Discussion: AR World Championship - XPD in Tasmania

A lot of Attackpointers are converging on Tasmania this week so it's time to get together here and talk about them (with more than a little jealousy). If any ARWC racers are checking AP this week, it would be great if you could share some of your experiences here.

In the meantime, we can check out the XPD website for pre-race news and live event coverage. There is also a mobile phone app for live coverage. Click on this link on your phone to get it.

I'm alive in Burnie. Just waiting for cab to hotel. A shower is all I'm focused on right now. Much greener area than Australia proper are my first impressions.

You might not want to refer to the mainland as 'Australia proper' amongst the Burnie locals. :-)

You're right. No Australian is considered proper:)

Some Attackpointers in the race:

Team #13 - Wilderness Traverse - Bob Miller (Getawaystix), Jack Van Dorp (Frankenjack)
#14 - Wild Rose - Veronica Jarlehag (Carbon), Bart Jarmula (Revy)
#25 - Milton Basement Racers - Tim Grant (Tiny), James Galipeau (Relentless), Sean Roper (STORM)
#34 - Spirit - Chris Koch (Urthbuoy), Leanne Mueller (Leanimal), Dave Hitchon (FB)

I'm so excited, but a little sad you can't put volunteer WandAR. :-(
Thanks for starting this thread Bash.

Mike and I arrived in Launceston a few days ago. Have been spending our time buying and prepping food, waterproofing bike boxes, training and fighting a cold. The rest of team Wild Rose are currently in the air and should arrive tomorrow when we all head to Burnie. The weather has been nice so far. About 15-20C with cooler nights. It will likely be colder and wetter on the west coast. Looking forward to this adventure to begin!

Bash you forgot about all the APers on Tecnu... Slice, T-devil, RVG

Good point! I was just running through the list of Canadian teams and hoping that others would jump in with AP names of people they know, e.g. I'm sure there must be some Aussie APers in the race...?

Hope your trip to Tas was uneventful and not too expensive with excess baggage fees. Leanimal escaped the fees yesterday but they confiscated 20 self-heating meals. :(

On Twitter, it's #ARWC2011

On Facebook, "like" the ARWC page.

And it probably doesn't hurt to like the Geocentric page too (XPD organizers).

Aussie APers, from the 'Attending' logs. I'm sure they're more, but I'm not going through all 26 Aus teams.

Rob Preston (Blackheart) - NSW Stinger
Seb Dunne (iAdventure) - Sebba
Steve Todkill - steveo
Andre Morkel - AndreM
Ricky Thackray - tRicky
Kim Willocks? (Blackheart?) - Kim

Official ARWC 2011 website will launch in the next day or so...

So glad to know you're behind the scenes, Grant!

Got off the plane to wind. Then got some rain while walking back from the store. Weather here is great for racing. At least for those of us from Seattle.

Robin is on Team #26, MissingLink.

Fyi for North Americans watching the race, it is currently 15 hours later in Burnie than it is in the Eastern Time Zone (Toronto and New York). Starting at 2 a.m. on Sun. Nov. 6, it will be 16 hours later. (We go off Daylight Savings Time. Tasmania is already on DST for the summer.) This assumes that Google is telling me the truth!

An amazing site at Launceston airport today. The entire airport was full of adventure racers. Beauty! I spend most of my days at home trying to fit in or explain to people what it is that I do, but here I felt completely at home with no explaining required. Everyone is here for the same reason. Does it get any better?

Registration is open and Live Race HQ website is operational and posting updates.

Teams are all registered now. (That was quick!) They're going to live stream the race briefing. Tons of updates on Twitter. The tweets from the race organization (which are most of the tweets associated with the hashtag) are appearing as "quick updates" on the live coverage website.

From Relentless on Facebook: "We found out today that Australia Post uses Quantas Airlines to ship all of their parcels to Tasmania. So the 6 boxes of clothing, food, and gear that we had to ship from Sydney to Tasmania because of weight restrictions on our last flight may not arrive in time for the race. So it may be a last minute shopping scramble tomorrow morning..."

From T-Devil on Facebook: "All of the pre-race festivities are now over and we get our maps tomorrow morning. We will spend all day tomorrow working with the maps and organizing our 9 gear boxes. The course testers saw 9 Tiger snakes in one day on one section of the course. I HATE snakes. Our plan is to put 2 sets of gaiters on Marco and put him out in the front. I don't know what the gaiters will do, but the race organization recommends them. :)"

From Relentless on Facebook: "We were informed at our briefing today that we are going through very eco-sensitive areas. So sensitive, in fact, that at one point in the race we will have to wash all of the dirt off of our shoes and remove all of our clothes and have them "quarantined" (stored in a garbage bag) until they can be washed after the race. The Australians are VERY serious about protecting against foreign species in every region!"

From Carbon by e-mail: "Two types of kayaks will be used in the race. One inflatable type and one hard shell sit-on-top. Neither has a great top speed (4km/hr and 6km/hr respectively). The hard shell will likely not be very comfortable and neither boat will keep you dry."

Good coverage and pics on Sleepmonsters.

Race doesn't start till Wed. morning, around 6 p.m Tuesday in Toronto. Many teams are checking Trail Mail now if you want to send good wishes.

There has to be a better option than those sit-on-top kayaks. As someone who enjoys paddling its always a letdown when I see I have to paddle them.

Ditto. Here's the 733 km race course, unveiled a few hours ago.

Good course. Lots of variety, making the most of the locations that weren't visited on the last XPD in Tasmania.
At the request of Bash, I'll provide a few insights to the course as resident' AP Tasmanian'. So, here goes:

CP #1. Ocean kayak from town of Burnie to town of Penguin.
Pretty sedate part of the state. Unlikely to see large swells or anything super difficult here unless the weather acts up. Even the scenery is not that exciting unless you dig rolling green farmland or rocky coastlines.

CP#2. Dial Ranges. Leave the ocean and trek through the Dial Ranges. Try out clay target shooting and experience some cross country travel in Tassie bush.
Dial ranges, an easy but steep rang just outside of penguin. Well formed, but sparse trails connecting all the summits. Any off trail nav will leave teams hating life - thick, scratchy and low visibilty (actually, most of the forest is like this in the NW of the state), but nothing too difficult on the nav front. Awesome views.

CP#3. Gunns Plains: Fast ride on sealed roads down into Gunns Plains.
Nothing too exciting here. Rolling roads through farmlands. Will be pretty enough and there will be some fun descents but nothing testing. Teams should stop and get some local cheeses and/or fruit - it's delicious.

CP#4. Gunns Plains Cave: Enjoy exploring this famous cave.
Awesome. I didn't predict this, but it makes total sense - kudos to the race planners. I suspect this is an 'experience' CP - you won't be making or losing time here. The caves are pretty well travelled and mapped so it shouldn't be too difficult for teams - though hopefully they allow teams into areas that the normal 'tour guide' groups don't see. Jealous.

CP#5. Loyleta Peak: You now travel away from settled areas into the remote heart of Tasmania.
This is where the race starts for reals. I'm not an expert of this part of the state, but I'm pretty sure the trails here are not well known for MTB (at least I've never heard anyone say, hey, let's spend the weekend biking up in Leven Canyon). Without seeing the topo map with the start and finish I don't want to say anything too specific, but I'd say it'll be rocky, rough and narrow with extreme elevation changes.

That's enough for now - let's let the teams catch up!

I just spoke to one of the WA competitors who raced last year as well, apparently the course looks fantastic except for the repeat of a 8km paddle with 4 in a boat.

His quote: Obviously no one punched Craig hard enough last time (he set a leg like this)

Team Cyanosis (South Africa) also has two APers:

Nic Mulder - nmulder
Nathan Thompson - nthompson

I think most racers are in love with the coarse. The feeling is, survive heading south as the real challenges are after the midway point, when we head back north.

