Adventure Racing World Series


The Adventure Racing World Series is an endurance racing season where adventure racing teams compete in a range of disciplines including, for example, navigation, trekking, mountain biking, paddling and climbing.

Format

Mixed sex teams of four competitors compete in a series of up to a dozen non-stop, multi-day expedition adventure races held in locations spread across the globe. These races culminate in the staging of the Adventure Racing World Championships, the winner of which is crowned World Champions.
The competition's format provides that each of the individual events of the World Series function as a qualifier for the World Championships. The winning team at each event secures the opportunity to compete in the World Championships. The field of event winners is then supplemented by the reigning world champions, who are given the right to defend their title, the winners of regional championship races and the remainder of the field comes from open entry round out the number of starters.
The World Championship race rotates each year. One of the qualifying events is singled out and designated as the World Championship event and this event provides a dramatic conclusion to the end of the World Series racing season.
In addition to the World Championship race, points are assigned to results from each of the qualifying races in the series to determine a World Ranking. Points are allocated on a team's best four results over a two-year period, with the ranking cycle refreshed every 4 months.

History

The Adventure Racing World Championship was the brainchild of Geoff Hunt and Pascale Lorre, long-time adventure racers who sought to "lend badly needed structure to the sport". Hunt and Lorre's vision was first brought to fruition in Switzerland in 2001 where 41 teams contested the Discovery Channel World Championship Adventure Race with the controversy-plagued event eventually won by Finland's Team Nokia Adventure. A team from New Zealand, including Kathy Lynch, came second that year, US Team GoLite was 3rd.
After a two-year hiatus the Adventure Racing World Championships was next held in Canada in 2004 and has subsequently been held every year since.
In 2011 management of the race was passed to the Australian event management company Geocentric Outdoors. The 2011 World Championships - won by Thule Adventure Team - were staged at the XPD Expedition Race in Tasmania, Australia, where 90 teams drawn from 21 countries made for the largest starting field in the event's history. This is testament to the fact that the World Series hosts some of the best expedition adventure racing teams in the world and "continues to grow and become more prominent". Geocentric Outdoors also instigated a number of new initiatives for the world series, including standardized equipment lists and logistics across the races, restrictions on mixed nationality teams at the World Championship race each year as well as the introduction of the World Series ranking system. These initiatives have encouraged larger international fields at the various races by lowering the logistical barriers for participation and rewarding participation in multiple events.
In 2012, the World Championships was held at Raid in France and were won by Team Seagate from New Zealand. The title of World Champion returned to the Thule Adventure Team at Costa Rica in 2013, before again being reclaimed by Team Seagate in Ecuador in 2014. Despite having never won a World Championship, Spanish team Columbia Vidaraid held the number-one position in the World Series ranking through 2014 and 2015 due to their string of wins in World Series qualifying races in addition to their second-place finishes in the 2013 and 2014 World Championships. Seagate regained the top position in the rankings in 2016 after dominating at the incredibly demanding 2015 World Championships, held in the Pantanal in Brazil, as well as in the Shoalhaven area of Australia in 2016.
In the absence of a world governing body, and after the cessation of the dominant world level events in the mid 2000s like the Raid Gauloises Eco-Challenge, Primal Quest, and Outdoor Quest, the Adventure Racing World Series remained as the only series in the sport.

World Championship results

YearCountryRaceWorld ChampionNationality
2001SwitzerlandDiscovery Channel World ChampionshipsTeam Nokia AdventureFinland
2004CanadaRaid The North ExtremeNike ACG Balance BarUSA
2005New ZealandSouthern TraverseBalance VectorNew Zealand
2006SwedenExplore SwedenNike PowerBlastUSA
2007ScotlandWilderness ARCNikeUSA
2008BrazilEcomotionOrion HealthNew Zealand
2009PortugalPortugal XPDHelly Hansen PrunescoBritain
2010SpainBimbache ExtremBuff ThermocoolSpain
2011AustraliaXPD Expedition RaceThule Adventure TeamSweden
2012FranceRaid in FranceTeam SeagateNew Zealand
2013Costa RicaCosta Rica ARThule Adventure TeamFrance
2014EcuadorHuairasinchi ExplorerSeagateNew Zealand
2015BrazilARWS BrazilSeagateNew Zealand
2016AustraliaXPD Expedition RaceSeagateNew Zealand
2017USACameco Cowboy ToughSeagateNew Zealand
2018La Reunion IslandRaid in FranceAvayaNew Zealand
2019Sri LankaARWSCanceled-
2020ParaguayExpedición GuaraníCanceled-
2021SpainRaid GallaeciaSwedish Armed Forces Adventure TeamSweden
2022ParaguayExpedición GuaraníTeam AvayaNew Zealand
2023South AfricaExpedition AfricaSwedish Armed Forces Adventure TeamSweden
2024EcuadorHuairasinchi400teamFrance
2025CanadaExpedition Canada??

2015 Adventure Racing World Series

RaceCountryDatesWinnerNationality
GODZone Adventure RaceNew ZealandMarch 2015SeagateNew Zealand
Tierra VivaChileApril 2015SAFATSweden
Raid GallaeciaSpainMay 2015Haglofs SlivaSweden
Expedition AfricaSwazilandJune 2015Merrell Adventure AddictsSouth Africa
Expedition AlaskaUSAJune 2015TecnuUSA
Cameco Cowboy ToughUSAJuly 2015TecnuUSA
XPD Expedition RaceAustraliaAugust 2015Mountain DesignsAustralia
Raid in FranceFranceSeptember 2015RaidlightFrance
ARWS BrazilBrazilNovember 2015SeagateNew Zealand

2016 Adventure Racing World Series

RaceCountryDatesWinnerNationality
Maya Mountain Adventure ChallengeBelizeFebruary 2016Team Adventure Medical KitsUSA
GODZone Adventure RaceNew ZealandApril 2016Team Yealands Family WinesNew Zealand
Tierra VivaChileApril 20162 DSN 74 HokaFrance
Expedition AfricaSouth AfricaMay 2016Team Featherbed Painted WolfSouth Africa
Expedition GuaraniParaguayJuly 2016Columbia VidaraidBrazil/Spain/UK
Cameco Cowboy ToughUSAJuly 2016Team Adventure Medical KitsUSA
HuairasinchiEcuadorAugust 2016FairisEcuador
ITERA Expedition RaceIrelandAugust 2016TEAM FMRFrance
Raid in FranceFranceSeptember 2016SeagateNew Zealand
Xtrail Expedition ChinaSeptember 2016Thule Adventure TeamSweden
XPD World ChampionshipsAustraliaNovember 2016SeagateNew Zealand

2017 Adventure Racing World Series

RaceCountryDatesWinnerNationality
Expedition GuaraniParaguayMarch 2017CyanosisSouth Africa
HuairasinchiEcuadorApril 2017Terra Aventura – FinalinEcuador
Raid GallaeciaSpainMay 2017NaturexFrance
Expedition AfricaSouth AfricaMay 2017Skylotec AdventureSweden
Xtrail ExpeditionChinaJune 2017SeagateNew Zealand
Raid in FranceFranceJune 2017Lozere Team2RaidFrance
Cameco Cowboy Tough World ChampionshipsUSAAugust 2017SeagateNew Zealand