The past month has seen AR World Series races quickly following one another on three different continents and in an amazing variety of terrains and cultures. One consistent factor in all three races however was a convincing winning margin by experienced teams who all placed highly at last year’s AR World Championships.
At the beginning of April expedition adventure racing returned to its roots in New Zealand for the inaugural Orion Health Godzone Adventure Race, based in the adventure sports mecca of Queenstown. It is widely accepted that the first adventure race was the Raid Gauloises held in New Zealand in 1989 and the country has a rich multisport history, including hosting the 2005 World Championships.
Despite this there had not been an expedition race held in New Zealand since 2008 and there was considerable excitement surrounding the new event with enthusiastic support of adventure racing Kiwis.
The new race attracted 31 teams representing Malaysia, Singapore, Ireland, Sweden and Australia with New Zealanders making up the bulk of field with twenty teams and considerable strength in depth. It had a spectacular start too, in the iconic Milford Sound – a fact which was kept secret from the teams until the last moment. Only when they boarded buses for an overnight pre-race camp out did they find out where they would be starting the race. (Though many had guessed where they would be going.)
It was a spectacular pre-dawn start with the racers head torches bobbing in the darkness and the dawn light gradually revealing the surrounding peaks. Just to add to the magic a pod of dolphins closely accompanying some of the kayaks.
It was no surprise that the two top Kiwi teams, with several world champions among them, raced into the lead. Subway and Seagate raced closely together until Seagate pulled away on the first overnight trek. Subway, with multisport champions Richard and Elina Ussher, slipped behind due to navigational errors in the dense bush, and later in the race were to withdraw due to injury.
Seagate were fielding the same team which had won the Tierra Viva race so convincingly in Argentina (Nathan Fa’avae, Chris Forne, Sophie Hart and Trevor Voyce), and once they had given Subway the slip they kept extending their lead, leaving the rest of the competition a long way behind and finishing in Queenstown with a 15 hour winning margin.
Just because they were a long way ahead doesn’t mean it was easy! Team captain Nathan Fa’avae commented; “As we pulled away from the other teams it was the course that became our biggest adversary, doing all it could to hinder our speed and progress, dropping snow, choking gullies and ravines with thick bush, dropping to freezing temperatures and hiding in darkness for 12-hours a night. We suffered periods of great discomfort, soreness, and fatigue and battled to stay awake at times. 3-hours sleep out of 85-hours of racing takes its toll. We expected a challenge and we got one!”
Team Seagate’s second convincing win of the AR World Series this year reaffirms their status as one of the favourites for the World Championships in France in September, but other established teams are showing good form and booking their places in the World Champs as well.
World Championships for Costa Rica in 2013
Next in the schedule came the Costa Rica Adventure Race, and before the race began the news was announced that the race would host the 2013 World Championship!
AR World Series Director, Craig Bycroft, said; “Costa Rica will be a stunning destination for international athletes and provide superb terrain and environment for a very adventurous World Championship”. Costa Rica is renowned for the biodiversity created by its geographic position in the tropics with two oceanic coasts and a mountainous interior, creating varied micro climates and ecosystems. The country has a thriving multi-sports culture, hosts one of the most famous mountain bike stage races in the world (La Ruta), and has a thriving tourism infrastructure. (It was also the location for the second Raid Gauloises.)
The 2013 Costa Rica Adventure Race will include rafting, kayaking (ocean and river), mountain biking, trekking, rope works, inner tubing, coasteering and canyoning on a 700+ km course over a 5-10 day period, with $75,000 USD prize money on offer.
So, this year’s race became a trial run for next year’s World Championships, and once again there was a runaway winner. This time it was Team Tecnu Adventure Racing who stamped their authority on the event. The team had finished second in Huairasinchi in Ecuador earlier in the year, and took their chance to go one better and book their place on the start line in France.
Strengthened this year by the experience of Canadian racer Bob Miller, the team has an international line up with Marco Anselem of Brazil, Liza Pye (another Canadian) and Kyle Peter of the USA. They took an early lead on a course which featured extensive ocean paddling and some island traverses, and also a canopy tour/horseback/tubing stage, followed by rafting.
Millar described it as follows; “Now it was time for some serious fun as we have three legs of Canopy touring (zip lines, rappels, tarzan swings and rock climbing) Tubing and Horseback riding. The tubing ends up being the highlight for me as we Plinko down a slightly modified natural whitewater canyon. The rapids are just big enough to produce adrenalin, but not so nasty as to be unsafe. “I have a feeling the Canopy Touring would have been equally exhilarating, but the fact we traverse in the dark takes away from the exposure and sights. I was happy to finish the horseback riding without injury, or a lame horse, but it also proved quite fun as we trotted with poor form – and thankfully the horses knew exactly where to go.
“Rafting was a highlight as we paddled self-guided though Jungle-Book-esque environments. Jesus Lizards ran across the water, Igauna’s lined the shores, bizarre looking birds were everywhere and then the ominous American Crocodiles started appearing in greater numbers as we descended closer to the ocean.”
