The countdown has started

ATC 2006 starts tomorrow, Saturday July 23 at 10:00 Greenlandic time (GMT -3). Today Friday is the day of preparations. At 12:00-3:00 PM, the teams were allowed to check out the canoes in which they are going to spend a considerable amount of time over the next days. To some teams, this idea is horrid while others are really looking forward to the canoe parts of the race.

The boats are getting ready to depart from Kulusuk.

The weather is beautiful. All over town and the nearby vicinity, you see team members checking out the landscape, wearing nothing but shorts and T-shirts (well, shoes, too…). It's not as warm as last year's first day, but then again, with a heat record of +27°C on that particular day, this is hard to beat.

This year we have eight teams from almost as many countries. That is bending the truth a bit, as we have two teams from Greenland and two from Denmark, but we do also have teams from the United States, United Kingdom, Iceland, and France. It's actually the first time ever, that we have a French team joining the race. Also, we have never had an American team that actually made it over the finishing line while still in contest so a heavy burden is also resting on their shoulders.

Sailing from Kulusuk to Tasiilaq.
 

Chance Encounter
What are the odds? Recruiting team members can happen in many ways. One of the more unusual ways of recruiting team members is when you find one while crossing the Greenland Ice Cap. Team Captain Amma Kleist of Arctic Ladies: “Recently, when I was crossing the Ice Cap with three other women, we suddenly met a group of British people crossing the Ice Cap in the opposite direction. One of them was Anna McCormack who was helping a woman in a wheel chair [!] cross the Ice Cap. We hit it off really well up there on the ice and decided that if we were a member short for our Greenlandic ladies’ team, we could just call Anna, and she’d show up. So we called and here she is!”
It’s become a tradition to have a female Greenlandic team and this year is no exception. Amma Kleist heads a team including veteran Pia Nielsen of Tasiilaq who started out as an official and is now racing for the fourth time. New on the team are Anna and Pitsi Geisler.

The Return of the Happy Icelanders
Last year, everywhere where the Icelandic team went, you could be sure to encounter smiles and happy laughs. At the harbour, where Team Intersport is fitting Styrofoam seats into the canoe, the situation is a pure flashback to last year. They just can’t help having fun.
“This year, our priorities are 1. to compete in the race, 2. to race in a better time than last year, and 3. to enjoy ourselves and be happy. No, wait, make number 3 the main priority,” says Team Captain Trausti Valdimarsson. “Actually, we are here to win,” chips in Stefán Örn Einarsson, the only new member on the team. He’s here instead of the unlucky fourth member who last year had to leave the race due to a very bad case of the runs. Back this year with Trausti are Pétur Helgason and Erlandur Birgisson. We are pretty sure they’ll be the sunshine group again this year.

Local Heroes
When the local team arrived back in Tasiilaq after five days of racing last year, their eyes lit up when they learned that they finished 3rd in the race. This was a surprise to most people, including themselves, but as team after team left the competition in 2005, they steadily moved up the ladder. Last year the team’s overall time was 60 hours and the objective this year is to do the race in 50 hours. “Ranking is not so important this year,” says team captain Pertti Frandsen, “2007 will be our year.” “Yeah, right,” laughs Klaus Geisler, “we’ll be number 1 this year!” Lots of locals hope so. New members on Team Neriusaaq/Thomas Kristensen are Peter Nûko and Per Rasmussen.

Team Building
A new concept this year is the inclusion of a team building team, a concept offered to major corporations and other large companies. Construction Company Pihl A/S picked up the challenge and have sent a five-person team (in case one of the team members have to exit the race, they have sent a reserve). Three engineers, an architect and an IT specialist won the seats on the team after 50 employees at the huge company had sent in applications to participate in the team building.
The team fared beautifully at today’s canoe training even if it was only the third time that they were in a canoe together (they’ve trained 2 x 2 hours on a small pond in Denmark). Their aim is to complete the entire race but there is room for adjustments on this particular team’s itinerary along the route.

Don’t feed the dogs, Feed the Machine
Everyone visiting East Greenland knows that there is no way in hell you should get anywhere near the sled dogs unless accompanied by their owner. A lot more approachable is Feed the Machine’s sole female member Bernice Pierson, who’s as gorgeous as the young J.Lo of yore. “Feed the Machine is usually a three person team of Christian Burke, Jayson Browne and me but for this race we have invited New Zealander Neal Radford along for the adventure. We met him at another race and really clicked. Feed the Machine has done a lot of 24-hour races in America, but we have also ventured out for longer races like the Patagonia Expedition Race and ECOMotion Brazil Expedition Race,” Bernice tells us. “As we don’t know the skills of the other teams, our main objective at the moment is to enjoy ourselves and, already, the surroundings have surpassed our dreams.”

Bend your tongue around this!
As it is more or less impossible for the officials to pronounce the name of Team WCup Issy les Moulineaux, they have already been dubbed Team Easy On, a small and kind-hearted joke referring to a Danish TV show. The four French guys, Captain Pierre-Etienne Leonard, Guillaume Lepors, Gauthier Bancarel and Mathieu Beunier are competing together for the first time. “Actually, Gauthier joined our team only a week ago, as the original fourth member broke his shoulder,” Pierre-Etienne tells. “We are used to doing shorter races so, for us, the first challenge is not to run too fast on the first stages and use all our energy too soon.”

The Clones are back!
Team PharmaNord are competing again for the third time. “First time around we came in third, last year we came in second, so let’s see how we do this year,” says Captain Christian Helweg of the Danish/Greenlandic team. Last year all four team members were of equal height and stature, so they were quickly dubbed The Clones, but this year there is an exception. As one of the original team members were injured earlier this year, Henrik Jørgensen has stepped in to team up with Christian, Martin Gjødvad and Carsten Hammerik. Carsten is competing with the four Icelandic racers in the category of Most Happy Racer.

They Must Be Giants
No one has forgotten how one of the members of the British team came in last year, paddling with only one arm as he had broken the other, yet still making top rank. The team formerly known as Saab Salomon are back with a few changes in the line up. This year, under the name of Team Eastgreenland.com,
Captain Ben Bardsley and Andrew Davies are back with new team members Jim Davies and Morgan Donnely. It’s the first time they’ve come with an all-male line-up. The legendary Nicole Davies of the famous Davies Adventure Racing family decided not to come this year, as she has already won the Arctic Team Challenge twice. Let’s see if Ben, Andrew, Jim and Morgan will secure a third consecutive British win of The Arctic Team Challenge.

Team eastgreenland.com

Preparations galore!
All day, officials have been working their butts off to ensure that the race will run smoothly when we start tomorrow. When the teams are in town, officials will try to make the racers’ stay as comfortable as possible – it’s going to be tough enough as it is when the race starts. But as an official said earlier today, paraphrasing David Sedaris: “As long as the racers are in town we’ll be nice. But if they are looking for sympathy along the routes they can look it up in the dictionary. It’s right between ‘shit’ and ‘syphilis’.”

Most teams arrived yesterday with plane from Iceland. Afterwards, teams were sailed with speedboats from Kulusuk to Tasiilaq and got the time to do some shopping before the welcome dinner. At the welcome dinner, officials and all teams were acquainted and Icelandic singer Hera entertained and was wildly popular. She ’ ll be back, singing at base camp later in the week.

Tonight after dinner, the first gear check will take place and then it’s bedtime for the racers before one of the world’s toughest adventure races starts at 10:00 AM tomorrow.