Almost ready to go - might get a goods night sleep before a race for once.

Busy day getting our heads around the bin logistics. Had to laugh when in the course book the description for the two longest sections - a back to back trek then bike that could take 2 days - suggests packing extra food. Tough to do when you have limited space! We only get to see one out of our five bins before those sections. At least it will be right after mid camp.

Course looks cool even if it is a loop. Some things seem a bit unecessary (skeet shooting?) and I think we will be wet even if the weather is good (caving, rappel down a waterfall, paddling 4 to a boat at one point).

There is a long paddle near the end that the organisers think no one will be able to finish within one day. That could be interesting as you could end up spending two nights stuck at a mandatory dark zone if you are unlucky.

No short courses. Is there time cut-offs?

I think they all have 9,5 days time to complete the course. No cut-offs..

Course looks fantastic. It seems that elevation gain are not that significant.

So how the top 10 will look like at the end? I think it could be something like that..

1- Seagate #2
2- Thule Adventure Team #7
3- Buff Thermocool #01
4- Team Silva #9
5- Merrell Adventure Addicts #4
6- WildernessTraverse.com #13
7- Quechua #15
8- Teamblackheart.com #3
9- FJS #95
10- Adidas Terrex / Accom / OpavaNet #96

Also in the mix: Team Adidas Terrex #34, Team Bridgedale Socks NZ #38, Team Wild Rose #14, Technu Extreme/Kailash #17, AXA Sports Club #24 and many black horses Aussie team I do not know about...

Blackheart, from Australia, will be strong contenders. Seagate, with Marcel "the animal" Hagener will be a tough 4-some to beat, though.

Thanks, Pat-hetic - awesome to have our own Tasmanian devil to give us context.

Live website looks fantastic! Unlike some races, we shouldn't need to use this AP forum to try to figure out what's happening. We can still talk about it though! :)

Here are a few comments on Facebook from LosDobos, who has been reading all the fine print:

- No short course options or orienteering sections, and no tactical choices to miss any checkpoints – the penalties for doing so will ensure there is no advantage.
- First impression of the ARWC course: looks like the first big shakedown will be the 60km trek up to Black Bluff. However, it looks like the race will be won and lost right after the midway camp with 3 monster legs: 65km trek, 150km bike, 75km paddle. This thing is a beast.
- The logistics would drive anyone insane: 9 gear bins with strict weight limits which won't all be together, but scattered over the course. Maps? We got maps: 37 of them and a 70-page route booklet. In another wonderful move, the organisers have PRE-PLOTTED the checkpoints! That alone probably saved teams 48 hours.
- The inflatable kayaks need to be inflated and deflated at the start and end of every paddling leg. STORM will lose it - I hope MBR gets it on video.
- "End of the trek onto Lake Mackintosh - 1 inflatable kayak per team ("survival raft")"
"Q: "How cold is the water?" A: About 13 degrees, I remember being very cold when I got out."

From Relentless (Team Milton Basement Racers) on Facebook:

"First section is a 20km ocean paddle that starts right near the place where an 18 ft shark was spotted 2 days ago!"

"So we showed up at the postal sorting warehouse early this morning and they managed to find our boxes of goods. That was great news, but it's been chaos since then trying to get everything together and packed in a very short time as all our gear has to be handed in in a couple hours. It's a whole choreography trying to figure out which gear bins we'll see when during the race, and to keep everything under very strict weight limits. It's hard deciding what to leave behind... food, clothing, spare equipment in case something breaks?"

The latest from Burnie is that the weather looks great for the paddle start. T-minus 1 hour and 46 minutes!

Halfway between CP1 and TA1 now: Seagate leads with Wilderness Traverse in 2nd. Woot!

followed by Tecnu, MBR and Spirit fairly close together and then Wild Rose not far back. Unleashed Compression has a non-spotting SPOT.

Looks like Wilderness and Tecnu had blazing transitions as they're now leading the field at the start of the first trek. Long way to ge still...but wiikid!

Great coverage so far! Apparently there is snow forecast for the high ground tomorrow so the Canadians should continue to do well. :)

Indeed. Always a possibility of blizzards in Tasmania.
I'd need to retract what I said about Leg #5. Now seeing the actual route of the leg, seems they're taking the scenic way round on paved or gravel forestry roads - no big deal for this lot.

The next leg is great:
CP#6: Black Bluff / Vale River.
This epic leg traverses over Black Bluff, the highest point in the course. You will complete an incredible abseil down Reynolds Falls. Leg 6 is very remote and few people have travelled the Vale River.
You don't hear much about Black Bluff, it kind of lives in the shadow of Cradle Mountain to the south. Hence, it's less developed, not many trails and those that do exist are small and gnarly. Assuming they'll be going off trail for a lot of it, the worst parts will be the lower lying areas (nasty vegetation) and sections of elevation (scree and cliffs) change. Visibility and views above the tree line will make life easier, but it can still be slow underfoot. Weather can change rapidly and badly up high here just like anywhere else, fog, rain or snow fronts can sweep through at a moments notice.
The second section through Reynolds Falls Recreation Area looks great too - I'm embarrassed to say I've never heard of the place (and I used to visit the area for work fairly regularly). A quick google search uncovered a good blog post. In particular: With 6 hours until dark I figured that would do for the 16km round trip from there. As it turned out, I was a bit optimistic
The track was quite tricky to follow in places as I made the descent through magnificent myrtle and delegatensis forest. The falls were awe inspiring. The Vale River plunges out of a giant notch in a tall cliff with a thunderous roar. Time was against me. The 8km descent had taken 3 hours

All four Swedish teams thru CP#2 in the top 10 or 11. What other sport have I seen this trend before? Orienteering?

Is the tracking working? It's taking forever to load and then I get no flags when I select some teams.

Tracking finally seems to be working!

As at 12:55 Tasmania time, assuming there are no teams ahead with malfunctioning trackers:

1 – Seagate
2 – Silva
3 – Blackheart
4 – Thule Adventure
5 – Merrell
6 – Adidas Terrex
7 – Wilderness Traverse
8 – Buff Thermocool
9 – Cyanosis
10 – Tecnu Extreme

All on the 60km trek at this stage, about 8km separating 1st and 10th.

GO TEAMS!

It looks like Mountain Designs, FJS & Quecha just turned their trackers on, slotting into the gap between Buff and Cyanosis/Tecnu.

Is anyone else unable to bring up the live race coverage website?

It looks like about 1/2 the teams are on the first big trek to Black Bluff as of 0200 tomorrow. It's dry but cool (about 5 or so) and the forecast looks about as nice as they could hope for the next couple of days.

The front of the pack is still Seagate, and they continue to widen the gap to a chase group of 3 teams: Silva, Blackheart, and Thule. Then there's another gap back to a second group of 5 teams: Adidas, Merrel, Buff, Wilderness Traverse, and Mountain Designs. It's about 5km between Seagate and Silva, and a further 4 km fromThule to the next group.

Tecnu's SPOT hasn't updated in the past 80 minutes, but they seem to be in the 3rd chase group of about 10 teams. This head of this group is about 1km behind the Wilderness Traverse group, so the top 19 teams have separated slightly from the rest of the field.

Ecuador (with Aussie-Canuck Lucy Eykamp) sits in about 20th.
Milton Basement, Wild Rose, Spirit, and Unleash Compression are all shown at the bike to trek TA, although MBR's SPOT is about 90 minutes old.

The next couple of stages are going to be a bit of a come down after the Black Bluff trek.

