> report filed November 15, 2005 by Michael JacquesNew Zealand’s Team Balance/Vector continues to sweep the world’s best adventure racers aside at the Adventure Racing World Championship being staged on the West Coast of New Zealand’s South Island this week.
Balance/Vector emerged from the events first night section with a commanding lead this morning. The event kicked off in Westport yesterday with a 14k sea kayak north, followed by a 49k mountain bike over the historic Denniston coal-mining site to the historic gold mining region in Lyell, deep within the Buller Gorge. As night closed on day one only here hours separated the 48 teams from 40 countries, but an extremely challenging overnight section has blown the world title event wide open.
Balance/Vector were one of only a few teams who mastered the physically and navigationally challenging trek. They merged from the Lyell Range at 8:00am this morning, with team captain Nathan Fa’avae saying, ”It was a very tricky night. There were so many route options, but we could see on the maps that only one was going to be very fast. So we actually travelled very slowly overnight making sure that we stayed on the right route.”
Balance/Vector’s lead is not unexpected, but their four-hour lead off the mountain was. The real surprise, however, was New Zealand’s Powered Velvet moving in to second place. The team of Richard Anderson, Dean Sisson, Rhys Burns and Koleigh Ford were as surprised as anyone; they had started the trek in 28th place and Anderson simply said that they happened upon the right route
and made sure they stayed on it.
After Powered Velvet came a flood of top contenders, all commenting on the difficulty of the overnight trek. Team Merrill/Wigwam, a USA/NZ contingent of Robyn Benincasa, Mark Collins and Kiwis Geoff Mitchell and Neil Jones came through holding third place, which was where they finished in last year’s world championship. Almost an our further back came defending world champions Team Nike/Balance Bar, who also lamented the tough navigational challenges of the night trek.
The navigational difficulty of this first trek caught just about very team by surprise. Team Montrail, a conglomerate of American and New Zealand racers, were surprised to find themselves still in seventh place after what they described as a horror night. “We thought we’d be quite a bit behind,” said team captain Rebecca Rusch. It was a tough night.”
The American adventure-racing star was shrewd in teaming herself with three Kiwis for this world championship. Alexandra’s Tim Pearson was bemused by the tougher than anticipated leg. “We always knew where we were going,” he said. “But we just took some wrong route options that slowed us up. I guess most of the teams took worse options.”
Some teams didn’t deal with the technical nature of the course. Today four teams withdrew by default after failing to navigate their way through the trek. USA’s Team Eastern Sports, Brazil’s Team Try On Landscape and New Zealand’s House of Travel all returned to Lyell where they had started the trek almost 24 hours before. But USA’s Team Cranksport were forced from the race when a team member dislocated their shoulder after a fall.
Local West Coaster’s Team Kathmandu also suffered a bad day. The team of Jill Westenra, Martin Lukes and brothers Hamish and Duncan Hamilton withdrew late today after a team member fell ill. Team Kathmandu were darkhorse contenders for the world title thanks to their knowledge of the local mountains.
As day two of the Adventure Racing World Championships drew to a close only 26 of the 46 teams that started from Westport on Monday morning are still racing for the world title. Teams had to be on a rafting section down the Buller River by 7:30pm to stay officially ranked in he world title race. Leaders, Team Balance/Vector were rafting at 8:30am this morning, so after only 34 hours of racing the remaining teams are spread by 11 hours.
While the race has close to three days yet to run, it is hard to see anyone containing Balance/Vector. Their combination of world-class athletic ability
and knowledge of the Buller region saw them start the next section, a 30k trek south along the Brunner Range, with a three-hour lead. The team were all very composed, with team captain Nathan Fa’avae taking time to embrace his wife and daughter and chat with his father. With such a big lead the team chose to sleep for an hour, which was their first rest in 34 hours.
This trek is expected to take the fastest teams more than 15 hours and is followed by an 89k mountain bike leg in the Reefton area. As such, night navigation will once again play a major part in how the world title event continues to unfold. The weather will also have an affect, for while teams enjoyed warm sunshine today, rain is expected to return tomorrow.
As night closes on he second day of the Adventure Racing World Championships Team Balance/Vector are the only competitors to reach the checkpoint high on the Brunner Range. With almost 300 kilometres still to cover a winner is now not expected at the Tauranga Bay finish line, near Westport, until Friday afternoon.For further details go here.