Kiwi Adventure Racers at XPD Portugal World Champs

Helly Hansen win

2009-11-14T07:24:00.000-08:00

Nga Rakau cross the finish line

In the end the British team Helly Hansen took out the race, finishing with 52 CPs.

On the finish line, Nike were told that they were 3rd behind Lundhags, but I see on the leaderboard it's showing Nike 2nd and Lundhags 3rd. George was limping down the road after the finish, I asked him if his feet were broken, he said they'd been broken since Wednesday. He was pretty disappointed as I think he felt he hadn't contributed as strongly as he usually does.

Orion were also a little disappointed, although their teamwork still got them through at the end as usual. Anna's tendonitis had almost crippled her at the end, and Stu piggy-backed her for a fair distance down the beach during the last trek. Maybe frustated is a better word, and I think all the leading teams (except maybe Helly Hansen!) felt that the format was somewhat difficult to come to grips with. I think they'd generally be happier with the standard 'fastest team around a set course wins' format.

Apparently the defining moment for Lundhags was when they were late to the castle at the end of the stage 4 trek leg. Because they were in danger of missing the next cutoff, they took a different option on their the next MTB or the start of stage 5, I'm not sure which. Basically by sacrificing the CPs on one leg, it gave them time to pick up more CPs later in the race, and move ahead of Orion. Another example of where it seems a bit strange that a team who does more of the course finishes behind one that's cut off some of the course.

Nga Rakau jogged down the last stretch of beach to the finish and were pretty happy with their race, ending up in 32nd place. Their teamwork was good, Neil's nav was great, so was Tim's (although he'll tell you that he hardly did any), Mark was strong and Fi was tough. They also found the format and the 70 maps a mission to deal with. They enjoyed the Portugal experience as much as the race. They've got loads of stories, I'll try to write some down when this mess is cleaned up.

Near the end

2009-11-14T00:02:00.000-08:00

We caught some sleep last night, so I don't really know what's going on !

Alexandre, the race director was on the phone to Geoff Hunt last night telling him that 'Nike are losing' (he's prone to exaggeration) and 'Orion are way behind' (more exaggeration).

That was before the last two legs, both were pretty tired, and having to miss CPs to keep on time. Anna's feet are pretty sore, Sonja tried to get some Paracetemol out of the red cross guys at TA16, he looked at her feet and said it wouldn't help, and wouldn't give her any. Genius. Anna's one tough girl.

Nga Rakau have had the CPs for Stage 3 corrected on the leaderboard, so are back in 33rd, hope Neil's navigation brain is still working for the last two legs which supposedly included tricky navigation.

Middle of Stage 5

2009-11-13T05:13:00.000-08:00

Mark looking a little the worse for wear...

Nga Rakau just came through the end of the Stage 3 Leg 3 MTB. They only picked up the easy CPs, as they still have to fit a 35km trek, 65km MTB and 25km trek into the last 21 hours.

Neil is feeling a little bit toasted at the moment, apparently when things got desperate on the last leg, they stopped at a cafe for coffee. Mark pointed to a tray of food in the cabinet and asked him which things he'd like, he said 'probably all of it'. Which they did. Then ... story according to Mark ... some old local chaps came in and asked in Portugese the equivalent of 'where the f&%k is all the food ?'. The old duck behind the counter pointed at Nga Rakau's table and replied in Portugese the equivalent of 'those greedy pricks'.

Orion and Nike will also be shortening this MTB, as there's a 2pm cutoff here, and it will be fairly tight. It's 1:26pm now, and neither are here yet.

Interesting goings-on in the night

2009-11-13T04:25:00.000-08:00

It was a night of action at TA4. After the flurry of activity around Nike's arrival and hasty departure - the TV cameraman loved the footage - said you could cut the tension in the air with a knife - there was more to come later in the morning.

Rumours were flying at the end of the kayak, that Orion had 'lost' a team member last night. My unofficial version of the rumour is thus...

After their sleep out of the transition, Orion headed out on the 12km trek to the top of the river, and somewhere en-route, when they were with one or more other teams, people split to walk either side of a building. Another team was walking behind Orion, and Stu, Brent and Anna didn't realise for a time that Wayne was no longer with them.

When they realised that Wayne was missing, and searching was unsuccessful, they pulled out their emergency phone and reported that they'd misplaced him. Sometime in the next couple of hours, Nuun came across Wayne in the bush, and led him to the top of the kayak where he was reunited with the team.

We're not sure whether this will incur a penalty, and what form it will take. Will probably depend on how loudly Nike protest.

Nike arrived at the end of the river about 10 minutes ahead of Orion. Both of them had only got the easy CPs on the leg. Nike were freezing and having trouble sorting their gear to take on the next leg. Brent and Anna looked chirpy, Stuart and Wayne a bit groggy. Best comment was from Stu when Karyn informed him that there would likely be a gear check on the next leg and they should double-check they had all their compulsory gear ... Stu replied 'it's ok, we've got Wayne now'.