CPs 7&8: Lake Mackintosh / Lake Rosebery - A short kayak / raft leg along Mackintosh Lake. Portage along the road to Murchison River.
Lake Mackintosh and Rosebery are hydropower lakes with a fairly narrow band of water level they are allowed to operate at. Unless the the weather is bad, so the biggest challenge will be dealing with the the variety of watercraft they have to deal with. The portage from Mackinosh to Rosebery is a steep drop (about an 80m height difference between lakes), but all on a (likely loose and gravelly) access road. The lakes are surrounded by jagged granite peaks, so at least they'll have something nice to look at.

Sunrise on Day 2 sees Wilderness Traverse racing with last year's champs Buff in 6th-7th place. Seagat continues to lead, followed by Silva and Thule, who have pulled away from Blackheart in 4th. Adidas Terrex is in 5th, about 2km ahead of WT.

Ecuador and Tecnu are trekking about 1 km apart in 21st and 22nd place. Wild Rose not far behind in 27th. Unleash is in 29th about 2 km behind Wild Rose. Spirit is moving on in 33rd place about 3-4 km behind Unleashed. MBR - their SPOT hasn't updated since 00:46 (it's now 06:20) so not sure where they are. That last SPOT was at the Bike to Trek TA.

Hope the leaderboard catches up with the action eventually. Team Ecuador is still shown in 5th place, which isn't right. There should be some great pics today when they rappel down the waterfall!

Strike that: "Roping staff at CP18 are bitterly disappointed but have made the decision to route teams around the abseil site. Current conditions do not allow safe access for teams to the top. The epic trek down the Vale river continues on the original route."

Milton Basement's SPOT finally woke up, and the news is good. They're in the middle of the trek in about 26th, not far behind Wild Rose (~21st). Boo-yah!

At the front, Segate is nearing the end of the rafting section with Silva in 2nd place having just arrived at the raft put-in. I'm assuming Thule, Adidas, and Blackheart are still in 3rd through 5th, although their SPOTS haven't updated for a few hours now. 6th is Buff and 7th is Wilderness Traverse with Quechua just behind.

Quote from Nathan Fa'avae of Team Seagate after finishing the "rafting" (4 people in a 2-person kayak for several hours on a big lake): "That makes the top 10 dumbest things I've done in an Adventure Race"

P.S. Go Canadians! :)

Yikes, hypothermia is going to be an issue on the so-called rafting section. This is a photo of a guy on the 1st place team who did this section in the middle of the day - and he doesn't seem to be overheating. I'd be concerned about slower moving teams who have to raft in the dark.
<http://twitter.com/#!/bcroft76/status/131948405198...>

As at 6pm (TAS time):

On the 20km kayaking leg:

1 – Seagate
2 – Silva
3 – Thule Adventure
4 – Blackheart

On the 8km rafting leg:

5 - Buff Thermocool

Starting the rafting leg:

6/7/8/9: Cyanosis, Wilderness Traverse, Quechua & Merrell all together

---- OFFICIAL UPDATE ---

Race officials have advised Team #2 (Seagate) of a penalty to be served as a result of breach of Rule 4 of the Adventure Racing World Championships (Mandatory Equipment).

Team #2 failed to carry their emergency GPS Tracker (mandatory, all times on-team equipment) from CP2 to CP8.

Team #2 must serve a 4 hour penalty at CP52 (with full access to their equipment Box E) before being allowed to continue to the finish of the race.

Ouch. Let's hope that doesn't become what the event is remembered for. Controversy two XPDs in a row.

New leader today - maybe. Silva has left the kayak-bike TA ahead of Seagate, but Seagate's last SPOT update is almost 1.5 hours older than Silva's. In any case: it's close.

Blackheart is shown in 3rd on the map, but Adidas' SPOT hasn't updated in 12 hours, and Thule's in almost 13 so not sure of their locations but they were running in the top 5.

From 6th onwards we have Buff, ,Merrel, Cyanosis, AXA, Quechua, and Wilderness Traverse, who have just left the raft-paddle TA. The next group (11th - 14th) is just now startting the rafting section.

MBR are about 4 km from the end of the trek, but then it gets tricky.
Ecuador and Unleash are shown on the last bit of the trek, but their SPOTs are 13 hours old...
Spirit and Wild Rose are also shown not far behind Ecuador, but their SPOTS are 13 and 18 hours old respectively.

Controversy two XPDs in a row.

What happened last year? A mandatory gear penalty for such an important piece of gear isn't particularly controversial. A similar unintentional penalty cost our team the podium in a major race, and we were disappointed but did not consider it unfair.

. . . crickets . . .

Barb, email me if you haven't been brought up to speed. I have involvement with both races, so it's not really my place to state anything for the record here.

I agree that the Seagate gear penalty is in no way controversial. Had they somehow talked their way out of the penalty -- one written in the rules, in fact -- THAT would have been a controversy.

I'm a little behind the teams now, so..

CP9: Stirling Valley / Montezuma Falls
Looks like a lot of road riding interspersed with some 4WD and forestry roads. Likely muddy and rutted in sections. Big range of terrain, rainforest, bush and some mining scarred hillsides. MTBing the Montezuma Falls was one of my pre-race course picks - the trail in is popular for being a gnarly 4WD trip to a fairly awesome waterfall and biking too in the other direction, there's a narrow suspension bridge over a deep valley near the falls.
I have to laugh when the race notes say the teams will be able to pick up hot food in Rosebery and Zeehan, these are small mining towns. They may be able to pick up some chips or a pie in the local Bain Marie that's been sitting there since before the race started or maybe a hot meal in the pub, if they arrive between 12 and 1pm or 5pm and 8pm - otherwise they're likely to be greeted with a 'sorry, we've already turned of the grill/sent the cook home'.

CP #10 Ocean Beach / Mt Heemskirk
Epic. Looks very similar to the West Coast trek from the last XPD in Tassie - there were stories of quicksand like marshes, blustering winds and river crossings, and impenetrable, rocky headlands to traverse. However being next to the roaring surf and the feeling of being on the edge of the Earth would be awesome. Henty Dunes (just outside of Strahan) was another of my race picks and are pretty cool.

Grant- Is there a way to track the routes teams have taken on the map similar to how the Raid the North Extreme website did?

Yah, I need to enable the route history module again -- we stripped everything off earlier in the race trying to improve perf

MBR and Wild Rose look like they've stopped for sleep at the end of the trek before the rafting section. This is a very cold leg, so they're probably waiting until morning to start it. Ecuador looks llike they bedded down about 3/4 way through the trek and are now close (<1km) to the rafting TA. Unleash and Spirit are close together near the end of the trek, about 2km behind Ecuador. Tecnu should be finishing the paddle in a few minutes. Wilderness Traverse is still at the TA at tyhe end of the paddle, likely getting some sleep before the next bike leg.

Out front we have Silva and Thule close together followed by Blackheart about 15-20 km back. Adidas, Buff, and AXA are the next 3 shown on the bike leg, with Buff carrying a 2 hour penalty - not sure what for. Seagate is still shown at the kayak-bike TA, but that SPOT is over 9 hours old...
"Filed by XPD Field Media at 11/3/2011 1:54 PM
Seagate's GPS location shows as still at CP22 -- SPOT tracker seems to not be properly enabled ... they left hours ago!"

Glad to hear the route history is coming back! I hadn't realized how much I relied on it to figure things out but I'd figured you were keeping the application lean for performance reasons.

Spot tracker for Seagate was recently updated. It looks as though they are in Strahan and a good distance ahead of Silva. Let's see if they are able to make up that 4 hr penalty.

ABC News piece on the race. Wilderness Traverse walks by at 1:48.
<http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-11-02/epic-adventu...>

Loving your links, Pat-hetic! So jealous of that ocean trek.

In my opinion the 4hr penalty placed on Seagate isn't a true penalty. They can probably 'absorb' this penalty in the way of sleep.

