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"Having the Sonic made such a difference to my preparation, it's like a basecamp for me, my trainer and all my equipment. It's warm, comfortable and reduced my travel stresses during pre-season and at some championships."

Biathlon is an extremely tough sport to master, requiring huge resource of stamina and strength, outstanding technique in cross-country skiing and precision in rifle shooting, in extreme conditions. It’s fascinating to watch, gaining many new audiences at this year’s Olympics.

Jakov spends many weeks preparing himself for regular competition and of course for the Olympics. We show here some photographs of his spring training, with the Sonic Supreme, which acted at times as his home, training center and basecamp.

Jakov is as cool as a cucumber and a supremely focused individual as you might expect but is also very engaging. His enthusiasm and passion, even for his motorhome is never far from the surface. He visited the Adria factory in May 2018 to officially open the new Climate Chamber, recently added to the Novo mesto facilities to enable extreme climate testing of vehicles on the Adria site.

In late 2017 a state of the art climate chamber facility was installed within the Adria facilities and is now a key part of the development and testing of Adria vehicles and components. Few competitors have their own chambers which gives Adria an advantage and helps support the reputation of producing very robust and usable all year round vehicles, even in harsh conditions.

It's a part of Adria's 'Thermo-build' standards approach and how temperature, air-flow, heating, insulation and cooling are properly designed and managed, so that all vehicles are usable all year round. This results in for example Grade 3 EN1646 heating standards being attained.

Adria's new Climate Chamber

It also means key components can be tested to extremes, such as the large panoramic windows which are tested to chassis torque forces at extreme temperatures. The chamber can test whole vehicles with extreme temperature tests from -40 to +60 degrees in short and long cycle tests. It can also subject vehicles to extremes in humidity from 45% to 80% between +30 and +60 degrees. That's more extreme than any user could achieve on their adventures and is comforting to know!

Watch Adria factory movie at: www.adria-mobil.com

“I often practice precise tasks wearing a blindfold, it helps train my mind to be able to do something without thinking too much. Setting up the rifle to shoot after a hard ski requires this calm, almost robotic set up” Jakov explained

One curious routine, involving kitchen preparation with a blindfold helps Jakov visualize his rifle shooting technique without looking (but don’t try this in your motorhome!).