Ryan Sandes is racing in the RedBull team at the Swisse Mark Webber Challenge, which starts on 7 December 2011 in Tasmania. This is a 350km five-day, staged, multi-sport event and this year it will take competitors across some of Tasmania’s most stunning locations, including the Freycinet National Park, picture postcard Wineglass Bay, wild Bruny Island, the deep forests of the Hartz Mountains, the cliffs, blowholes and caves of the Tasman Peninsula and the rolling Hobart hills.
This staged race, which involves 70km per day of biking, kayaking and trekking will be separated by overnight full-facility camping. There’s also a dash of climbing and other surprise disciplines included on the course. Maps are provided so there is a navigation component but as it is classified as a multisport event I’d guess that competitiors in this race won’t do the cross-country navigation / vegetation crawling of the AR World Champs, which were held in Tasmania a month ago.
Interestingly, this is a race for pairs and Ryan will be racing with Rick Kelly, an Australian V8 Supercar racing driver.
Race website is www.markwebbertasmaniachallenge.com or go to www.facebook.com/pages/swisse-mark-webber-tasmania-challenge.