Team OrionHealth Adventure

A short update from the pub as we retreat from the heavy rain and wind which looks to have set in for the night - we are glad not to be out there battling the elements with the teams right now!

 Orion starting the orienteering section.

The Kiwis at ARWC are all doing well - at the last report (at the end of the orienteering stage) Silva-Gerber with Aaron Prince stormed through the course with a decent gap ahead of a chasing bunch consisting of Blackwater (Chris Forne, Nathan Fa'avae), Outdry (Jacob Roberts, Ian Edmonds) and Spanish team Buff. Ian Edmonds commented that they felt like "little ducklings in the wake of Chris (Forne)" as they hung on to take advantage of Chris's navigation! Chris Forne himself said he wasn't feeling too great, although they had a clean run. Orion had a tough mountain bike ride with Brent suffering from some stomach troubles, giving Stu a good workout on the tow. Fleur and Nathan are both feeling perky. At the end of the orienteering they departed into the rain and wind about 30mins behind Blackwater and co. addidas Terrex (Sonya Clark, Warren Bates) came into the end of the orienteering as Orion departed and are about 10 minutes back looking happy.

 As mentioned earlier the weather has taken a turn for the worse, with heavy rain and gale force winds, and daytime temperature drop from the 28 degrees we had yesterday to a high of 9 degrees today.

Teams will bike into the night, then complete a kayak/trek stage before dawn - here teams will split once more with one pair kayaking to the end of the lake, then walking back, and the second pair walking out and taking the kayak back. This should take them through to dawn, when they will complete a short inline section, followed by one of the key legs of the race a high mountain trek with a tough ropes section in the middle - estimated to take them 20 hours. 

The countdown is on for the race start - in 8 hours time at 9am local time the racers will be off! The course has been announced, and looks like some good tough legs, with some tricky nav through out which should suit our guys nicely. 

The team at Cuerto Postes with Avila in the background, ready for the Opening Ceremony procession. 

Things kick off with a sprint orienteering stage around Avila expected to take an hour or so for the top guns - watch the teams with good technical orienteers to do well here - such as Orion, Blackwater with world sprint podium finisher Chris Forne, and Silve-Gerba with Arron Prince. Its then onto the bikes for a 4 hour leg, before another orienteering section set by the Spanish Orienteering organisation, so it will be tough! Thi one has two parts - a 12km section for the team, then two 6km legs which the teams will split up into pairs to complete. Again, this will make things interesting for teams who usually rely on one navigator, but should give an advantage to most of the Kiwi teams who have two or more good orienteers on board. This hould take teams into tomorrow night onto the bike and a night lake kayak.

Brent showing off his climing skills at the pre-race checks.

 The weather is forecast o be good tomorrow, but deteriorating in the wee hours of Monday morning, with possibley even snow above 2200m (and the teams will be completing a high trekking stage which reaches...2250m with a challenging ropes section!!).  So it will be fro one extreme with temps in Avila today nearing 30 degrees to potentially close to zero on the high ridges. Makes good gear choie essential!

right, thats all for now Roy and I need to hit the sack and grab a few hours sleep before the race start. Orion were super efficient and had all their maps done and in bed not long after11pm. On our way out we saw most other teams including Blackwater and Silva still hard at work on their maps - could be a long night for some!

 

It has been a hot busy day here in Avila for the teams preparing for the world championships in less than two days time. With 67 teams entered it is a huge field, and the competition will be fiercer than the Spanish sun.

Today teams had to complete the obligatory paperwork and gear check as usual, then with that out of the way it was over to some trees beside the race hotel where the Ropes Safety staff had set up ropes to test the athletes climbing skills. The race course is rumoured to have some fairly serious sections of ascending (where the teams will use special equipment to pull themselves and their gear UP the ropes), so there was a real emphasis on making sure everyone was familiar with the techniques and equipment - quite a few teams chose to come back later in the day to practise! Most of the top ranked teams were lucky enough to get this over with in the morning before the heat really kicked in, leaving the afternoon free for some food shopping and gear preparation (otherwise known as pre-race faffing!).

OrionHealth.com are in good spirits and are looking pretty organised. We even went out for a sightseeing run this evening! The one big problem so far is the continuing absence of Nathan's bike box (which also has his inline skates, paddle and pfd). We have arranged to borrow most of the missing gear from other teams and the friend of one of the racers who lives near Avila - but we still hope the bike box will turn up tomorrow!!  Orion are not the only team to have had gear missing en route to the race - Silva had a bike left behind in Stckholm, Nathan Fa'avae from team Blackwater had his bike arrive late this afternoon after a wee stopover in Heathrow, and there have been at least 3-4 other bikes which have 'turned up' at various places around Madrid Airport and be delivered to their anxious owners at the race hotel today.

