Team OrionHealth Adventure

2008 AR World Champions

Orion Adventure Plan for 2010

Thursday, 04 March 2010 11:12 Brent Edwards

We are very pleased to announce to you all that thanks to Orion Health we are able to continue racing for the 2010 year.

There was always going to be some changes to the team with Wayne (team captain), who created and held the team together over the last few years announcing his retirement, and Anna moving to Tasmania and wanting to have a break from the sport.

However myself (Brent) and Stu were really keen to continue racing as a team of New Zealanders and have a recruited some athletes with similar attitudes and personalities to join. They are:

Fleur Pawsey (Christchurch) - 1st Female Coast to Coast 2007, 2nd Abu Dhabi Adventure Challenge (2008 & 2009)
Marcel Hagener (Ohakune)- 1st Mild 7 Outdoor Quest 2004, 1st Adventure Racing World Champs 2005
Carl Bevins (Auckland)- 7th Coast to Coast 2009, 8th Coast to Coast 2010, 1st 2006 Wulong Mountain Quest

Note that there are 3, this is because Marcel and Stu are not able to race all the planned races, so Carl will slot in when they are unavailable or if someone is injured.

The team has two main goals for the upcoming year they are to:

Regain the title of Adventure Racing World Champs
Inspire others to experience and succeed in the outdoors

We plan to achieve these goals by, competing in a number of local and international races to gain experiences racing as a team leading up the Adventure Racing World Champs in Spain (30 September - 9 October)

20-21 March	Adventure Race Coromandal - Whitianga http://www.arcevents.co.nz/arc2412/content/
15-28 May	XPD - Cairns, Australia http://www.xpd.com.au/
11-17 July	Explore Sweden - Norway & Sweden (arctic circle) http://www.exploresweden.se/
3-6 September	Wulong Mountain Quest - Wulong, China
30 Sep-9 Oct	Adventure Race World Champs - Spain http://www.raidbimbache.com/info/en/raid.html
4-5 December	Whakatane Adventure Race (Whakatane) http://www.whakatane.com/feature_24race.html

In addition to this the team is planning to put on a number of trainings and races throughout the year, this is part of of sponsorship arrangement we have with Orion Health, but also other sponsors and interested persons are encouraged to attend.

Also the team plans to run an adventure race training weekend offered free of charge to the public, and a 24 hour Adventure race early next year, which hopefully assists with fulfilling our 2nd goal to inspire others to experience and succeed in the outdoors.

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Time for a Break

Tuesday, 05 January 2010 10:25 Anna

After eight years of participating in multisport and adventure racing I have decided to take a break from racing. It has been great competing internationally with the OrionHealth.com team and I have many amazing memories about the places and people I have encountered all over the world. I would like to sincerely thank all of the people who have made it possible for me to be able to compete at this level. My friends and family, teammates, support crew, our great sponsors, and everyone who has taken an interest in our team. Although I will miss adventure racing, I am looking forward to having a rest and to future adventures.

Retirement

Monday, 14 December 2009 22:25 Wayne Oxenham

I did my first international adventure race in November 2004, 5 years ago. Since then I've enjoyed the incredible support of sponsors, family, friends and some very talented team mates. Together we have achieved some success that I'm very proud of and experienced many diverse cultures, terrains, challenges, emotions and race organisers.

I thank everyone who has followed and supported us over the years, but I especially thank Lynne, the most supportive wife a man could wish for.

Although I still enjoy the challenge that racing competitively presents I have decided it's time to sit back on a Saturday morning and read the paper, take life a little bit easier and spend more time with my family and friends.

The adventure racing team OrionHealth.com plans to continue racing, sponsorship permitting. I'm sure the team will go well without me and may even go better ;-)

Thanks so much for your enduring support and for believing in us and our dreams ... it's been a blast!

All the best,
Wayne

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Stu and Team ADCO take Second at Abu Dhabi Challenge!

Thursday, 10 December 2009 06:50 Fiona McBryde

Crossing the finish line on the last day in second place overall! See the Blog Page for more details.

Stu racing in Abu Dhabi

Thursday, 03 December 2009 20:11 Fiona McBryde

Stu is currently over in Abu Dhabi racing with team ADCO New Zealand (Fleur Pawsey, Gordon Blythen and Nathan Peterson). I will hopefully be getting some updates from Stu during the race, which will be posted on the Blog Page.
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Orion on the Sports News!

Thursday, 19 November 2009 23:36 Fiona McBryde

Click below to see a piece TV3 Sports Tonight did on Orion's recent Adevnture Racing World Champs race - some great footage and interview with a slightly tired-looking Wayne!

Sports Tonight Orion Interview

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Orionhealth.com have finished ARWC 2009!

Saturday, 14 November 2009 22:48 LynneO

Photos courtesy of www.arwc2009.com

Having crossed the finish line after just over six days of physical and mental challenge in the beautiful countryside of Portugal the team are now starting to enjoy the sensation of having completed such an extremely challenging and very tactical race.

Wayne called NZ from the finish line very briefly (it's all action there at the moment with celebrations and media attention for all of the finishers). Without getting into any real specifics he sounded happy enough with how everything had gone but commented that they never really figured out what to do once they got a bit behind on the course (after getting lots of CPs and bonuses early on).

