2010

Aug 27

Victory in Costa Rica - Pura Vida!

A happy team crosses finish line!

Team Explore won the AR Worldseries race in Costa Rica, after 3 ½ days, nights non stop racing. The team was very happy and have done a great race togheter.

During the long biking (that come to last 24 hours for the team) Team Explore had a great speed and with a high team spririt they manage to get distance to Quechua.


John Karlsson, Mikael Lindnord, Per Vestling and Jari Kirkland, of Team Explore, champions of AR Costa Rica 2010!

The french team Quechua.com ended on 2nd place. On 3rd place come the Colombian team, Bosi  Zoom Radio. Big congrats!!

- "The race was beautiful and big hands to the racedirectors; Alexander "Pongo" Barker and Johana Arguello Mendes with all volunteers for pulling of a great race, thanks!! says Mikael Lindnord

Aug 26

Team Explore fight for victory in Costa Rica

Team Explore continues strong in Costa Rica and fights for victory in the AR-contest. With only hours left to finish the Swedish team have a short lead before the French Quechua.com.


The last PC on the biking and while John is punching the PC the other...


makes some interviews with the media.

The two teams went out on the long-distance mountain bike at the same time but with only some hours left to the finish line, Team Explore is one hour ahead of the French team. There will be a fierce battle between both teams until the finishing line.
Four teams have withdrawn the race, including the two Finnish teams.

Aug 25

AR Costa Rica - stil in lead

During the day the team have done a really long trekking, in some parts very muddy and this section took the teams almost 10 hours (was calculated to 6 hours). Team Explore lost a bit on this trekking against other teams who was cathing up a bit due to that Per fell in the canyon section earlier and hit his knee in a rock. The knee is swollen and the team helps Per as much as they can. Per himself says that he is doing ok, and now later in the race he is doing much better.


This trekking section was a long and tough trek

After the long trekking the team made a biking and the distance to the other teams was growing again, then followed a trekking to the TA with the mandatory 2 hours stop and at this point the frence team Quecua was first in and Team Explore 16 min behind.


On the 2 hour mandatory stop the team washed their muddy and dirty bikes before they got about 45 minutes sleep

During the stop the team Explore eat and sleept good and when they went out again they left 1 hour 22 min before Quecua that took a longer sleep and also has one guy who is a bit injured in his foot.

Going out on the paddling as first team only 23 minutes infront of the french Quechua


On the paddling


After the paddling, and anohter long djungle "night" section up to the Volcano waited the teams.

Aug 24

Team Explorer in the lead in Costa Rica

Team Explore started in a convincing way in the AR-competition in Costa Rica. After the first day the Swedish team have a lead of two and a half hour.

The swedes looks great, they seems very stable and strong and run really hard, says the report from Costa Rica.


The start of the race with very wild rivers

But they didn’t get the best start.

After the first leg, a running stage to the rafting boats, they were in third place, and droped even more in the rapids. But when it became plain water, they came back and was able to paddle up to the lead, which they then held.

None of the other teams have been abel to match Team Explores speed and after a day's contestants the Swedish team has a lead of about 2,5 hours.

Aug 23

Costa Rica - Getting ready!

The day before the race day the teams started with an early breakfast, then they all went with busses – only 15 min away -  for planting a tree, this for environment compensation (CO2).


The little tree is put into the gound by Team Explore

Leaving the bungalow for a short "area-checkout"in the rainforrest

After the lunch the race meeting was held by the racedirector Alexander Barker and at 15.30 maps was hand handed out. The roadbook was not ready yet and will come later this evening.

Tomorrow the race will start with a short leman running start down to raftingboats, so it will be a tough start when all racers will try get a good position in the water. All rafts will have a guide that will go with the team in the beginning when the water will be very wild. After the rafting there will be a biking stage and then follow a canopy section which means a zip-line traverse that will be high up in the old rainforest trees.

The teams had to mark all the CP´s on their maps, here Per Vestling

During the registration the organisation also had a snake-expert on place that explained everything the teams needed to know about the snakes in Costa Rica and what to do if you get bitten.


There are 38 different snakes in Costa Rica - 22 of them are very poison

The teams are now in full preparations and maps are being plotted, and are waiting for the roadbook to be handed out so that they can do the final packing of their gear. The team has two boxes totally and the bikeboxes that will be transported by the organisation.

The start will be at 07.00 tomorrow, but the team should be prepeared at 06.00, so there will for certain be a short night for many teams.

