This legendary race has been organized 10 times since 2002 and returned last year as a part of the ARWS Europe Series after a nine-year hiatus.
The mission of EQ has always been to provide Finnish racers with a competition of an international standard and to attract international teams.
This year's EQ offers new challenges, even for experienced Finnish racers, and for the first time in Finnish races bike boxes will be used. The challenge is increased by the weight limit of 25kg for each box. And, like almost every international race, the start is over two hours away from the race HQ, and the route planning will take place on the bus ride to the start.
This year the route is 232km long including nine stages, but this is the optimal route. The course can be divided to be three parts. The first part includes a 2km Trek, 51km MTB, 14km Trek and 49km MTB. After this teams will see their bike boxes and TA boxes for the first time and the second part of the race which will include a 12km Swimrun, 20km Kayak, 18km Trek and 11km kayak. The last part is a 55km MTB ride, including the rope section.
During the course there will be two special tasks which will be kept secret form the teams until they arrive at the special task checkpoints.
“One special task is a super unique and fun thing to do, and personally I believe it is the best special task ever seen in Finland!” Said Harri Hollo, who is behind this idea.
ARWS-Europe series partner Tactical Foodpack will provide warm camping meals for competitors at two TA, and NOCCO will offer a small energy boost if fatigue sets in during the early morning hours.
"We like challenging navigation sections both on foot and by bike, so this is what we have planned again this year. Last year's 'Navigation Nightmare' was a long section equivalent to the national night orienteering championship, and this year racers will again be in challenging terrain with a top-level orienteering map," promises Lauri Hollo, the competition's Technical Director.
The race organising team has spent a lot of time in the forests map drawing and course planning, and the aim has been to make the maps as good as possible through extensive fieldwork.
"We want to provide high-quality maps to the competitors so that they don't have to gamble on trails or search for paths in the terrain. This ensures equal opportunities for everyone to compete for victory," says Jerry Aunula, the Course Designer.
The event center and finish line will be located at Leppävaara Sports Park in Espoo. The same stadium hosted the U23 European Athletics Championships in 2023 and this year in March it hosted the Finnish U23 Cross Country Skiing Championships.
Endurance Quest Espoo is the only international adventure race held in Finland and in 2025, Endurance Quest will be the European Championship final of the ARWS Europe Series.
Endurance Quest is once again Finland's highest-level competition, and all of the top Finnish teams will be on the starting line, including last year's winner Multisport.fi and last year's silver medalist Bull Adventure, competing with the same lineup. The Asuntoauto.eu team has been performing well in the Finnish Championship series, and althought they didn’t race last year, they will compete for a podium position this time.
Additionally, many Finnish teams will participate to experience their first international race and to enjoy a new type of race in Finland. According to the organizers' predictions 10 teams can compete for podium positions, based on previous performances.
International teams will arrive in Espoo from Poland, Switzerland, Ecuador, Sweden, Spain, and Estonia. The top three Estonian teams will be racing, with the favorite being last year's World Championship bronze medalists Estonia Ace - LaSportiva. The team's captain, Silver Ensaar, expects EQ to offer challenging navigation and a fast pace throughout the race.
Also on the starting line will be Seiklusht - Honeypower, the team that won last year's Expedition Estonia ARWS Europe event and finished fifth in the European Championship final in France. Additionally, the bronze medalist of the ARWS Expedition Estonia competition held in early July, Metsäpeatus, will return to Finland to compete and try to improve on last year's place.
From Sweden, the 2021 World Championship third-place team and last year's ARWS Nordic Island Adventure Race winner, NIAR Adventure Team, will participate. The team's captain, Staffan Björklund, organized an ARWS race from Stockholm to Turku in 2018, so Swedish competitors are familiar with Finnish mapping.
The most exotic guest comes from Ecuador. The team 4 Vientos, successful in the ARWS South America series, is strong, although Finnish maps will be a new experience for them. The Ecuadorians expect to see beautiful Finnish nature and differnt competition terrain compared to their home races.
You can follow the live race tracking for EQ Espoo at https://www.tulospalvelu.fi/gps/2024eq and on the Endurance Quest social media channels.
For more information and to see a full team list visit; https://www.northernadventure.fi/endurancequest
Endurance Quest Finland, will host the European Championship of the Adventure Race World Series (ARWS) for the year 2025 in the Lake Saimaa region.
At the ARWS European Championship the competition route will be approximately 250 kilometers long, and the winning time is expected to be around 24 hours. The final details, including the order and distances of the various disciplines, will be announced to the teams about two weeks before the race. The teams will receive the competition route and maps two hours before the start.
The regions of Savonlinna, Sulkava, Rantasalmi, and Puumala offer outstanding opportunities for creating a challenging route and a physically, navigationally, and visually stunning course. The unique area of Lake Saimaa adds a special flavor to the competition.
Photography by Poppis Suomela
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