The team kayaked into Punta Arenas to complete their win, well ahead of second placed Selva Kailash of Brazil. Team Bones of the USA were 3rd and Toyota were the top Costa Rican team in 4th. No doubt Toyota will now be focussing on next year’s race and the chance to represent their home country as the host of the World Championships.
Expedition Africa earns its stripes
Next stop on the whistlestop AR world tour was the Eastern Cape province of South Africa for another event new to the series – Expedition Africa. The race is now in its second year and the organisation was spoken of very highly by South African racers, so the event was a welcome addition to the series, adding an African race to the global reach of elite adventure racing.
This year 13 teams began the race, including one from Paraguay and team Red Fox Arena of Russia, which was intended to be an all female line up. However, due to a last minute withdrawal local male racer Francois was pulled in to make up the team … and he was often seen struggling to keep up with his team mates, who are all experienced international racers.
Everyone was soon struggling to keep up with race leaders Merrell Adventure Addicts, the defending title holders and South Africa’s top team. The team had some injury problems and scares ahead of the race. They had to replace regular team member Hanno Smit with Craig Carter-Brown after Smit broke his collar bone in a mountain bike race. Then Tatum ‘hobbit’ Prins too had an injury scare and it looked like a second replacement would be needed just a week before the race, but luckily for the team she was able to start.
These scares did not seem to slow them down and after taking a smart route choice to move into an early lead they followed the trend of leaders at the other races, and just kept moving away from the rest of the field.
The course included a paddling section where teams had close encounters with elephants, an abseil off a railway bridge, a ride through the Sibaya Game Reserve, breakfast watching the Rhino at the mid-camp stop and a ride through the villages and abundant livestock of the Ciskei. The penultimate stage was the toughest trek of the race, passing through dense thorn bush, and the race finished with a ride back into the HQ at the Halyard Hotel in Port Alred, where a comfy chair and a glass of champagne was waiting.
Merrell Adventure Addicts drank their champagne almost 12 hours earlier than second placed finishers Team Red Ants, and in France they will be looking to improve on their 7th place finish in last year’s World Championships.
The team were impressed with Expedition Africa, which has already announced its intention to bid for a future World Championships. Team Captain Graham ‘Tweet’ Bird summed up their feelings. “Wow wow wow! What a stunning race. Stephan and Heidi from Kinetic Gear staged a fantastic event. From the simple pre-race information, easy registration and gear checks, short and to the point briefings and race instructions, unbelievable logistics, and most of all a beautiful but challenging race course.”
Wild Racers on film
The racers have had only one event to attend, but the film crew from NothinbutShorts who are putting together the Macpac Wild Races T.V. series for international distribution have been at all 3 races within a 5 week period. They have been racking up their air miles and shooting hundreds of hours of footage for the shows, and somehow in addition producing daily shorts during each race, making it possible to view daily videos of these remote and challenging races almost as they happened.
You can see all of the daily films of the events the Macpac Wild Racers Film Crew has attended on the race pages of the AR World Series website:
XPD – Tasmania – www.arworldseries.com/races/xpd.html
Huairasinchi – Ecuador – www.arworldseries.com/races/huairasinchi.html
GODZone Adventure – New Zealand – www.arworldseries.com/races/godzone.html
Costa Rica Adventure Race – www.arworldseries.com/races/costarica.html
Expedition Africa – South Africa – www.arworldseries.com/races/expeditionafrica.html
The APEX Race – Switzerland – available June 2012.
International schedule for airing released later in 2012.
The Swedes are coming out to play
The next two races on the calendar are in Europe and the USA. First up is the APEX Race in Switzerland from June 5-10th, then Untamed New England from June 19-24th.
APEX has 20 teams from 10 different nationalities, who will cross the glorious Swiss Alps, and the favourites must be last year’s winners Team Silva of Sweden, who went on to finish second in the World Championships in Tasmania. Four Swedish teams finished in the top 6 of ARWC and it’s possible that Silva’s main opposition will come from their compatriots in Teams FJS and Sweco.
With the difficulties of training in a northern winter now behind them they are not the only Swedish team coming out to play – World Champions Team Thule are in the line up for Untamed New England. The race takes place from a venue used for one of the earliest Eco-Challenges and has 37 teams entered in the Expedition category. There is naturally a strong U.S. and Canadian entry, and there may be another Scandinavian challenge to them from the strong Danish team, Daredevils Adventure Racing as well.
Before both these races however there is one more chance to win a much sought after qualification spot at ARWC 2012 in France. The winners of this year’s AR Euro Series will gain a place, and hosting of the European Champs this year are Raid Corsica from May 26th-30th. A strong French entry is lead by Raid Quechua and they will be challenged by teams from the Czech Republic, Belgium, Spain and Italy.
To find out more about all these races and the Adventure Racing World Series visit www.arworldseries.com
Author: Rob Howard