Discussion: ARWC 2020

Just announced - Guarani, September 10-19.

That will be a quality race for sure. From my perspective, very well done.

My guess was Europe, but after Paraguay was announced, I thought about it further and this makes sense. RIF hosted last year, NIAR and Croatia are too young, James (ITERA) doesn't seem interested in hosting Worlds (perhaps I'm wrong?), and Pablo (RG) isn't sure he'll RD another XPD.

The negative side of my brain wonders how attendance numbers will be for another race in South America, but the positive side is hopeful people will want to check out a country they might not otherwise travel to.

As someone who has followed Expd. Guarani closely through its five years of races, it's clear the RDs are not afraid to put together from very long legs (100+ km) of paddling and trekking. But the scenery always looks spectacular and from everyone I've talked to who's done the race has said, it sounds like the event itself always well-executed. And then there's the perks of staying in fancy resorts and having bike mechanics work on your rides while you'ff off doing other stages...probably the #1 luxury in my mind!

Getting to Asuncion through Brazil isn't too bad, and for North American racers, there is literally no time zone hop. I got a plane ticket on Delta from DTW to ASU for $850.

I had been wondering about Croatia because of the time of year (was guessing September, with GZ running in November). Hadn’t considered that they might move one of the other races in the series to early fall. I’ve heard great things about Guarani.