Orion at end of Stage 4

2009-11-12T17:10:00.000-08:00

Orion arrived at 22:30 and slept for an hour while Karyn and Roy repacked their bags. They left debating whether to sleep at the start of the trek and miss the kayak (cutoff 2am) or sleep during the kayak. They left at 23:55 as Nike arrived.

Nike left with seconds to spare, loaded up with sleeping gear which they will have to carry during the trek and kayak before the start of the MTB / kayak gear pickup.

This must all be making Helly Hansen's position look pretty good....

Nga Rakau are now riding the roads to the TA, as any controls punched after the midnight cutoff don't count.

correction...?

2009-11-12T13:36:00.001-08:00

Oops - I may have been a little hasty in reporting that Lundhags has pulled out ... although I was told that by a 'reliable' source, their transponder is showing them well into the MTB course, so that might be a better indication ...

Still waiting for end of Stage 4

2009-11-12T13:13:00.000-08:00

Lots of tension round here.
Will Orion make it here before midnight.? A while ago we were thinking no. Now we're thinking yes. Teams have been taking 3-5 hours to get from the town of Ortiga to the end of the leg, and Orion were there around 7pm (although we don't know exactly which route each of the others took).

Nike's transponder hasn't been working all day, so we don't know where they are on the course, but we've been told they left on the start of the MTB about 2:30pm, around an hour after Orion. Helly Hansen - who are showing on the leaderboard in 2nd place at the moment, are only a few kms away from here now, so they might be the first to arrive.

Nga Rakau definitely won't make it here by midnight, but having a sleep in transition and skipping the next kayak still seems a good plan for them.

One of the crew who was at the transition at the start of the MTB said Orion spent over an hour in the transition, most of the time studying the maps. They're obviously thinking hard about their strategy for the rest of the race...

Waiting for end of Stage 4

2009-11-12T10:15:00.000-08:00

This morning we dropped off the team's bikes up a big hill at a castle that was huge and still largely intact, was probably the best spot we've been to so far, but it was at 2am in the morning. Would have loved to have seen it in the daylight.

The teams were trekking to there, and 'storming the castle' by abseiling up one of the walls. Would have been fabulous.

We're now waiting at TA4 for the leading teams to arrive.

We are expecting lots of teams in by 9pm, so they can catch some sleep in transition before the next cutoff at midnight tonight, although this 105km MTB leg is taking longer than I think people expected.

Several of the teams' GPS don't seem to have reported for some time, so it's a bit hard to know where things are at. The leaderboard as at the end of the last leg looks sort of correct. Two things that I know are wrong are that (1) Lundhags pulled out last night, and (2) Nga Rakau haven't been credited with the CPs from the big MTB yesterday at this stage, several of which they definitely did get.

At this stage I think Nga Rakau are intending to short cut the first part of stage 5. Short-cutting doesn't put you out of the race, it just means you don't have the opportunity to get the CPs on that leg. The stage begins with a short trek to the river, then a 45km paddle. Given that the paddle yesterday was about 25km, and took about 7 hours, this paddle doesn't look like a good option, with the race notes saying it includes a lake with 'tricky navigation, especially at night' (which it will be), and reportedly includes a 2km portage. The Portugese boys who are transporting the plastic kayaks around tell us the teams won't be able to use the kayak trolleys for that portage because the ground is too rocky. Carrying those things for 2kms could be ugly.

The weather forecast for today was light rain (which didn't happen, actually it was a beautiful day), and more rain for tomorrow and Saturday. If that eventuates, it will make things even tougher for the last day.

End of Stage 3

2009-11-11T14:31:00.000-08:00

A flurry of teams left in the half hour before 9pm.

Orion got here about 7:30pm, really tired and anxious to sleep.
They crawled into their tent for a 3/4 hour sleep, then got up to sort their team, then left the TA before the 9pm cutoff, but only headed to a nearby paddock to sleep a couple more hours.
They had to drop a checkpoint on the river, they started up towards TA28A, but decided after a while that they weren't going to make it, and turned back.

Nike left at about 8:55pm, stopping just out of the TA to debate their route choice for the next 60km again. They looked pretty tired.

Blackheart also made the cutoff with a few minutes to spare. They also looked really weary.

I need to check how many teams in total made it out before the cutoff, maybe about 30.

Alexandre, the race director, is still picking one of the European teams for the win. (How rude). He thinks the Poles are going well, and says they 'look strong', and the two French team. I think the Poles are continuing with their strategy of trying to get all the regular checkpoints and ignore the bonuses.

The next leg is a tough 60km trek, followed by a 150km MTB. That gives them 27 hours till the next cutoff at midnight Thursday.