I would normally agree with above, except as stated:

"Team #2 must serve a 4 hour penalty at CP52 (with full access to their equipment Box E) before being allowed to continue to the finish of the race."

CP52 is the last CP before the final 35K bike. If it were possible to serve it at any CP then that would be different - a team could use this to sleep.... but having to serve it right near the end before a short ride makes it hard for a team to plan for sleep 2 hrs before the finish. At least this ensures the first team through wins, a rarity nowadays!

Good point Harps. For their sake I was hoping that was a typo and they mean to say CP22. Alas, probably not. Which means they will have to maintain a very healthy lead going into CP52.

This just in from Tecnu's FB:
"Just saw the team out in the woods on a portage, and they looked REALLY strong, and happy. They said they slept 3 hours last night, and were feelling really good. Liza says she is feeling great and fully recovered from her stomach ailment. Team looks to be firing on all cylinders. RVG said hey and much love to the wife and kids. Marco said hey to Juliana. Liza sais she loves her some mommy. Kyle said "Hi Mom, " teamks back on the river for 5 miles of paddling and should be to Tullah TA cp 22 within the hour. Just uploaded some pics of them on the portage."

JaxXC - Route History is enabled on the race map now. The feature is on the left side of the map, beneath the team list. Check the box to view a team's historic route, with timestamp etc. Graphics are a bit rough but it works for now (and most importantly isn't a perf hog!)

"Team #36 (SCAR) has withdrawn from the race. Unfortunately, Rob G fell ill during the trekking leg from Leven Canyon. The team has been rescued and are now all safe and okay in Burnie.

Team #37 (Spin City Cycles) has had one member (Ali) withdraw from the race due to a knee injury concern. The remaining team of 3 is continuing to race as an unranked entry.

Race Officials have informed Team #2 (Buff Thermacool) of a penalty to be served as a result of a breach of Rule 4 of the Adventure Racing World Championships (Mandatory Equipment).

Team #2 failed to wear their race bib (mandatory, all times on-person equipment) and will serve a 2hr penalty at CP52 before being allowed to complete the race."

"Seagate arrived at CP29 mid-camp at 6:21am, I think they had some bike failure. Team Team Silva (#9) Silva arrived now 24min later"

"Filed by XPD Field Media at 11/4/2011 12:36 AM
Approx only standings: 1. Seagate, 2. Silva (+24min), 3. Thule (+2.5hrs), 4. Blackheart (3.5hrs) 5. Adidas (+5hrs) #arwc2011 "

This is from the mid-camp.

This is a list of teams and times for CP 20.

http://twitter.com/#!/rachellemcmahon/status/13228...

Some news about Spirit!

"Filed by XPD Media Team at 11/4/2011 4:26 AM
I adventure.com.au arrive at cp20! With spirit Canada #arwc2011 http://t.co/HYnZGYZL";

Updated standings at mid camp. Blackheart had to douoble back to snag the last CP so dropped down a spot. As of this update both Seagat and Silva have left after their mandatory 6 hour stop. First sleep for the lead teams.

"Filed by XPD Field Media at 11/4/2011 3:56 AM
Team order and time into CP29: 1 Seagate 6:21, 2 Silva 6:45, 3 Thule 9:11, 4 Adidas 11:40, 5 Blackheart 12:00, 6 Buff 12:20 #arwc2011 "

Canucks:
Unleash is almost done the rafting. In 36th.
Spirit approaching the portage on the kayak leg. In 32nd
Wild Rose, MBR, and Ecuador are in the TA at the end of the kayak with what looks like 3 other teams- probably getting sleep. In 20th-26th
Tecnu is moving fast and about 75% done bike. In 13th
Wilderness Traverse is nearing the midway camp. In 9th

@bash. Last year something along the lines of a top team and a visit or not visit to a correct or incorrect placement CP. You're right, this year is not as much likely controversy.

Cool, thx Untamedadventur.

Short video of Spirit portaging.

http://yfrog.com/nbe5rz

According to their blog (with reporting by FB's son Will, who is there), they were "very very cold" after the rafting - and "a wee bit tired" too. But still smiling!

Wilderness Traverse has left midway in 12th place and are approaching the dunes.
Tecnu is still snoozing at midway in 16-17th.
Ecuador 2/3 through bike in 20th.
Wild Rose a bit behind Ecuador in 23rd.
MBR not far behind Wild Rose in 25th.
Spirit recently started the bike leg in 29th.

Out front on the uber-trek are Seagate in 1st followed closely by Silva. They're about 3/4 done the trek.
Thule is in 3rd heading inland and Adidas is in 4th nearing the end of the dunes.
There's a bit of a gap then back to a group of 3 teams: Buff, Blackheart, and Merrel.

At APEX this year, Silva were an absolute machine.

-They relentlessly churned through the course at the very front-end of every time estimate
-They made few if any nav errors
-They didn't sleep

Seagate has a 2 or 3 KM lead on them right now (judging from the map), about 2 hours from the looks of it, but Silva is certainly the "race leader" at this point. Seagate has their work cut out for them, that's for sure!

If you read Seagates blog they explain the bike failure. So funny. Apparently a bolt fell off of Chris' bike. So at 3a.m. they tried to break into sheds to find a replacement bolt. In the end they converted into a single speed, but lost 30min in the process. I wonder if it's the same bike I rode in Spain.

>At APEX this year, Silva were an absolute machine.

I've raced on the same team as Björn Rydvall at Tio Mila in 2006. He is a beast! He brought our team (Umea OK) up a whole heck of places after I started us off in a crap placing. He is an all-round athlete. I think his background is in ski orienteering and cross country skiing and I believe he was Swedish junior ski orienteering Champion before switching to AR as his focus.

My Swedish orienteering club (Umea OK) actually has two members of Team Silva on it (Björn Rydvall and Mattias Nyström). The Umea OK web site is claiming Silva is in the lead at XPD. ;-)

http://umeaok.se/2011/11/bjorn-och-mattias-leder-v...

I'm a bit glued to the tracking map right now. Is it possible Seagate have rebuilt a 4-hour lead on this trek, already? Seagate has made it out to a road now (per the satellite map), and they're once again flying.

Can't wait to see where teams stand at the end of this trek.

Leaving Strahan, Team Silva trailed Seagate by about 25 minutes. As of 5 am in the morning, it appears as though Seagate has opened up a 3 hour and 45 minute lead. I don't know if this is correct but if it is, pretty incredible leg for them. 65 km in about 17 hours.

As teams go inland from Remine, here is what the approx time difference was/is for the top teams.

Current time there 5:45 am

Seagate - 4:52 pm (+4 hour penalty)
Team Silva - 6:08 pm
Thule Adventure - 8:54 pm
Buff Thermocool - 2:41 am (+2 hour penalty)
Merrell AA - 2:58 am
Blackheart - 3:28 am
Cynanosis - 4:27 am (seem to be a little offcourse now)
Quechua - 4:47 am

Other teams approaching..

Team Adidas, City Bike Depot, AXA Sports Club, Colombia Vidaraid, Mountain Designs, FJS, WT

Will post more observations later..

Edited to say: Just realized Team Adidas hasn't been tracked in about 8.5 hours so they could be further than we think or sleeping. Team Blackheart hasn't been tracked in about 2.5 hours as well so they could be in a different spot than what is posted.

Seagate just arrived at CP#10 at 5:32 AM, 17 hours almost exactly for that last trek.

Coming up next for them:

Discipline: Mountain Bike
Commentary: Approx. Distance: 150km
Summary: Savage River
The longest mountain bike of the race takes you across the Pieman river, and past Savage River National Park. The long climb to Waratah is unrelenting and there are more hills after this!