They don't know what their final finishing position is - they did have to miss 3CPs on the way home - so we will have to wait and see the final results on that. Hopefully they have managed to hold onto a top 5 position.

Wayne did say how pleased he was that they had handed their World Championship title on to British team Helly Hansen Prunesco as they have raced with these guys lots of times in the past (as Aberdeen Asset Management) and they are a really great group of people as well as being deserving of the title after racing so smart and well!

Nike/Beaver Creek with kiwis Chris Forne and George Christison along with another kiwi (Aaron Prince) in Swedish team Lundhags filled the two remaining podium positions.

Unfortunately it's not "all rest" for the team now as they have a pretty busy and tight schedule ahead of them in the next 20 hours or so ... sorting out, cleaning up and packing themselves and their gear before getting on the first of a series of long flights tomorrow morning (7am their time). The NZ based team members are expected to arrive back in Auckland early on Tuesday morning, 17 November.

Thanks to everyone for your support - the team really appreciates knowing that they have lots of people behind them and willing them on throughout these amazing races!

Orionhealth.com walking the final coastal trek on the way to fourth place in the ARWC 2009.

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Drama overnight at ARWC 2009 ...

Saturday, 14 November 2009 03:08 LynneO

... and most of the drama seemed to be around what was happening with Orionhealth.com!

During the night the team have become separated reunited and have continued on this epic adventure.

Check out our blog page for all the details, reports and possible interpretations of it all ...

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ARWC 2009 gets more complex!

Friday, 13 November 2009 08:35 LynneO

This Portuguese Race Director has obviously got a bit of an evil streak!

Keep checking our Blog page for the latest updates and reports

Racing is getting more complex and results more confusing as the final race cut off looms at the end of a monster 160km mountain bike leg. Teams (apart from Nike/Beaver Creek) are starting to miss checkpoints (CPs) and Bonus CPs as they try to make sure that they reach the end of Stage 4 before the midnight deadline (1pm NZ time).

Orionhealth.com are still amongst the leaders but at the end of the 60km trek that commenced Stage 4 they have dropped another CP which has pushed them into 4th place. This is according to the Leaderboard - extract below. (Note: things are changing so fast that the Leaderboard is probably not going to be keeping up perfectly ... Annie (Nga Rakau support crew member) has just released another update (below) which explains that at least a few things might not be correct on the board.)

Pos.	Team	CPs	Bon.	Time
1	#46 Team Nike/Beaver Creek	36	5	36:08:03
2	#38 Helly Hansen - Prunesco	34	4	38:44:11
3	#08 Lundhags Adventure	34	4	39:36:38
4	#01 OrionHealth.com	33	4	36:28:19
5	#07 Quechua	31	4	38:13:44
6	#48 OS-Direct Adventure team	31	3	39:50:01
7	#10 Navigator RaidLight	31	0	32:19:02
8	#04 Buff Thermocool	30	4	38:54:26
9	#02 OUTDOOR EXPERIENCES	30	1	35:57:08
10	#30 CONDOR AIRLINES	29	2	37:12:22
11	#20 ERTIPS	29	1	35:09:56
12	#25 Extreme Challenger/IGeoE	27	1	33:19:14
13	#05 OpavaNet/Tilak/Merida	27	1	34:07:53

The most recent Sleepmonsters race report said that Wayne, Stuart, Brent and Anna were looking reasonably fresh which is great news as they will definitely need to keep their feet and their minds moving fast to make sure that they keep in the hunt to defend their World Championship title.

Orionhealth.com "storm the castle" ... gently! (Photo courtesy of www.ARWC2009.com)

Click here for the full Sleepmonsters report: http://www.sleepmonsters.com/racereport.php?page_action=rep&race_id=7511&article_id=6216

Annie's latest update ...

Waiting for end of Stage 4

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 [Lynne - See correction below], 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.

correction...? (From Annie)

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 ...

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Off the water just in time ...

Thursday, 12 November 2009 13:36 LynneO

Orionhealth.com have completed the latest leg of the Adventure Racing World Championships - kayaking their way to the latest race cut off with a bit of time to spare!f

f(Photos courtesy of www.ARWC2009.com)

Wayne and Brent sort their kayak Portage Wheels

Anna keeps up her end (of the kayak)

Wayne and Brent haul their kayak up from the water

You can check our Blog page for details of a conversation with Karyn who is crewing with Roy Edwards which includes a little of my "interpretation of events". There is also another update from Annie (crewing for Nga Rakau).

The latest race reports from Rob Howard of Sleepmonsters are also available here:

At Assistance Point 3 - Time is Tight: http://www.sleepmonsters.com/racereport.php?page_action=rep&race_id=7511&article_id=6206

Rush Hour: http://www.sleepmonsters.com/racereport.php?page_action=rep&race_id=7511&article_id=6208

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Page 1 of 4

Orion Adventure Plan for 2010

Time for a Break

Retirement

Stu and Team ADCO take Second at Abu Dhabi Challenge!

Stu racing in Abu Dhabi

Orion on the Sports News!

Orionhealth.com have finished ARWC 2009!

Drama overnight at ARWC 2009 ...

ARWC 2009 gets more complex!

Waiting for end of Stage 4

correction...? (From Annie)

Off the water just in time ...

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