Every second Saturday in September Lienz in Austria is the venue of the hardest teams extreme race in the world. The team`s consisted of four members - mountain runner, paraglider, mountain biker and a kayaker.
It`s a challeging race and I was super excited to take part for the second time. Our team was from Austria, called GSA and consisted of Hraschan Peter, Schweiger David, Müller Daniel and myself. Team`s director and sponsor was dr mag Manfred Macek, boss of GSA, enthusiastic archeologist and a passionate supporter of all extreme sports. David (the paraglider) and myself decided to come to Lienz a bit earlier and train a bit more on the course, which paid off in the end.
When Daniel finished his part it was my turn then. Kayaker`s course was versatile. First there was running, crossing the river and running to the 7-m jump into green water, then downstream section on Drava river, first upstream section (2 upstream gates), followed by slalom section consisted of 16 gates. Then second upstream section and really exhausting third upstream section (4 upstream gates). After confluence with Isel we needed to paddle upstream, then portage kayak above Isel katarakt where the grip of my new Fiveten shoes Access was a huge advantage (thank you Alpin Action for that), navigate kayak downstream again and finally ferry glide across Isle, portage the cataract for the second time and paddle upstream to next bridge. After getting out of river the last act was a kilometre run till finish line at Lienz's main square. I was careful about that last bit but both my legs did an amazing job.
Result: out of 130 teams I managed to take 27th place overall and 7th out of amateur teams. Team GSA placed 81th place overall.
Even though I didn't improve the result from 2015 (23th/5th place) I'm more than satisfied with the performance of our team and myself as well.
Lienz, see you next year! :}
Thanks to sponsors: GSA, KdBs, Sandi line, Alpin action, Planet zdravja, WWTc, ABP sport nutrition.
Matic Terčelj
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