Upper Murray Challenge is one of the toughest multisport events in the Australian racing calendar. It consists of three legs: 28 km mountain bike ride, 27 km downriver paddle and 23,5 km trail run, with each of them being challenging enough to race alone. Each year only the toughest racers attempt to finish the full course Solo, and not everyone succeeds. Training for the race like Upper Murray Challenge is not an easy task, here are a brief outlines of what needs to be done in order to complete the event.
The field was extremely competitive with the winner in the Classic course determined during the final advanced mountain bike leg, with 7 teams racing head to head going into the last leg.
Greg Ley and Adrian McGregor of team Marshans showed off their outstanding riding abilities and came in first to the finish line. Family team, Rob and Felix Davis - Tandoori Chickens, dominated in the Novice category. Full results available here>>
Race HQ greeted teams with ideal racing conditions, with a temperature of 15 degrees and blue skies over scenic Lysterfield Park.
The first Adventure Cup winners are officially Maria Plyashechko and James Pretto in female and male ranking accordingly. They both managed to accumulate the biggest amount of points based on results in three brutal multisport events: Upper Murray Challenge, East Gippsland Challenge, and Grampians Challenge.
The full ranking is here>> and we would like to congratulate all participants that took part in the inaugural edition of this unique Series. We hope you have achieved your goals whether it was to finish one leg of a single event, beat your best mate or get on the podium of all three challenges.
PacKraft is proud to have had a relationship with the AR community over the last 2 years. With experience providing lightweight and durable packrafts for adventure races such as X-Marathon, and GODZone, the team at PacKraft have continued re-designing and refining their packraft range based on feedback from members of the AR community.
The newest version of the Duo ADV2 (2-person model) includes a range of improvements over previous models and designs.
The latest ‘Superlight’ material provides stronger and lighter packrafts. This means you carry less weight, and the packraft also takes up less space due to the more flexible material, while providing a higher tear strength than ever before.
Sorcha had a great season of racing establishing herself as one of the strongest Australian multisport and adventure racing female athletes with convincing victory in the Grampians Challenge. This is what she said after her race:
“I have found myself going to the Grampians quite frequently for training because it’s close to where I’m living at the moment, it’s a beautiful place to go to on my days off and has the only hills of any degree I can get to within 2 hrs drive! So I was pretty excited when I found out AJ host a race there.
The race started with the run and I looked around at the start line and thought, “it’s going to be a hard day!” The field was strong. My vague race intention was to try to get a bit of a gap in the run, try not to lose too much time in the paddle and then go all out in the bike, as it’s my strength.
Alpine Avengers were undoubtedly in a class of their own at Alpine Quest earlier this year, tackling the monster terrain like a finely tuned machine and taking out the inaugural title. Adventure Junkie recently touched base with the team to quiz them about their preparation, tips and see what they’ve been up to.
What attracted you to Alpine Quest?
Liz: I love the Falls Creek area and it is a favorite destination for good quality training in summer (although I must admit I have never been there in winter). I also know that adventure junkie always put on quality races and so this race was certainly on my radar as soon as it was announced.
2019 marks the 8thedition of X-Marathon so we decided to look back into the remarkable history of this event.
At the start of 2011, Serge and Maria, fresh immigrants from Russia, searched adventure racing calendars in Victoria and found there was a gap in the State’s Adventure Racing schedule, actually, there were almost no races scheduled at all.
They thought everyone needs to experience a real adventure, and so Adventure Junkie was born.
Daniel Jones, not a stranger to multisport and adventure racing podiums all around the world, confirmed his entry to Adventure Cup finale, Grampians Challenge. We welcome Daniel to the Grampians Challenge and here is a quick pre-race interview to introduce Daniel to those who don't know him yet
Just a quick Bio and AR racing highlights, what do you consider your main achievement?
Daniel Jones, 28, Coach Running/Multisport
Achievements:
Main Achievement - 2:18:40 marathon, but in Adventure, racing having a successful China Adventure racing career with Alex Hunt and Jacky and Mimi Boisset as part of Team Raw Adventure.
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I competed in my second ever X-Tri on the 23rd February this year at the Australian National Championships held in the beautiful surrounds of Lake Crackenback. I was looking forward to a cruisy race where I could just plod along and have fun with no pressure, as it wasn’t my normal sport of on-road triathlon.
We arrived at Lake Crackenback at 7 am when it was a chilly 2 degrees. Luckily it later warmed up to be a beautiful day. After setting up our gear in transition, we headed to a warm spot in the cafe for an early coffee while waiting for the race briefing and the start.
Luke Haines, not a stranger to the multisport scene, phenomenal athlete, dad and business owner. He's sharing his amazing adventure journey with us.
Your racing career highlights.
I have been fortunate to really get going since 2007 with good results. My first multisport win at the Mars Challenge in 2007 is one I will certainly remember. Having come from learning all disciplines to training hard to improve fitness and learning the skills required was great. Back to back UMC wins in 2009 and 2010 (then three 2nds in a row) along with Australian multisport champs win in 2009 was amazing as only 1 week apart.
The story of this race starts well before the actual date it took place.
