send my greatest appreciation to the team at Evolution Cycles (Special mention to Tim Devlin) for putting together what I believe is the fastest mountain bike I have ever ridden and also supplying me with what ever equipment I could possibly require. To Campbell Maffett for his continued help in developing my running, Shotz Sports Nutrition for suppling the best race nutrition on the market and last but not least Rosie McCaughey (ESS Sports) for putting me back in one piece after Marysville to Melbourne.
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