Now in their 9th World Championship they have put past disappointments behind them and proved they have what it takes to be champions in the toughest sport in the world.
After a nail biting night of racing during which they took the lead, a morning of heavy rain and lightning storms, and a final packraft along the coast to L’Ile Rousse, Team Estonian ACE / La Sportiva crossed the finish line to win the 2026 Adventure Racing World Championship in Corsica.
After more than 125 hours of non-stop trekking, mountain biking, kayaking, rafting, rope work, navigation and canyoning on a 500km course which took in many of the most iconic outdoor locations on the ‘Isle of Beauty’, the Estonian team jumped out of their packrafts, raised their arms in celebration and crossed the finish line on the beach at 14.45.22.
That historic moment was not just the end of one of the toughest Adventure Racing World Championships ever, and a magnificent sporting achievement, but also the culmination of a two decade long quest to win the world title.
The team of Rain Eensaar, Reeda Tuula-Fjodorov, Timmo Tammenae and Tauno Riiback had recently won the ARWS European Championship in Denmark, are the World #2 ranked team, and have won expedition races in the past, so it wasn’t an unexpected win. However, they have twice finished second in the World Championship and often been in strong positions at races, only to lose them before the finish line. 
They led on the second day of the race, but then fell back as French teams Luberon MUC and 400team Altore pushed ahead. At the end of the long mountain trek across the island’s highest peaks, which took them more than 33 hours to complete, they began to gain momentum, closing down on the two teams ahead of them. By the 6th night of racing they had passed the faltering Luberon MUC team and begun the last 39km trekking stage along the Agriate coast.
This took much longer than expected and required some extremely difficult night time navigation to find the checkpoints. 400team Altore made an error and the Estonians took the lead. Speaking on the finish line, Rain Eensaar said, “We went into the final trek and were not sure about catching a team as strong as 400, but then we thought, why not? We saw their head-lights getting closer and caught them at a checkpoint, then went different ways. We chose a good path (many on the map did not exist), and by the final transition to packrafting we had the lead.”
Reeda Tuula-Fjodorov said, “It is hard to explain, there was a new feeling this time. Tauno joined us to replace our regular team member Silver Eensaar and we won the European title and came to this race. He asked why we do this and what we want from races, and I asked myself this question once again after many years.”
Tauno Riiback is a temporary stand-in on the team, but brought a new dynamic into the experienced squad. He said, “I have been inspired by ACE Adventure and wanted to reach a level where I could join them, and I took my chance.” Now he is a World Champion.
The man he replaced, Silver Eensaar, will rejoin the team for the Adventure@Mechukha race in the Indian Himalayas in less than a month’s time, and looking back at the team’s 20 your journey he said, “At our first world Championship in Tasmania in 2011 we were almost last, but by 2015 we took second place in Expedition Africa and we knew we could race at a high level. Then at future World Championships we made some mistakes or had bad luck and it was never our day … until today! I am very proud of the team.”
Looking ahead he added, “Tauno is setting up his own team called North Force, so we expect 3 Estonian teams on the podium at the next World Championship in Croatia!"
His brother Rain said, “We had a bad start with some damage to a bike which hit a rock during the first stage, and somehow managed to repair it many times during the race and get around the course. It was a tough course, with the stages much longer than expected, but luckily we packed enough food and we used all of the mandatory 10 hours of sleep. From the start we could see the intention of the Race Director; every stage would be long and challenging, often with difficult navigation.”
The Race Director is Pascal Bahuaud, who is staging a historic third Adventure Racing World Championship, something no other Race Director has achieved, and he was himself an elite competitor in the first ever expedition races. His long, uncompromising courses are what teams expected and the route for ‘ARWC2026 - Corsica is Magic’ delivered a World Championship that will go down in history as one of the hardest ever, His route, which visited both East and West coasts, crossed two high mountain ranges and passed by ancient sites and traditional villages, showed just why the island of Corsica is both magical and beautiful.
The second placed team, 400team Altore, crossed the finish line at 16.12. They had been the outstanding favourites for many as they are world #1 and former World Champions. The exhausted team was tearful on the finish line, having lost the lead right at the end of the race and their gracious team captain, Sebastien Raichon said, “It’s been an anomaly that the Estonians were never World Champions before and now that is corrected.”
Pascal Bahuaud added, “I am a little sad the French team didn’t win of course, but very pleased that the Estonians did. They are true champions.”
The Adventure Racing World Championship continues for another 2 days, as the remaining teams make their way towards the finish at L’Ile Rousse and you can follow their progress through live satellite tracking and regular social media updates.
www.arwc2026.com
www.arworldseries.com
#arwc2026 #corsicaismagic
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