Adventure Racing World Series
presented by Numa Sport Optics

It has been a bit of a slow day for us after this morning's excitement at the end of the Night One hike. I left Thomas River just after 15h00 and until I left only 9 teams had completed the hike.

The last time I checked in I mentioned that Blackheart/Bunker Capital were in (11h40). McCain Adventure Fanatics and French team Epitact came through just before 14h00 (I'm open to correction) only seconds apart.

We sat around waiting for the teams to leave, following McCain on sections of the cycle to Wrigglewade Dam. We thought Epitact would leave transition no more than 30-minutes after McCain but when we started driving back, waiting at a good spot for the team, they had not come past. So either we missed them... or they took longer than we anticipated.

We got the dam just after 19h00 - pitch black out there. When we arrived at the dam the car's temperature gauge read 8C. At 19h00! Imagine what it will be at 22h00... and 02h00...

Three teams had completed the paddle, which I believe to be around 40km. As per the order this morning, they are my three South African angels - USN, Cyanosis and McCain Adventure Addicts.

For reference:

USN got to the dam at 11h42, taking 4-hours on the cycle stage from Thomas River to the dam. They spent 18-minutes in transition and took 3h18 to do the paddle, locating two CPs on the dam. They were out, on their bikes again, within 16-minutes.

McCain Adventure Addicts reached the dam at 12h57, two minutes ahead of Cyanosis and only 1h15 behind USN. They spent 19-minutes in the transition before climbing onboard their boats. They spent 3h23 on the water and were on their bikes 20-minutes later.

Cyanosis checked in at the dam at 12h57, just behind McCain. They spent 19-minutes in the transition and were on the water for 3h24. Their transition time on to bikes was 23-minutes.

While we were at the dam, 4 teams were on the water (in order of check-in time): Buff Coolmax (14h42), Bjufors (15h17) and Lafuma (15h43) and Blackheart / Bunker Capital (16h37).

To put some of this into perspective...

Seven teams have been on the dam. Three made it off before dark. Four will get off an hour after dark (hopefully). Every other team will paddle in the dark - unless they sleep and paddle at first-light in the morning.

It is COLD out there - and you know what it is like paddling at night, on a sit-on-top, in the coldest of coldest hours. And it will take teams slower than these fastest teams more than 3h30.

The marshals at the dam transition said that yesterday the teams had come off the other dam (Seymour) in the night and had been freezing. Apparently the temperature was sub-zero (-2C) out there. The marshals have built a fire, like they did last night, to warm the racers when they complete the paddle. Brrrr...

I have had no further news - many, many teams (like 30 of them!) still had to complete the hike by the time I left the hike-end TA at 15h00...

My guess is that these teams will do the cycle tonight and will be very tempted to sleep for a good few hours tonight to do the paddle at dawn. Most did not sleep on night one so they'll take advantage of the opportunity to sleep at the dam. There is a big house-like wooden building on the shore (new boat club being built perhaps) where they can sleep on the floor. Better than being out on the water.

I'm flying back to Johannesburg in the morning so that's the end of on-site observations from me. I do anticipate having news phoned through to me throughout the week so I'll aim to keep you all informed.

Till tomorrow,

Lisa