 By Jan SmolíkPhotos by Alexei Chistyakov
The Bergson Winter Challenge, Poland, is the only winter race of the AR World Series. This year, participants have 120 hours (5 days) to complete the 407 km route.
After last year’s unusually warm winter, when even the British team complained about the warm weather, this year it proved to be real again. Heavy snowing just a few days prior the race caused difficult terrain, and temperatures reaching – 20 degrees centigrade made the race really difficult.
Stage 1 of the competition started on Monday February 23 exactly at noon. The first discipline was five kilometers of orienteering around the town of Rabka-Zdroj. Although it all seemed to be easy, deep snow-drifts made moving difficult.
This stage was won by Czech team OpavaNet/Tilak/K&K, who at one point followed a local man with a dog to make their movement easier. Dogs are common in Polish races - on last year’s Zamberlan Adventure Trophy, a dog walked with them almost half of the race and finally Ales Dytrt brought it home.
The next stage was 29 kilometers of cross-country skiing. It took teams a lot of effort to finish this section as skis floundered in deep powder snow. Part of the race saw two Czech teams in the lead (with AlpinePro/Nutrend/Merida being second), but seven of the eight teams in the race were within 15 minutes of one another. | 
