Starting from Hveravellir Hot Springs in between the glaciers of Langjökull and Hofsjökull in centre of the Icelandic highlands this morning (19th of August 2016) in fine weather, competitors had blue skies and no wind from start to finish.
Todays stage started with a fast gravel, lava and hardpack road to the Þjófadalir (Valley of Thiefs) where a single track starts and the team descend fast towards the Kjölur mountain road. Rock gardens, small streams, mud paths, lava fields, black volcanic desert..well you get the picture, pretty much anything Iceland can throw at you was on the menu today.
Photo by: Snorri Þór Tryggvason
With 85 km and 770 m of climbing this is a fast and in long parts, flowy stage through an otherworldly environment. The finish line was at Gullfoss Waterfall, a 32 m high glacier fed waterfall on the boundary where the arid highlands meet the lush lowlands.
The teams gave it their all to the last centimetre with competition especially fierce in the mens and mixed team category.
Team Hardrocx ABAX by Swix takes home a deserved win, showing great strength and consistency through out the race and winning all three stages.
In the mixed category two teams battled every meter of every stage culminating with Cape Brewing Company snapping up the win with the smallest of margins.
In the womens category the local girls in Team Garmin Iceland finish first with confidence and big smiles.
In the masters category local teams VSÓ and Frumherji raced head on with VSÓ coming out over all winners and finally Paul & Jorge were victorious in the Grand Master category.
See over-all times below. Full results and individual stages will be released tomorrow.
On behalf of all of us here at Glacier360 we would like sincerely thank all the racers and all our volunteers, friends and family that have pitched in to make the race a fun, fierce and save race!
Stay tuned for the opening of the registration for next year, the Glacier360 2017!
The Glacier360 2016 final results and over all times:
Men:
1.Team Hardrocx Abax by Swix (10:47:35)
2.Team Trek Mesterhus 1 (10:55:27)
3. TF-WOW(11:00:36)
Women:
1. Team Garmin Iceland (15:12:26)
2. XY Cycling (18:45:38)
3. Kríurnar Adventure Club (19:18:10)
Mixed:
1. Cape Brewing Company (12:20:30)
2. Velocity Sports Lab (12:23:46)
3. Team Garmin SA (13:24:23)
Masters (Older than 40 year)
1. VSÓ Masters (15:13:48)
2. Frumherji (15:26:08)
3. Global is Strength (15:30:58)
Grandmasters (Older than 50 years)
1.Paulo & Jorge (14:35:23)
