DART-nuun News
presented by nuun

Airlie Beach, Queensland, Australia (September 1, 2007)- After a demoralizing 33 punctured tires, DART-nuun (Jen Segger-Gigg, Ryan VanGorder, Aaron Rinn, and Cyril Jay-Rayon) worked their way back to 4th place at the world renowned XPD race, Australiaâ??s premier expedition adventure race. This yearâ??s edition took teams on a fantastic tour of some of Queenslandâ??s most dramatic landscapes that featured the coral rich Whitsunday Islands, the teeming coastal rainforest, and the stunning outback. â??This race lived up to its motto - As much an expedition as a race,â?? reflected Jen after the grueling race. Of all exotic flora and fauna - such as the poisonous Death Adder snake or the excruciatingly painful stinging tree - the team had to watch out for, it was the ubiquitous and puny Goathead thorn that caused the team the most trouble.

Photo: Wouter Kingma

â??Weâ??ve learned our lesson,â?? exclaimed Cyril shaking his head. â??If it wasnâ??t for our tough Michelin AT tires, we would probably have doubled our number of punctures. We decided to go with the non-tubeless version but that decision ended up costing us more than 10 hours as we ran out of tubes, patches, water and food on the first major bike section.â?? Aaron added, â?? Weâ??ve been racing for 5 years with regular â??tubedâ?? tires and weâ??ve had no issues whatsoever. The convenience of the â??tubedâ?? tires has worked for us in the past but itâ??s clear now that weâ??ll never show-up to a race without our tubeless Michelin tires, at least not in northern Australia where all flora seem to have thorns!â??

The race which attracted a strong international field, started with a beautiful paddle through the Whitsunday Islands interspersed with heart pounding running on some islands and refreshing snorkeling on others. â??Weâ??re used to paddling for hours uninterrupted,â?? noted Ryan happily. â??Itâ??s nice to have a race that breaks up the kayaking with some incredible trail runs to the top of mountains with 360 degree views of the archipelago. The snorkeling sections were a first for the team and appreciated in the heat of the day.â?? After the day long paddle, the teams were treated to a 30 km trek through rainforest followed by a fast 50 km bike ride to the shores of the northern Whitsunday. â??The run was superb through the rainforest as the night fell and the place came alive with exotic sounds. We kept watching out for the infamous stinging treeâ??s heart shaped leaves along the trail. We havenâ??t had the pleasure of experiencing it ourselves but apparently - the locals tell us - if you brush your skin against it, the pain is excruciating and can last for months. Not exactly what we wanted to deal with in an expedition race,â?? Jen noted with a grin.

The second paddle on day two could not start before 6 am so many teams arrived at the transition with plenty of time to spare. DART-nuun had 6 hours and used the time to get some rest, prepare their gear, and plot their routes for the next few sections. The dayâ??s paddle was once again superb and the weather cooperated with beautiful sunshine and only a small breeze , at least for the lead teams. The team came off the water in 2nd place overall, a mere 10 minutes behind first. The race was starting off nicely for the team. However, this was short lived as the next 100+ km mountain bike section began with a bad omen. As the team left the Transition Area (TA), Cyril stopped to readjust his front wheel. Unfortunately, Aaron who was also adjusting something while ridding didnâ??t noticed that Cyril had stopped and rear ended him in spectacular fashion. The two stunned teammates got up to find they only had a few bumps and scrapes and that their beautiful Turner bicycles were intact, well almost. Cyrilâ??s derailleur hanger had sheared off. Luckily the team brought another and quickly made the switch only to have to stop 5 minutes later to fix their first flat tire. Little did they know that it would be the first of many more to come. The ride through the night took the team about 18 hours when it should have taken them around 8. So, when the team arrived at the next TA, they were slightly tired to say the least and way down in the rankings. They didnâ??t give up though and even resorted to bartering for patches with other teams on the course. â?? I once exchanged some iodine water treatment pills for a few patches,â?? recalled Ryan laughing.

The next leg of the race involved a major trekking rogaine (section where you can reach Check Points (CPs) in any order). The team started the rogaine in the heat of the day and were immediately slowed to a fast trekking pace not only due to the heat but also the long grassy terrain they were traversing. â??I thought this grass would make for easy traveling but, aside from providing good visibility, itâ??s quite a workout to push through it,â?? recalled Cyril. â??And itâ??s a great place for snakes to hide. We came across our first Death Adder in these grasses but, as we expected, it was more afraid of us and took off at high speed.â?? The rogaine took the team through the night and provided for some much needed respite from the heat. The team even got some good sleep out on the course.