Nearly the end of Stage 3

2009-11-11T10:56:00.000-08:00

Nga Rakau just arrived at the end of stage 3 - a long 9 hours of kayaking and portaging - and are having a sleep in transition. They need to be out of here by 9pm to beat the cutoff. They're in good spirits, and don't seem to have any particular injuries or issues. Mark's missing a bit of skin from a MTB crash on Tuesday, and Tim & Fi some grazes from the roller-blading this morning.

We're anxiously awaiting Orion's arrival. Nga Rakau were with them at the start of the paddle, and Orion were intending to get all the CPs (Nga Rakau didn't). They were pushing really hard, and will be really tight for time to get here by 9pm.

I finally befriended one of Nike's support crew, who tells me that they had all CPs up to the start of the kayak leg.

Stage 3 Rollerblade

2009-11-11T03:34:00.000-08:00

Driving back from the rollerblade 'escort', we came across Orion. In good roller-blading form. They were chirpy and smiling, looking really good. We kept driving, and Nike were about 3km further back down the road.

Orion have skipped one 'bonus' CP only so far. Not sure about Nike - will try to find out this afternoon - but they are currently without the first 'bonus' CP from leg 1 (because of the 100 points issue).

As far as I know, Orion and Nike were the only two of the leading teams to make the kayak darkzone yesterday.

6 teams had pulled out as at yesterday morning. And shortly after Team 'Explore Sweden' - who were picking themselves to win - pulled out after one of the team members needed medical assistance.

End of Stage 3 MTB

2009-11-10T22:46:00.000-08:00

Neil and Fi checking the maps before starting the Stage 3 MTB

We're currently following Nga Rakau - each team's crew follows behind as 'safety' - on the stage 3 rollerblade leg.

Not the team's strongest discipline ... a European team just flew past us on a downhill at crazy speeds.

Nga Rakau got to the end of the 100km MTB leg at around 4:40am. They got all but one of the checkpoints on that leg, and apparently Neil nailed some tricky nav. They then slept for an hour and a half in the scrub near the checkpoint. They all woke up looking pretty refreshed, just have to endure this 20km of rollerblading before a big day of kayaking. So they should beat the 9pm first cutoff tonight okay.

When we left the last CP, Orion still had a couple of checkpoints to get on that MTB. They had flown through the previous kayak leg, beating the support crew to the end of the leg (not the support crew's fault - Karyn and Roy are doing a brilliant job ! - the assistants were required to wait 1.5 hours before leaving the previous CP, organisers had obviously underestimated the paddled capabilities of some teams).

So at the end of that kayak, Orion were around half an hour ahead of Nike, although we're not sure at this stage whether both have all checkpoints - there was a rumour around that Orion might have skipped one CP, although if that's the case I would think it's a 'bonus' CP not a 'regular' CP. Nike have apparently lodged a protest re the bonus CP they weren't given on Leg 1, no surprise there as it was a ridiculous rule.

Middle of Stage 3

2009-11-10T12:08:00.000-08:00

Nga Rakau arrived at the end of the 'white-water' kayak at around 4pm. Although the river levels were low, and there wasn't supposed to be much white-water, Neil & Tim managed to empty themselves into the river. And the team ahead of them did too. Resulting in Nga Rakau coming into the transition first, announcing that they were 'winning the AR World Champs'. Just because it's Tim's birthday, we let them have their moment of glory.

Their transition was a little slow, which was a very good thing, as Sonja and my (and Brian's) support day from hell was continuing, with three pairs of bikes shoes back at the last transition. (Did I mention the little town of Loriga at 3am this morning? No. That's because we're not over it yet).

The shoes turned up with another support crew in the nick of time, and the team headed off into the fading light on another 100km-ish MTB.

Word at that CP was that Orion & Nike had made it on to the water before the 3:30pm dark zone. Both still have all checkpoints & bonuses. I think the other teams can still get a checkpoint by the alternate trekking route, but another 20km on foot is probably not what they want right now.

Leaving TA2

2009-11-10T00:33:00.000-08:00

We're just about to leave TA2 at the top of the mountain.

Nga Rakau arrived at about 9am, pretty tired, but things going according to plan so far. They slept at the TA for about 1.5 hours, and headed off on the downhill MTB. They're still on track to make the 'white-water' river by 3:30pm, after that teams will have to complete that leg on foot during the dark zone. (Apparently the flow is low and there's not much white water.)

At 12:30pm we're still waiting for Orion to arrive.
At last report from Geoff Hunt, both Nike & Orion had had difficulties after CP17A. There were two indistinct tracks leading out of the valley, they each took a different one. Nike bailed after a while, and headed for the road. At that point Chris thought they were on an out-of-bounds section of road, so they crossed the road under a culvert, and scaled a difficult bluff to avoid the road. That section wasn't in fact out of bounds, and they could have walked straight across it.