It's too bad the online course map didn't have all the CP's listed (instead of just the TA's). I find myself speculating on where the CP's must be based on the course highlighted route, available roads and the route of the top teams. Regardless, it is still awesome to track everyone!

Wilderness Traverse seem to be taking a bit of a different route as they head towards the road.

Looks like maybe they plan to run the road and use the bridge to cross the river...? Bobby! You're missing all that nice ocean scenery to run on a road!?! ;)

I wonder where the next CP is.

Looking at FJS who is a little northwest of them it appears as though they went a similar route but took about 90 minutes longer. Too bad there wasn't a play by play for these races. :)

FJS is now heading back towards WT so looks like they overshot their CP.

Looks like several other teams went up there so maybe there is a CP close to the road.

Too bad there wasn't a play by play for these races.

That's what Attackpoint is for! ;)

True enough!!

Team Silva appears to be about 4.5 hours behind Seagate's time check in the same area. Sunrise is upon them so could make for a very interesting day.

And both WT and FJS are back on the "blue line" route so they must have just visited a CP. Back to the ocean views! Good! :)

Team Adidas Terrex seems to be making up some good time behind FJS and WT. After that it looks like all other teams in Strahan are still taking their mandatory 6 hour break or just arriving.

Still no sign from the other Adidas team who are a further up the coast and haven't registered in about 9 hours. Team Blackheart hasn't had an update for about 3.5 hours.

Top 16 as of approx 7 am local time (not including penalties):

1. Seagate (+ 4hr penalty)
2. Team Silva
3. Thule
4. Thermo Buff (+ 2hr penalty)
5. Merrell AA
6. Blackheart
7. Cyanosis
8. Quecchua
9. Tat - Adidas (haven't updated in a while)
10. Vidaraid
11. AXA
12. City Bike Depot (haven't updated in 3 hrs)
13. Mtn Designs
14. FJS
15. Wilderness Traverse
16. Adidas Terrex

Tecnu Extreme?

Any idea or notes on what happened to Tecnu Extreme? They were in the top 16 teams up till last night but have disappeared. Last tracked 9 hours ago.

According to Tecnu's blog written by a friend who is there: "The team came into mid camp in 13th place, within 5 hours of Blackheart in 4th place. The prologue is now over with the real race just beginning. the weather has played a huge role in this race, and the top 15 teams have SEVERELY broken away from the field. Everyone has a mandatory 6 hour stop at mid camp, got a hot meal, and are hunkered down in a tent logging some sleep. For Tecnu Extreme, our race restarts at 11pm tonight with the hardest trek through the sand dunes taking 15+ hours followed by the longest mt. bike with some knarly hills over the 90 mile course, followed by the longest paddle. The team looks great, no worries, everyones got 3 hours sleep banked, and getting some more now. Race on. We don't have internet access for the rest of the night, but will upload todays pics of the team on the bike tomorrow morning. Till then, sleep tight race fans. Go Tecnu Extreme."

Maybe their tracker isn't working?

Thanks Bash. Hope everything is okay for them. That's two teams in the top 15 that have gone MIA since last eve.

In approx 1.5 hours Wild Rose will be able to leave Strahan from their Mandatory rest stop.

Now the dark zone strategy comes into play: "Seagate has been asleep in CP36 TA since arriving at 5:30am. They don't think they can get to the kayak before dark zone."

Probably a dumb question but what do they mean when they refer to the dark zone? Night time?

Teams are paddling 75km on the remote Arthur River which includes grade 2 rapids and 12km of navigationally difficult trekking up side valleys. This river has a dark zone from 7.30pm to 6.30 a.m. with no portaging allowed. This means that teams have to get off the river at 7:30 p.m., wherever they are. (Remember there are SPOT trackers.) It will be very difficult to finish this leg in one full day so it's likely that everyone will camp along the riverbank for at least one night.

From the RD: "Beware of big logs floating in the river."

Oh wow. Thanks for the heads up. I need to read a little further ahead.

So does Pat-hetic. Where has our Tasmanian travel guide gone? ;)

>Where has our Tasmanian travel guide gone?

He is busy working for GHO.

Update at 8:45 am local time:

2nd Place Team Silva appears to be a few miles away from the next CP where Seagate has been resting.

3rd place Team Thule appears to be about 3 hours behind 2nd place Team Silva.

Merrell AA seem to have overtaken Buff Thermocool for 4th place with Team Blackheart close behind in 6th and Cyanosis right behind them in 7th.

Quechua hasn't registered in over 3 hours so not sure if they are still in 8th.

AXA is a little ways back of the Merrell, Buff, Blackheart, Cyanosis Group in 9th.

Columbia Vidaraid, Mtn Designs are currently in 10th and 11th.

Still no update from Team Adidas and City bike who last checked in 11 hours and 5 hours ago.

It appears FJS is moving well and currently in 14th place with WT and Adidas Terrex behind them.

Oskalunga Kailash just left their mandatory 6 hour rest stop and begin their long trek.

Other Canadian teams: Wild Rose is at mid-camp and will be getting ready to leave soon. MBR is also at mid-camp with more than 3 hours to go. (Zzzzz!) Looks like Team Spirit will get to mid-camp for a hot breakfast in about 3 hours.

Wild Rose has left midway, but no sign of Tecnu who were ahead of them by a fair bit. ... OK, Tecnu's SPOT has gone tits-up and hasn't updated for 12 hours, so they have likely been trekking for at least 5-6 hours. MBR still at midway but should be leaving soon. Spirit is approaching midway - about 12km to go. Ecuador is also still snoozing at midway.

Wilderness Traverse is racing with the other Adidas Terrex team (Accom - Opavanet) in 14-15th place nearing the end of the dunes. Segate has left the trek-bike TA after a few hours sleep and are about 10 km into the bike leg. Silva is at the trek-bike TA and Thule is about 3km behind Silva.Team Adidas Terrex is in the mix somewhere between 3rd-6th, but their SPO has'nt updated in 12 hours.

The "Lantern Rouge" is currently held by team Driftwood who have about 18km of trekking to do before they get to the rafting section. Team Where the Fukrwe is in 2nd, 8 km ahead of Driftwood. Looking at the tracks however, it appears that Driftwood has missed a CP in the trek, so they may be unranked, which would put WTF in the Lantern Rouge position.

Seagate has opted to bike around the dunes rather than straight through. They may need to backtrack a bit but it's almost certainly faster riding. Plus you won't get sand and saltwater all over your bikes.

Update on Tecnu from the field:

"Just woke up, sorry, been running on 2 hours sleep. I was the walking dead, finally got 7 hours of much needed sleep. The team left last night at 11 pm heading out on the hardest trekking section through the Helty sand dues and then into the interior or jungle Tasmania. They looked good, had a hot meal, cleaned thier gear, left it in the first sun we have seen for awhile to dry, crawled into a Macpac tent, and got 4 hours of sleep. The team got up at 10:30, and had a 1/2 hour before they had served their 6 hour mandatory stop, they put together some hot meals to eat, KP did the mandatory team blog, it said "Team 17, we are ready for sand and snakes. " And they headed out right on time with mountain designs leaving behind them about 50 minutes. They are currently in 13th place, focussed, and determined, and poised for a top 10 or better finish. There are penalties on teams in front of them, and with the dark zone going to stop the front of the field on the paddle, this race will be closer than people think, and if we just keep pushing, good things will come about. Everyones safe, they all look great, although a little beat up, but better than most. Liza's an animal and pushing the boys. The treks remote and we cannot go in there, so will report when they get off the trek to the bikes. Should take them 15-17 hours for the trek, so they should be done by 3-5 pm here, so 6-8 more hours, so relax, go get a pizza, take a walk race fans. It's just getting started."

