Twenty amateur adventure athletes will start today in the Land Rover G4 Challenge Nevada Passage in Carson City, Nevada. The four-stage multistage competition is the sole qualifying event in the U.S. for the international Land Rover G4 Challenge.. Click image to enlarge

Carson City, Nevada – Twenty amateur adventure athletes will start today in the Land Rover G4 Challenge Nevada Passage in Carson City, Nevada. The four-stage multistage competition is the sole qualifying event in the U.S. for the international Land Rover G4 Challenge.

The two top teams will advance to the international selection event in Herefordshire, U.K. in early 2009, where one team will be selected to represent the U.S. against teams from 17 other countries in the three-week-long finals taking place in Asia in mid-2009. The male and female athletes range from 25 to 47 years of age and have been paired into ten coed teams to race across Nevada.

With driving at the core of the competition, each team will be equipped with a 2008 Land Rover LR3 HSE, which they will navigate across dirt roads throughout southern Nevada, stopping to camp each night. The specifics of each day’s challenge are kept secret but will include off-road driving, navigating, trail running, mountain biking and kayaking.

The Land Rover G4 Challenge is held every two years, with national selection events taking place in 18 countries around the world. This year marks only the second time the U.S. has participated in the global competition since the inaugural event in 2003. In 2005, Nevada’s Tourism Commission created the Nevada Passage, a made-for-television adventure competition, in 2005 to brand the state as an outdoor adventure destination.