Team OrionHealth Adventure

 Competed in the Open24 adventure race in the weekend with Simon Enderby who Fi raced with in the Open12 about a month ago.

 Great course which took us from the North west coast of Wales over plenty of hills to the Welsh town of Betws-y-coed.  Had a good race although not quite good enough to beat Tom Gibbs and John Houlihan who took a well deserved win.

Here's a couple of pics from the race.

Cheers,

Stu 

Great ride last weekend. Fi and I rode the Trans Wales MTB route from Knighton to the coast.  Two days of riding through some fairly remote Wales countryside - and plenty of hills!  Fortunately the weather gods were smiling on us and we were'nt subjected to the typical wet Welsh weather. Just enough of a shower to test out the New Berghaus Paldor Peak jacket.  Great piece of kit.

Here's a few photos from the ride. 

Latest news from Brent is that he is back in hospital on a drip.  The infection was not responding to the antibiotics originally provided.  He is still hopeful of catching the plane home with the rest of the team early Sunday morning.

Anyway, the much anticipated post race relax on the beach is not happening for him.

I the frustrating thing is that at the time we withdrew we were 95% of the way there, and in the lead, about 1 hour up on Blackheart who spent a bit longer in a dodgy part of the map than we did.

Anyway what has happened if one of my numerous leach bites suddenly became hugely infected and swollen, this in itself probably wouldn't have stopped me, but it was in a location near my Achilles tendon and the swelling completely immobilised the ankle joint.

We bunked down for a few hours in the leach infected rain forest hoping that the swelling would reduce enough to carry on.

 Unfortunately by morning if anything it was worse and a decision was made that we needed to get some treatment ASAP.

So after a visit t the Cairns Hospital I am now on a concoction of antibiotics that will hopefully do the job of clearing up the infection.

This is not a one off case, as it seems that half the teams I have spoken to have at least one person with a bad infection. Fleur is also been on antibiotics, as well as Shane from Alpine Epic.

Here are some showing the extent of the swelling. 

Blackheart have won XPD 2010, reaching the finish in Cairns at 8.55pm last night. They deserve congratulations on a well constructed race.

Unfortunately OrionHealth have been forced to pull out half way through the final leg due to an injury to Brent. They got medivaced out and were at the finish to greet the winners. The circumstances of the injury are unknown at this stage, I guess Brent will fill us in in due course. Last night he was off to the hospital for scans on a swollen and hot ankle.

A number of other Kiwi teams were also on the DNF race incl Alpineepic who were up with the leaders for several days. Out there still are Nga Rakau in about 8th, and MacPac Girls on Top.