This past weekend a new world champion was crowned in the Adventure Racing World Series. Or should we say, a familiar team was named champion once again. New Zealand's Team Seagate once again showed why they are the best team in the world, dominating all of the competition at this year's championship race to claim their fourth straight title and fifth overall.This year's world championship was hosted by the Cowboy Tough race in Wyoming, bringing the competition to the U.S. for the very first time. The event featured all of the usual adventure racing disciplines, including trekking, trail running, mountain biking, paddling, climbing, navigation, and so on. As usual, the course was a tough one, covering some 450 miles (724 km) over six days. It took Seagate – which consists of Joanna Williams, Bob Mclachlan, Stuart Lynch, and Chris Forne – just 79 hours, 13 minutes, and 30 seconds to cover that distance.
As of this writing, six total teams have completed the race with Team Haglofs/Silva of Sweden taking second place 4.5 hours behind senate, and American squad Team Adventure Medical Kits claiming third another half hour back. That leaves the majority of the teams to still cross the finish line, with most having about three more days to wrap up the race. With the winners now declared, the remaining squads are racing against their own goals and expectations, and for the pride of knowing that they completed one of the toughest endurance challenges on the planet.
With the world championships wrapped up in August this year, the rest of the AR schedule looks fairly quiet throughout the remainder of the year. That means the teams and race organizers will begin looking ahead to 2018, which will be filled with a number of great races once again. With qualifying races held on six continents, there should be plenty of action to follow. And next year's race will be held on Reunion Island in the Indian Ocean, which should be a beautiful and difficult destination indeed.
Congrats to Seagate on another successful season and to all the teams that raced in the AR World Series this year.