After a quick transition to stock up on water and food, the team was off on another epic mountain bike ride. They were quite nervous since they hadnâ??t been able to restock on tubes and patches. Those awaited them in their bike boxes some 120 km further at the mid-camp transition. â??We hoped this section wasnâ??t going to be covered in Goatheads but since we didnâ??t know, we stopped by a local store â?? one of the very few on the course â?? and managed to find a patch kit,â?? explained Aaron. â?? As it turns out, the patch kit was a life saver as we had plenty of punctures in this section.â?? Sure enough, after passing 4 teams in the early stage, the team got hit with 7 consecutive punctures and were reduced to applying patches under the sunâ??s scorching heat. â??Patching tubes without a water bucket to find the puncture holes is quite a challenge,â?? remembered Jen with a sigh. â??But, we got quite good at finding the tiny stream of air coming out of the tube by placing our lips close to the tube as we spun it. It turns out that your lips are quite sensitive but it was still quite difficult to find multiple holes in the same tube. Once, we applied 5 patches to one tube in one go. Still, we often thought we had them all only to find out a few minutes later we missed one. It was frustrating to say the leastâ??. Luckily the team did not have anymore for the remainder of the section and was able to power on to catch back up to some teams and actually enjoy the scenery, especially at sunset when the surrounding outback landscape turned to an orange glow. â??Australian sunsets in the outback were one of raceâ??s highlights,â?? noted Aaron.

By the time the team arrived at mid-camp â?? with itâ??s compulsory 6 hour rest â?? they had made their way back into the top 10 and were back in the race. After some much needed rest, the they headed out on another rainforest trek followed by a beautiful mountain bike ride with a long technical downhill. Teams went from a high plateau around 900 meters back to sea level. During both the trek and the mountain bike section, the team felt strong and rested. The fact that they only suffered 2 punctures on the bike also added to their excitement and drive. When they arrived at the TA before the last kayak, they had made there way back up to 5th place. â??We finally felt that our puncture troubles were behind us and that we could finally race our race,â?? reflected Ryan.

The team enjoyed the last kayak along a river that lead into one of Australiaâ??s sugar cane regions. The kayak was only interrupted by the occasional stunning flight of native birds and the 2 weirs the team had to portage around. On the kayak, DART-nuun saw no other teams so they quickly transitioned back to their bikes and headed out into the night in search of more teams. This bike leg was long but not difficult in terms of navigation but the challenge came from the sleep monsters. â??I just couldnâ??t keep my eyes opened,â?? said an aggravated Cyril. â??Itâ??s frustrating because you feel strong but canâ??t maintain the pace because youâ??re constantly falling asleep. This was a long night for me. Not being able to stay awake is one of the most difficult and frustrating things in expedition adventure racing.â??

Albeit slow, the bike section went on without any incidence and for the first time, the team had no punctures. At the next TA, the 4th place team was banking sleep before embarking on the last and biggest trek of the race that the race director said would take teams 20 â?? 50 hours to complete. Wisely, DART-nuun also banked 1 1/2 hours of sleep before heading out on the monster trek.

The last trek was long, hard but beautiful and the team thoroughly enjoyed the experience. â??What made this trek difficult in terms of navigation,â?? explained Cyril, â??is that we only had 1:100,000 scale maps to work with. Weâ??re typically used to racing with 1:24,000 maps. What this meant is that many features on the ground were not on the map. At one point we climbed a ridge that wasnâ??t visible on the map because it was too narrow and not low with regards to the surrounding terrain. I knew we were climbing to the summit of the right mountain but I couldnâ??t exactly pin point where we were. It was a very interesting navigational experience that forced me to trust my instincts more.â?? By the time the team made it to the last CP on the trek, they had moved into 4th place overall and were looking strong.

DART-nuun maintained their 4th place through the final 70 km mountain bike ride that had some tricky navigation through cane sugar fields. â??It was harvest time so we had plenty of encounters with trackers and huge trucks on our way back to Airlie Beach. They certainly drive fast during the harvest!â?? remembered Aaron with a large smile.

Photo: Wouter Kingma

In the end, the team crossed the finish line in 6 days and 3 1/2 hours, exhausted but elated.

Next, DART-nuun will compete in the the new 4th Dimension 24 hour race on majestic Olympic Peninsula in Washington state on September 15th.

The team's successes would not be possible without the generous support of their hand picked sponsors. Each sponsor was carefully selected because their products are of the highest quality, perform brilliantly, and are of the utmost reliability. "We trust our lives to these products while competing in the world's most demanding conditions," - Cyril Jay-Rayon, Team Captain.