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Chloe Bunnett Wins Race Of Champions
I had a great lead up to this race. Training has been going great and the weather in the UK played along and was perfect training weather right up until we left for Portugal.
Landing in Portugal on Thursday at 9:25am after an over night journey was not the best, but Rui (Race Director) picked us up at the airport and took us to our Hotel. The Hotel is literally 5min walk to the race venue! I was told that the mini bus and trailer would be leaving at 5pm for a paddle on the course. So with some time to kill and the sun shining the best would be is to have a look around the beach and Marina. The Hotel staff convinced us that there was a storm coming and so we headed back to our room. Minutes later the storm came through Portimao – wind, lightning, thunder and rain!! At 4pm it was still pretty stormy, so just before 5pm we went to the trailer and the storm had moved on (slightly) and we headed for Alvaro for a downwind. When we got there the wind vanished – typical – but there was some good swell left and it was still fun to get out on the course and it certainly woke me up!!
Friday was registration day and boat loading time, so feeling fresh after a solid 12 hour sleep and the biggest buffet breakfast in town we headed for the race venue. More people had arrived and the vibe was picking up. Everyone testing and setting up their boats. This is a great venue, the boat rack/storage is on the beach meters from the water. Which makes it really easy to get things sorted, as well as Rui and Sara there to provide us with anything we needed. So after a nice light paddle it was time to put the stickers on and load the boats ready for the race tomorrow.
Saturday and race day, the race was only at 4pm so we had until the bus left at 2pm to relax (or get nervous)! The race venue started to buzz just before 2pm, everyone standing around chatting waiting for the bus. The bus dropped us off and we had about 1.5km walk to the beach, not ideal but glad I took plenty of water, great warm up!