The schedule for tomorrow has the team packing their gear into the race-supplied drums, before a procession through the town of Avila to the race briefing where they will finally hear what the next few days hold in store. All we know so far is that the race starts in the centre of Avila, surrounded by 12th centuary fortified walls and narrow cobbled streets. We will keep you posted!

Recent World Championships

Year     Location            Winner

2005     NZ                    Balance Vector (NZ)         OH 11^th

2006     Sweden Nike (USA)                      OH 5^th

2007     Scotland           Nike (USA)                      OH 3^rd

2008     Brazil                OrionHealth.com (NZ)       Nike 2^nd

2009     Portugal            Helly Hansen (UK)            OH 4^th 

With the temporary (we hope) demise of Primal Quest, ARWC is the premier Adventure Race in the world.  This year there will be 70 teams with athletes from 28 countries.  Location is the Castilla y León area of Spain, west of Madrid.

Favorites would have to be Team Nike who have won two previous world championships and Mike Kloser has again got a super strong team including Kiwis Chris Forne and Nathan Fa’avae.

Adidas Terrex (formerly Helly Hansen UK) are the current champions.  We believe they have our former team mate Sonya Clark on the team.    Other recognized teams include Wilsa AFG from France and Buff Thermocool from Spain who will be familiar with the terrain and are always competitive.

Orion Adventure has not had the best build up with two recent DNFs and two DNSs due injury and illness, so we are hoping for a bigtime change in fortunes.

The word is that this race will be a straight forward A-B expedition adventure race, without the complications seen in recent years.  First full course team across the line wins. 

The organisers have issued a breakdown of activities:

            Trek/Orienteer        40%

            Bike                      35%

            Kayak                    20%

            Skate                      3%

            Ropes                     2%

These equate roughly to the total hours to be spent on each activity. 

We will again be carrying GPS trackers so you die hard AR fans and team supporters can follow progress via the internet.  Race starts Sunday  3^rd October at 8am local  8pm NZDT. 

See also:          Stu’s article in Blogs

                        www.arwc2010.com

                        www.raidbimbache.com/info/en/raid.html

                        www.sportzhub.com

                        www.sleepmonsters.com

 More info when we get there

Stu has been busy sorting out his race kit and food ready to fly out to Spain later this week - with gear for four days of continuous racing, 5 different disciplines and covering every conceivable weather eventuality...all to fit into the airlines checked baggage requirements (we hope!). To squeeze into the bags is also some fantastic new team kit from Berghaus - including toasty puffer jackets for transitions, super-warm hats and waterproof jackets/trousers to keep the team nice and dry out on the course.

We haven't had too much information on the race area/terrain yet, but the temperatures seem to fluctuate between a balmy 18-22 degrees during the day to a cool 3-4 degrees overnight. The competition looks hotter than the weather, with 67 tems confirmed starters - including most of the top adventure racing teams in the world: the British current champs Addidas Terrex (with NZ racers Sonya Clark and Warren Bates), and Orion's old-time rivals US/NZ team Blackwater (formerly Nike) including Kiwi's Chris forne and Nathan Fa'avae. Yet another top Kiwi racing is Aaron Prince with the Swedish Silva-Gerba. Other top teams to watch out for include the Explore Sweden team captained by race director Micheal Lindnord, the experienced Spanish team Buff Thermacool, Quechua (France) and Martin Flinta's team Thule (usually including Kiwi's Richard and Elina Usher in their line-up, but with replacements for this race).

As always, it hasn't been completely smooth sailing getting to the race - the teams planned arrival in Madrid on Wednesday coincides with a 24 hour 'General Transport' stike accross Spain - Stu has had to reschedule his flight from the UK till Thursday, while Brent, Fleur and Nathan are hoping their flight on Wednesday will go ahead...sometimes getting to the startline is almost as much of a challenge as the event itself!

The race briefing is on Saturday afternoon, with race start 8am Sunday morning from the town centre of Avila. Loyal Orion supporters Fi McBryde and Roy Edwards will be out on the course keeping the news coming in on Orion, and the (numerous) other Kiwi teams racing. Keep an eye on this blog, follow our progress on the Official Race Website or check out our team Facebook Page.