More about the race: www.arcostarica.com

Aug 22

Costa Rica - Warming up

Now”part one” of the registration has started and the teams have done the registration and taken the team pictures at the Toyota Center in the middle of the city in San José. The race at this moment is really impressive with an organisation that is very well organised and have gone all out.


At the Toyota Center which the registration took place

There are a lot of media that is on place and will cover the race, and some big tv channels like ESPN that made a great intervju with Team Explore.

ESPN making the interview with Team Explore


From the Toyota Center, and San José, the teams has now been transported to a really cool place for accommodation. The hotel lies in the middle of the jungle with just small trails to the nice bungalow that is place above the ground.

Per and Mikael at the lunch that the organisation arranged

As the race not has started yet John Karlsson has already got lost in the rainforest. It was on their way reception to the bungalow and John was following Per, then John lost focus and watched a flower and the second after Per was gone. The rest of the team started a little “finding John” rescue and found him in one peace a little while later.

Lost and found, John! Here togheter with Jari.

Tomorrow the gear check will take place and maps will be handed out. Only two days to start now…

More about the race: www.arcostarica.com

Aug 21

Arrived to Costa Rica!

The team has now arrived to Costa Rica after a flight from Madrid for 10 hours, and are staying in San José at Best Western Hotel Izaru. The last member from US Jari Kirkland, also arrived yesterday and all team-members has got all their equipment along the whole trip!

Today the team has done the final preparation before the race; race food and equipment shopping, the bikes has been tested, food been packed and all equipment gone through and the team has also been training.


The team with Jari Kirkland, Per Vestling, John Karlsson and Mikael Lindnord, are prepearing at the hotelroom.

The team has had a team meeting during the day where they have gone through the race-tactic and are now all eager to start. Tomorrow the team will do the registration and also be moving to the race official hotel. Three days to the start that will be on Monday 23rd at 07.00 local time, and 15.00 Swedish time.

The race is still a big secret for all racers and we will update as soon as we know more about the racecourse. One thing that is sure though is that is going to be a wet race since it in the middle of the rainy season.

Outside the hotel it´s litteraly raining cat and dogs, and during the nights the sky lights up with the flaches of thunder.

More about the race: www.arcostarica.com

Aug 17

Costa Rica next

The first big race for the season is comming up, AR World Series in Costa Rica. 20 teams from around the world are gattering in San José on Friday for the registration and opening cermonie.

The Race starts somewhere at the Eastcoast on Monday 23/8 at 07.00 AM local time.

Non-stop race with 500km of jungeltrekking, mountainbiking, rafting, kayaking and ropeworks.

Team Explores line-up: Mikael Lindnord, Per Vestling, John Karlsson and Jari Kirkland. So far the team have had a very good season in Sweden and Jari Kirkland from the US had a nice victory at Breckenridge 100 a couple a weeks ago.

Costa Rica is in Central America with Panama in the south and Nicaragua in the north. Paradise for surfers and tourists.

Jari Kirkland took a impresive win at The Breckenridge 100. Photo Yuki Saito

Aug 14

Victory in the heart of the High Coast.

Mikael Lindnord won Höga Kusten Marathon Multi in Nordingrå on Saturday. 180 competitors on the same course in different catagories (male solo, female solo, team of two in mix, male and female). Mikael took the overall victory on the hilly course.

 " I focused on my gameplan from the begining and put my race pace little to high to feel good... a lot of the other competitors was fast on their feet on the first running section on the very hillly course. On the swimming I could take back ground and out on the bike leg I just came up to second after one minute. I cought the duo guys on the middle of the course and could realese the pressure the last 15-20 min and secure the victory."

Helena Lindnord fought hard and could finally finish 4th in the female catagorie after have maked a strong bike leg at the end.

Mikael on the podium. Photo: Magnus Stenman

15km of Mountainbiking. Photo: Magnus Stenman

After almost 45 min of running a 450m long swim was a great cool down. Photo: Magnus Stenman

The Multisport catagorie atract a lot of visitors. Photo: Magnus Stenman.

Helena Lindnord takes a rest after the finish. Photo: Magnus Stenman.

www.hkmarathon.nu

Aug 08

Big win at Aim Challenge

Team Explore wins the Discovery Channel AIM Challenge in Lindvallen. After 6 hours of racing Per Vestling and John Karlsson was the team with the most checkpoints.

We had a good race and used the bike more then last year and biked even more on the mountain and could get more points the last year, says a happy Per Vestling after the race.

Per Vestling and John Karlsson at the podium. Photo: AIM Challenge.