OK, Now I've summed up things in the title let me write something that might be useful.

I have EU (Slovenian) passport so travel within EU is bit easier for me. (Besides English I can talk/understand Slovenian and Serbo-Croatian and few words in Italian and German I guess.) Since my biological family is in Europe and my company is UK based I might even get some ground support (if allowed by rules).

I fly close to 100k miles a year mostly in US but some trips to Europe as well.

I can travel light and will get me a backpack that is more suitable for this kind of travel vs. regular carry-on suitcase

I am pretty sure that I could get support from my company at least in terms of good will for such kind of race, perhaps even more.

Have blackberry for quick updates on the go as well as laptop for more extensive research.