Orion by that time had apparently 'disappeared into the bush'.

They have both made it to subsequent checkpoints, but Geoff said that valley was full of long grass and rocks and was particularly difficult going. At this stage both of them have collected all the regular checkpoints and bonus checkpoints.

He likes the look of the Czechs who have been through this TA (2) and have started on stage 3. They have collected all of the regular checkpoints and none of the bonus checkpoints.
Team Outdoor Action have a similar strategy, but he said they 'didn't look so good'. And apparently the Poles are another team to look out for.

Hopefully Orion will turn up here soon. We were required to wait here for 1.5 hours after Nga Rakau had left, but we're just about to leave. I don't know how many checkpoints they've actually collected at this stage.

Midway Stage 2

2009-11-09T15:20:00.000-08:00

We're now waiting at TA2, high up a mountain. The night is very cold and windy.

We left the cool little town of Fajao about 3 hours ago. There was a checkpoint in the main street, and a room in a building that opened on to the street (as they all do on those narrow cobbled streets) with food and hot soup for the teams.

It's slightly odd with the middle of the field coming through the checkpoints first, but around 7pm Nike arrived, followed 10 minutes later by Orion. Both teams pushing hard, and having collected all the checkpoints and bonuses so far.

At the end of the previous leg (trek leg 6), Nike had arrived first by about 3 minutes from Orion, with Orion transitioning slightly faster to leave about a minute ahead. Orion looked good, and were happy with their route choice and nav on the leg. Lundhags were just running up the road as we left the checkpoint, about 20 minutes behind the other two.

There's still a little confusion over the status of Nike's bonus checkpoint from the first leg of the first stage. They collected 105 points, and were not given the CP, as apparently the requirement was to get exactly 100 points. I don't think any of the teams realised that, and it will no doubt be disputed.

Nga Rakau had left the Fajao checkpoint before we arrived, they were riding up a huge hill on the way out of town as we drove down in to it. All looked happy enough.

We don't expect any teams to turn up here now for several hours.

Day Two Restart

2009-11-09T00:59:00.000-08:00

The race just restarted with Stage 2 at Lousa Castle.
This is a 45km trek (with canyoning), 100km MTB, and 45km trek.

The time to complete Stage 2 and 3 before the first cutoff (9pm Wednesday) will be very tight.

Nga Rakau have opted to skip a number of the checkpoints on stage 2, as making that cutoff is most important at the moment. They estimate they'll need to finish stage 2 by 5am Tuesday to allow them to complete stage 3 in time. Stage 2 has a number of options to skip controls, whereas stage 3 doesn't have so many.

Orion have all the checkpoints marked on their map, will be interesting to see how they reassess things part way through the stage. The organisers keep alluding to the fact that they think getting all the checks will be very difficult.

I think 5 teams headed off in the same direction as Orion - they look like the ones who are starting the leg with the intention of picking up all the controls. Although others could be heading to 6B first (rather than 6A), the order is not mandatory.

Day One

2009-11-08T14:30:00.000-08:00

Stage began with a serious of 'multi-activities', with teams needing to do approx 6 activities to get the checkpoint. In hindsight was probably a good bonus checkpoint to skip (which about a dozen teams did), but not really in the spirit of the race...

Team Orion

Got off to a bit of a slow start ... didn't pick a particularly efficient route for getting all the activities - after that went really well on the remaining legs and made up a bit of time of the leaders. (Remaining legs being 15km rollerblade, 20km trek, 15km MTB, 7km trek).

Down a little bit of time, but early days. And all good considering Wayne O was feeling pretty average with a chest infection.

Team Nga Rakau

Got off to a flying start until they lost their control card near the end of the first leg, went and did some extra activities to make up the lost ones. Put them a bit behind time, and ended up skipping two checkpoints on the big trek leg, a good decision, and would have been tight for time anyway without the bungle at the start.

We've just driven about 3 hrs north to Lousa, race restarts tomorrow morning at 8am.

The day before the race

2009-11-07T07:32:00.000-08:00

Team Nga Rakau

Race briefing is tonight. What we know so far ...

The race starts tomorrow 10am - first stage is in and around Estoril / Cascais, and up to the Sintra National Park. Expected to take between 7 and 9 hours.

Teams then drive to Lousa - 2 to 3 hours north towards Porto - and stay there overnight.

Race restarts Monday 8am - and it's intended that all teams finish between 10am and noon on Saturday - a total of approximately 127 hours.

All checkpoints are optional, there's 'regular' checkpoints and 'bonus' checkpoints, the team with the most checkpoints at the end wins. If teams have equal number of checkpoints, it goes on bonus checkpoints. If those are equal, it goes on time.

Strategy is going to play a big part. The pressure's on Neil the new boy - with 60 maps to study, he could reach overload on the first night ...!