National qualifier. This time no mistakes...

Official Shag results: Team Calleva/Red Fox is third in prime and fifth overall. Dmitri Kaganovich, Michelle Lindsay and Fedor Iskhakov cleared the course taken all possible 95 points in 11 hours and 15 minutes. We were in 15-20 minutes lead before the last swimming-paddling leg of the race. One of sit-on-top kayaks we got had a hole below water line, but we discovered it only a couple miles away from the transition. Two stops to remove the water and to try to fix the problem cost us 30 minutes and two positions in the final ranking. ATP and GOALS ARA passed us in the last 20 minutes of the race.
The race was very well organized and navigation was very interesting. Mountain bike was mostly on technical single trail like Gambrill park in Maryland, and paddling was in river with maze of narrow swampy channels. Dima was trying to drag the leaky kayak through one of these swamps and got two leeches sucking blood from his leg. Fedor made a wonderful navigation job that kept the team in the lead for 2/3 of the race. Michelle made this tough race real fun for the team. Marina and Ariadna were our support and waited us on the finish line.

The race was sponsored and supported by Calleva Outdoor Adventure.
All photos:

Shag 2009