Tecnu's SPOT is still fubar and showing them in mid camp.
Wild Rose is trekking in the dunes. They're top-20 now, in about 18th.
Spirit has just hit the road leading in to midcamp.
Ecuador has just left midcamp, in about 22nd place.
MBR still at midcamp, should be leaving soon.
Wilderness Traverse heading inland after the dunes.They're in about 13th.

Looking at the Tecnu update above and Wilderness Traverse's track, it looks like Tecnu left mid camp about 1:20 behind WT.

Once Spirit hits the road - which they may have just done - it looks like about 1/2 hour to hot meals and 6 hours of zzzzzzzzzzs.

MBR has just now left mid camp in 25th place, but very close to the two teams in front of them.

...and Spirit pulls into mid camp, pretty much as MBR are leaving. Hope they had a chance to say "hi".

At the front, Thule has now left on the monster bike leg about 3.5 hour behind Seagate. Silva remains at the TA and is now in 3rd. Adidas Terrex has finally reappeared on the map in 4th place, about 8 hours behind Seagate and 1 hour out from the bike TA. Then we have Buff in 5th, 11 hours down on Seagate. They're followed closely by Merrel and Blackheart who are racing side by side.

At this point Wilderness Traverse are almost 20 hours behind Seagate. Can you imagine teams going that much faster than those guys? Aye Caramba!

Looks like Seagate didn't take the road around the dunes after all. They seem to have followed the road up to the edge of the dunes and are biking along the treeline. It's shorter than the road and they're far from the ocean so no worries with salt water messing up the bikes.

Revy and Carbon of Wild Rose at mid-camp: "feeling strong and bright hi to all at home!"
<http://twitter.com/#!/rachellemcmahon/status/13260...>
(Can everyone see this Twitter pic? I'm logged into Twitter so I'm not sure.)

P.S. Pete, thanks for the summary!

The ExploreCompeteLive Facebook page links to some videos including a few GoPro clips filmed by Team Tecnu on the bike ride before mid-camp. And, if you haven't seen it, check out the Day 2 ARWC video. Getawaystix of Wilderness Traverse seems quite relaxed at the 0:45 mark.

No kidding, LosDobos, 20 hours faster than Bob Miller & crew for Seagate -- in just 3 days of racing, really. That's 6+ hours EACH DAY faster than North America's fastest team the last few years (WT win Untamed NE 2010, Raid the North 2011, & others...). That's amazing.

Swedish photographer Andreas Strand, who took some great shots at the APEX race, has been posting awesome photos in his blog. If you read Swedish, the text might be good too - but I have no idea! :)

He's an amazing photographer -- captures something special about the sport . We have him lined for next June in Maine, too!

I think that Silva is in trouble - Mattias and Aaron are sick and can't eat or drink. Thule seems to have moved into 2nd.

>Can you imagine teams going that much faster than those guys?

Yup. They are crazy fast. World Class athletes in multiple disciplines. Not saying our guys aren't fast but it is a different level. We see this in international orienteering, trail running and XC running too. A few years ago my AR team mates came 6th at the "24 hour balance bar" race in 18 hours. We were ranked in the top 5 or so in North America at that time. A good race? We thought so until we noticed that Seagate won in 13 hours! 5 hours faster on a race that length. Crazy!

>I think that Silva is in trouble -

And the other Swedish team FJS as well. It appears that Mattias and Aaron (and a member of FJS) both drank water from a ditch and are ill.

re: Andreas Strand's blog

Bash you can't figure out this translation?
"Daniel hälsar att laget brukar räkna med 3 stora (ursäkta uttrycket) ”fuck-ups” på varje tävling."

:-) Anyway, one commenter on the blog mentioned to Andreas that his blog was picked up or linked from Sleepmonsters and that he might consider switching to English from now on (which he has) because he is going to get a lot of hits. So check back there for more updates.

But they're going again. Is it possible that Thule and SIlva could catch Seagate at the rievr put-in. Seagate may get there at 3am and their lead can only be turned into some rest until it gets light. They will be wishing they could turn it into paying off their penalty!

Nice pic here of 1/2 Wild Rose - they look fresh as daisies!
http://twitter.com/#!/rachellemcmahon/status/13260...

Here's Spirit packing up at midcamp.
http://twitter.com/#!/rachellemcmahon/status/13276...

Unleash - Frenchie looking good.
http://twitter.com/#!/rachellemcmahon/status/13277...

At the Front Seagate is approaching the end of the bike. However, Thule has roacked the bike and are only about 1 hour behind them. Not sure if Seagate had mechanical or navigational or health issues, or maybe they stopped for another snooze, or maybe they're getting tired.
Silva is moving wel;l in 3rd despite thier illness issues and is about 3 hours behind Seagate.

Then there's a big gap back to 4th-6th Blackheart, Merrel, Buff who are close together about 9 hours off the lead. Adidas not far behind this threesome.

Tecnu has pulled ahead of Wilderness Traverse near the end of the trek. Tecnu's SPOT has died - again - but their last spot is 3 hours ahead of Wilderness. Wouldn't be surprised if Tecnu's at the bike TA at this point. I couldn't see any point in Wildreness' tracks of them stopping, so not sure what's going on with them.

Wilderness is now in about 16th place, Tecnu is somewhere between 11th and 15th.
Wild Rose moving well in the trek about 3/4 done in 18th.
Ecaudor is in 20th place about 2/3 through the trek.
MBR has dropped back a bit to 29th and they're just at the end of the dunes and about to head inland (and up).
Spirit has moved up and are in 30th, just crossing the big-ass river in the middle of the dunes. They seem to be momving well.

Looks like MBR spent about an hour at the river crossing: tried one way and then doubled back to cross closer to the ocean.

Spirit is also having some issues getting across the river. They had to double back at one point are are now going up the shore. I wouldn't want to get wet either...

In the Lantern Rouge battle, Where the Fukrwe has just finished the rafting leg, Driftwood is done the trek but still to put in on the rafts. These guys will get their money's worth in terms of days on the course. Hope they make it.

Spirit is also making a meal of crossing the river. They've doubled back again down to the ocean and have now spent over an hour trying to cross. The lead teams didn't bat an eyelid and just ploughed straight across. Their tracker tracks don't even slow down. Wow.

To be fair, it's night-time now for Spirit (and also MBR) and it's a pretty wide river.

Sweet! Looks like Spirit has cleared the river now.

Crap! It looks like MBR missed a CP near the end of the dunes and are now doubling back to get it. Looks like it's cost them about 3 hours so far. Ouch.

Thule has passed Seagate for the lead! It appears that Segate has either stopped on the trail or slowed drastically. Also, Silva have just made a wrong turn and are heading up the wrong highway.

MBR have stopped on the beach. My guess is they backtracked the pick up the cp which cost them 1 hour and then decided to drop for a nap there as they haven't moved in half an hour.

Thanks for all these update LosDobos. Makes it easy to get quick updates (while finalizing the maps for RTH next weekend). ;-)

Silva is now 8km off the route, but they're coming up on some terrain that should make it obvious to them that they've gone past their turn-off. Meanwhile Segate has picked it up and is now riding with Thule.

Oh man...I see what Silva's done now. They've just turned off the highway onto the wrong trail/track. The really bad news is that it more or less parallels the track they're supposed to be on for a long way and then dead-ends, so they lilkely won't catch their error for a long time. This may drop them out of the top 5.

...but upon a closer look at the satellite images, they still have a route to get back onto "the blue line". That turn is coming up soon so we'll know if they've messed up or taken an alternate route. Wish we could see where the CPs are.

Holy fast and furious developments, Batman! Now Thule's gone off the blue line. They've followed the main track east and missed the branch of Pinner's Track heading to the west. I can't see any route for them to get to the TA the way they're going now.