Twenty years ago, when I had just started adventure racing and it was still all very new to me, months before an upcoming event, I was carefully assessing every piece of equipment to the best of my ability, making sure it was all correct and exactly as required.
The number of races had increased to a frequency of almost 1 per week at some stages and it was handy to have all equipment maintained and ready to go at all times.
Following the success of the inaugural edition of Alpine Quest Falls Creek, brought about by the Adventure Junkie team over the Australia Day long weekend, all efforts are now being thrown into bringing the 8th edition of X-Marathon Adventure Race to the next level, and delivering a high standard expedition adventure racing event.
X-Marathon is the toughest Adventure Junkie race, which since 2011 has been delivering spectacular and challenging courses. This race usually attracts the majority of top Australian teams.
Kathmandu Coast to Coast is one of the toughest multisport events in the world with 243 km of cycling, running and paddling. It attracts a 1000 participants field and requires a lot of endurance, skills and simply luck to finish. Here is cross-interview with Aussie AR and multisport stars - Tim Boote (VIC), Guy Andrews(QLD), Bern Dornom (VIC), James Pretto (VIC) and Alex Hunt (TAS). We've asked these questions - scroll down for some inside, pain and good advise.
1-2 sentences to describe how was your C2C 2019.
Your highest and the lowest moments and how you pushed yourself through.
“The trekking leg was like a mini Godzone ” said Leo Theoharis from team Thunderbolt at the finish line, while Kim Beckinsdale’s first phrase was: “This is the hardest course I have ever done”.
The inaugural edition of Alpine Quest finished yesterday and participants faced the extreme weather conditions only possible in the Australian Alps: 35 degrees temperature on the first day with teams trying to keep cool and hydrated turned into +5 and pouring rain on the second day with teams struggling to keep warm.
The epic 140 km course took teams on a journey from the Omeo Valley over the Bogong high plains into the Falls Creek resort with 5200m of elevation gain.
After a 2 hour bus drive descent to the start at the historical Hinnomunjie bridge teams took off 30 seconds apart to negotiate rapids of the famous Mitta Mitta river.
Check out how good you are as a team player and how you will fit in your Alpine Quest team
Imagine you can get anyone into your team.
I am talking all the fastest guys from Coast to Coast or other events.
I’d join Avaya or Silva.
I would like to have a team of good friends who are similar level to mine and keen to train and race with the same goal as I have. Would be good if we can train together from time to time, catch up for a chat and know each other really well.
What role will you play in a new team?
I’m a captain of course, I’m the most experienced in my team and know what it is all about.
I will just follow everyone, I haven’t done a lot of races, my team mates know what to do.
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King Valley Challenge has been on my bucket list since its inception back in 2010. The first attempt I made was in 2013.
I woke up unwell on the morning of the event and battled with FOMO, while helping with boats in between paracetamols.
Since then I had participated in only one other relay race, where I took turns with Serge, juggling participating and parenting.
This year somehow the stars aligned and we hit the road to King Valley late Friday afternoon, with me planning to race and Serge there to support me.
A lack of training never could stop me from racing, but it was a slightly nerve-wracking atmosphere on the eve of the race, my emotions all over the place, regretting going somewhere and whinging about getting too lazy. However there could be no turning back, except maybe if I fell sick (that had already happened once, so I could not be that unlucky!).
“Loved the variety, this is the best Sprint Series race so far” -was the most frequent phrase heard at the finish line a of inaugural Anglesea Sprint Series Adventure Race which was on this Sunday on Surf Coast Victoria Australia.
Adventure racing lovers from around Victoria converged on picturesque Anglesea on Sunday to compete in the Anglesea Adventure Sprint race and were treated to near perfect conditions as they ran, rode mountain bikes and paddled kayaks around the scenic coastal area.
Melbourne team “Triple R Thursdays” Deanna Blegg and Gavin Allen were the winners of the Classic course, with Deanna’s previous experience as a racer helping her team-mate Gavin over the line as he enjoyed his first ever adventure race. Deanna and Gavin said they enjoyed the variety of the course, from rock-hopping along the stunning coastline to navigating the single tracks for mountain bike, as well as the river paddle.
The exciting first race of the Adventure Cup Series Upper Murray Challenge was greeted by a beautiful Spring day as participants set off in Khancoban last weekend. The sun was shining, the breeze was cool and the beautiful blue sky and surrounding mountains made for an ideal background for the event. Much like the weather, the Upper Murray Challenge was challenging, brutal and spectacular in all of its glory.
Racers lined up for their race at the main plaza of Khancoban and soon took off for a 28-kilometre cycle. This track consisted of 4WD trails, three sections of single tracks filled with steep hills and descents, and some spectacular paddock sections along the river. This course was a great opportunity for the racers to check out the nearby rapids before paddling back through them afterwards. The ride was slightly modified this year and has since received a lot of positive feedback.
It has been discussed for a while and now Adventure Cup is finally official - three of Australia’s best Multisport races have been united into one ranking system to inspire and motivate participants to put their kayak, mountain bike and running skills to the test.
If that isn’t enough there is a $4000 cash prize pool for individual winners of the Adventure Cup series! What is somewhat unique is that all categories (not just solo competitors) can compete for the title and the series points are given according to race overall ranking positions.