Great cycling …and great prizes!

On Saturday Jo Inge and Wendy competed in Challenge40 – a newcomer on the multisport scene, designed to show that there is exciting terrain also in South-eastern Norway. And no, it’s not just for over-40s…

Although we had a few minutes in a canoe, and Jo Inge experienced both swimming and roller-skiing, the main focus was cycling – including some excellent offroad stretches. There were 40 controls, with different points per control depending on remoteness or difficulty. The idea was to collect as many points as possible in 4 hours. Needless to say (for British readers) skiing over asphalt on wheels, in borrowed shoes, gave lots of points… whilst a control by the road might be worth only 1 point. So tactics was a big part of the game. Fortunately, only one member of the two-man team was required to complete the most “creative” controls (swimming, roller skiing and micro-orienteering). Pretty clear choice who that would be on our team 🙂

With so many controls to choose from, competitors were quickly dispersed in different directions, and it was difficult to gain any idea of how you were doing in relation to others. So we were both very pleasantly surprised at the prize ceremony: first place in the mix class and a whole host of fine prizes – thermos flasks, drinking bottles, squeezy gels, drinks powder and a camelback each! Wow – thanks to organisers and sponsors!

And to add to the happy mood, the overall winners of Challenge40 were non other than Bjørn-Håvard Evjen with partner Thomas Husum. So a good day for Ås adventure racers!