Also, Seagate is shown behind them again, but their SPOT is 20 minutes older.

Silva's SPOT hasn't updated in almost 1/2 hour, so we can't tell if they've realized their mistake and turned around or if they're ploughing ahead further off course.

Silva and Seagate's SPOTS just transmitted again. Silva looks like they may be ok, having taken an alternate route: there look to be several small trails that can get them back onto the blue line.
Seagate is now shown ahead of Thule, but Thule's SPOT is 1/2 hour old. D'oh!

What's happened to Adidas Terrex? They've dropped down the leaderboard.

Adidas made a rats nest of tracks trying to get the CP at the dunes where the bike route turns inland. They lost time there, on the order of 5 hours.

Wilderness Traverse still not movind, but MBR has woken up and is once again near the end of the dunes. Both teams are still on the uber-trek.

The dunes seem to be slow going: Spirit has covered 3 km in the last 1.5 hours since crossing the river.

Ooops - my bad. MBR is not moving yet. Maybe Spirit will wake them up...

Wilderness has been stopped for at least 2 hours now - methinks Sleepmonsters.

Still nothing from Tecnu's SPOT, which cut out about 7 hours ago.

Silva is almost back on the blue line, having taken a different route from the leaders - time will tell whether it made any difference. Sadly, Thule SPOT is an hour old, and Seagate's 1/2 hour old.

Silva back on the blue line - it took them 2 hours whereas it took Seagate 1 1/2 hours.
Still no movement from Wilderness or MBR. Looks like they're waiting for morning, so they should be moving in about 1 hour. Spirit now only about 3 km from MBR.

Wild Rose moving along, about 5km from where Wilderness is bedded down. Ecuador a further 5km back.

Apologies Bash and anyone else hanging on for more details. In actual fact, I don't have a lot to say about the next couple legs, but anyway.

CP41: Savage River
Apart from the early part of the course where it looks to be some beach riding, almost this whole leg is on fairly well made, though mostly unpaved roads. May be some rutted sections, but as the primary road linking the central the northern parts of the west of the state - it's pretty well maintained. The only part of note is crossing the Pieman river at Corinna. When I was last there (2002ish) the 'Fatman' Barge was the only means of crossing, which you had to 'page' if coming from the south (see the button in the photo and read the comments!). The operator is a super grumpy old man who likes to take his sweet time. I hope the organisers sorted something out so racers can get through any time. I'm not sure about the depth of the river at that point - it may be possible to ford.

CP45: The Tarkine

Your guess is as good as mine. I've never met anyone whose done this paddle. Remote, beautiful, probably lots of wildlife. From one website: The Arthur River is characterized by steep gorges and rapids, valleys blanketed in rainforest, and stretches of giant eucalypt forest. Sections through rainforest could be frustrating - Tassie rainforest rivers I've seen are always flow slowly and are usually littered with fallen trees, branches and other debris.

Thule's back on the map. They're at the boat put-in, but still have to climb up the mountain to the transition. Silva is about 3 hours behind, and Seagate's SPOT is still silent...

...issues getting across the river.... To be fair, it's night-time now for Spirit (and also MBR) and it's a pretty wide river.

Also (although I haven't looked it up), it is possible that the river level near the ocean is affected by the tide so it may be more difficult to cross at certain times.

P.S. Just got in after being away half the day. Thank you for the good info, LosDobos!! And thank you too, Pat-hetic!

Thule has timed it nicely - they'll get to the paddling TA right around or just after the lifting of the dark zone.

Tides messing with the river crossing - good call Bash.

Thule leads and is abolut 3km from the TA.
Seagate should be close by - no SPOT for a couple of hours though.
Silva 3 hours behind lead
Blackheart 7.5 hours back
Adidas 9.5 hours behind lead.
Merrel not far behind Adidas, about 10 hours off lead.

I almost wonder if they thought it was the ocean in their sleep deprived state...

Good point, Phatty! The paddling dark zone lifts in half an hour in the Toronto time zone. It doesn't look as if any of the lead teams will get much of a nap beforehand. I think Seagate and Silva had a good rest before the bike (although Silva wasn't feeling well) but it doesn't look like Thule has slept since mid-camp based on a quick look at their track.

It'll be interesting to see how long this paddle takes the lead teams. It's 75 km in slow kayaks, paddling down a river with "big logs" in it. Also there's 12 km of trekking up side valleys with challenging nav. There is a 13-hour window between dark zones and team have been going for 4 days so most of them are slowing down. I suspect this leg will provide some of the best stories in teams' race reports!

Sun's up in Tas, and Wilderness Traverse has started moving again. Spirit has continued on past MBR, who still haven't moved.

Silva stopped for about an hour out on the trail, but should be moving again soon. Still no SPOT update from Seagate.
Thule is at the TA.

Looks like Spirit passed right by MBR then veered closer to the ocean.

Alas, my tide theory doesn't hold water. The difference between high and low tide is only half a meter, and neither Spirit nor MBR crossed the river near high tide. (O, Internet... how did I ever live without you?)

MBR crossed the river almost 6 hours ahead of Spirit, so Spirit has made up a lot of distance in less than 15 km of travel. Hope all is well with MBR. It may be a strategic decision to get some sleep while it's dark and travel faster in daylight. The kayak dark zone is going to stop many teams later on anyway.

New update shows MBR has started moving and seems to be with Spirit.

I don't think that river would have tidal effects - it looks to me like it forms a lagoon just before it hits the beach (not unusual). If so, would be brackish, marshy, stinky and may have thick/prickly veg growing on the edges - in the dark you'd have no idea how deep it is. At the outlet where it flows into the ocean over packed sand, it would be easy to cross without getting your feet wet.

piss weak Aussie tides.

Seagate is shown at the bike-paddle TA along with Thule. Not sure when or in what order they came in.

Twitter said that Seagate had time for a nap there so I assume they were first.

Day 4 photos are up. Spectacular! Nice shots of Lucy from Ecuador and Storm and Tiny from MBR on page 4.

Tecnu SPOT still not tracking - been 12 hours.
Wilderness Traverse is in sight of the trek-bike TA.
Wild Rose is moving steadily near the end of the trek, followed by Ecuador about 4 km back.
MBR have dropped Spirit in a big way...can't tell if Spirit stopped or just slowed down. Maybe MBR is just really fresh after their nap.

Too bad the SPOTs aren't working at the front of the race. It'll be disappointing if we can't watch the leaders on the river paddle.

At least we can now see Thule's SPOT and they were in 1st place starting the paddle, so that will give us an idea of where the others are. Team Blackheart in 4th place seems to have taken a big wrong turn on the way to the bike/paddle TA - unless there is a back route I'm not seeing.

Wow, Blackheart still hasn't turned back. It's easy to be an armchair quarterback but that route doesn't look anything like the route they're supposed to be on.

And while I was typing that, they were turning around!

Looks like Seagate and Thule may be working together to find one of the trekking CPs off the river. It's 1:40 p.m. and they have to be off the river before the 7:30 p.m. dark zone. Based on their slow progress down the river so far, it looks like they'll be camping out tonight. Since they started right at the end of the dark zone this morning, that means *all* the teams will likely have to camp along the river.

Wilderness Traverse and Wild Rose are out on the bike leg. Wild Rose about 3 hours behind Wilderness.
Ecuador is at the trek-bike TA.
Unleash has fallen back a bit and has just crossed the river in the middle of the dunes on the uber-trek.

Seagate and Thule are leading, together on the paddle. After that...Silva and Adidas have not had SPOT updates in many hours.Merrel and Blackheart are close together approaching the end of the bike

Still no SPOT from Tecnu - last update was 18 hours ago. Assume that they're on the bike not far from Wilderness.

Andreas says that Thule started the paddle at 6:30, Seagate 8:30. But they appear to have caught up. Dark horse is Silva, their SPOT is still on the bike leg but Andreas has them on the water at 10:00. Hope the Arthur River is good enough to drink!

Anyone, the transition seems to be well away from the river, what was the purpose of that. Was that the closest the organisers could get the gear?

Seagate left the bike / kayak transition an hour and a half after Thule, so must have caught them up on the river

With Driftwood going unranked the new Lantern Rouge belongs to Fully Rad to the Power of Sick, who are nearing the end of the previous paddle.

Gruver, you beat me to it - I got the info off Sportzhub Facebook page.

Wilderness is in 14th, Wild Rose racing with another team in 16-17th.

Those dunes must be a nightmare to navigate: you can't even trust the contours, because they change so much over time.

Wild Rose at Granville (minus Carbon):
http://twitter.com/#!/rachellemcmahon/status/13302...

From Sportzhub on FB - check it out, nice photos, good way to follow the leaders.

Top 4 teams now arrived at Granville Harbour (CP 36/transition), Seagate arrived 5.27am, slept and left at 9.14am; Silva arrived at 9.07am and left at 13.50pm, Thule arrived at 11.34am, leaving at 12.44pm and Adidas arrived at 14.08pm.

Seagate were first to arrive at Farquars at 5:31am this morning where there is a dark zone in place between 7:30pm and 6:30am for the 87km kayaking section. They opted to sleep, leaving transition at 8:10am. Thule arrived just 6 minutes after them at 5:37am, doing a quick turn around and headed out at 6:26am, to start the paddle as the dark zone ended. Most teams will end up camping out on the river side as all teams need to be off the river by the 7:30pm dark zone tonight.

Oh No!
Today Waratah was also the end of the road for the reigning world champions Team Buff Thermocool – in slightly bizarre circumstances.
Two of team Buff, checkpoint Benjamin Midena and Fran Lopez Costoya, arrived at the ‘Scenic View’ cafe by the checkpoint but their team mates Sari Anderson and Arnau Julia were nowhere to be found! The team had stopped at the roadside near town when Anderson became ill with vomiting and diarrhoea. She was wrapped up to keep warm and a passing car stopped and took her and Julia to Waratah, or so it was thought. The other two followed in a land rover which also stopped to help (and to collect the bikes). But when they arrived in town their team mates were nowhere to be found!

(the above is from sleepmonsters.com)

Tope teams are startting to drop. Along with Buff, Quechua has also withdrawn from the race.

"Filed by XPD Field Media at 11/6/2011 7:18 AM
Team Quechua.com (#15) (http://t.co/Vh6EeSNW) has withdrawn from the race (requiring medical attention for arm pain). En-route to HQ, Burnie."

Finally some news from Tecnu! This was in Warath on the bike ride.
"Most teams passing here in opening hours have visited one of the two cafes, and a bit earlier in the day one of the Technu Extreme team called into the cafe by the CP and spent $70 in a 5 minute food buying frenzy. In brief the conversation was, “I’ll take all your pies, coke and any caffeine drinks you’ve got!” And he did! "

That is awesome. One of the biggest blunders my team ever did was doing the ARC 24-hour urban outback in Toronto without taking any money or credit card with us. Nothing worse than racing by restaurants when you are hungry and you have no way of buying it.

SART and Scar have also withdrawn. Now for the Canucks:
Wilderness pushing through the last part of the bike in about 11th place.
Wild Rose at Waratah on the bike ride in 14th.
Ecaudor, and Spriti are shown at the trek-bike TA, but it's safe to assume MBR is there as well, as their SPOT is over 7 hours old.
Tecnu is still shown where they were a couple of days ago, but we did get word that they had passed through Warath on the bike. Best guess is they're somewhere near Wilderness.

Seagate leads on the kayak with Thule somewhere near them - their spot is 6 hours old and at that time they looked to be maybe 1/2 hour behind Seagate. Silva is in 3rd, 8 hours behind Seagate. a longish way back, but still on the river are Blackheart in 4th and then a gaggle of 4 teams all together: Merrel, AXA, Cyanosis, and Bike Junkies. Columbia is 9th, and the last team to make it onto the water b4 the dark zone. Mountain Designs is at the bike-kayak TA in 10th.

Adidas' SPOT shows them near the TA mid-afternoon and heading down to the boats. Based on their times and leaders' times Adidas is probably close to Blackheart, so in 3rd or 4th place.

Revised standings:
add 2 spots to all the Canuck placings I just posted.

Thanks everyone for posting. I am using this as my go to updates. When do you anticipate teams finishing?

Spirit has started the monster bike leg. Ecuador and MBR have old SPOTS, so it's likely they're also out on the bike a bit ahead of Spirit.
Unleash is about 2/3 done the uber-trek.
Wilderness continues to approach the end of the bike - they should get there close to the lifting of the dark zone.
Wild Rose is still shown in Watach but their track is almost 2 hours old.

Looks like Wild Rose have gone down for a nap in Watach: they've been there for about 3 hours.
MBR tracking again! they are on the bike about 8 km ahead of Spirit. It may not seem like much, but those are through the dunes, so it's hours not minutes.
Tecnu: still nothing from their SPOT which died some 30+ hours ago.
Unleash is at Cumberland Lake on the uber-trek.

Best estimate is that Wilderness Traverse will be finishing the bike in 3-4 hours, which will be 6-7 am local time.

Crap! MBR has missed a CP on the bike in the dunes area and had to backtrack to get it. It looks like it will cost them about 10 hours, plus a lot of effort. They've picked it up and are back on course now...

HOLY SH*T! Tecnu's tracking again! They are on the river in 12th place. Awesome!
Wilderness Traverse is at the bike-paddle TA. They got there about 1 hour behind Tecnu.
Wild Rose is getting close to the end of the bike, about 10km to go.
Ecuador's SPOT has revived and they're about 20 km from the end of the bike.
Spirit is moving along on the bike, about 1/3 of the way through it.
Unleashed is stil trekking, in the Mount Heemskirk area 1/2-way through the inland section, which is about 2/3 done the uber-trek

At the front: Segate managed to get about 2km further downriver than Thule when the dark zone dropped. Their spot hasn't updated so they're shown in 2nd, but I believ they're about 1/2 hour ahead of Thule.
Silva continues in 3rd about 16-20km behind Thule.
Big gap after Silva.
Then 5 teams grouped close together in 4th-8th.
HOWEVER...we don't know where Adidas is. Their last track was 17 hours ago and my thinking is that they're close to Silva in 3rd or 4th.

Seagates Spot just appeared, well into the bike leg. Not sure how far behind Thule is, their spot is 2 hours old

Hi all - thank you for the great updates! Any news on whats happening at the back end of the race?

Thule left on the bike about an hour and a half behind Seagate Im told by a source on the course.

Team DASH #67 out of the race? See their team blog below:
"OK. EVERYONE'S WONDERING WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON? We are out of the race. Sorry everyone. We appreciate your support..."

Filed by XPD Field Media at 11/7/2011 4:21 AM
Places and times with 30k kayak to go:
4th Team adidas TERREX (#5) 1200
5th Merrell Adventure Addicts (#4) 1230
6th AXA Sports Club (#24) 1235
7th Teamblackheart.com (#3) 1240
8th Merrell Adventure Addicts (#4)6 1245
9th Cyanosis - MarQuest International (#22) 1250.
Race on!

Here's where the dark zone really matters:
"Filed by XPD Field Media at 11/7/2011 4:15 AM
Sitting in the river at Tayatea Bridge watching the race for Top 5. All first 9 teams should beat tonights dark zone"

OK, last section of the course from me. I don't have a lot to say about this final section 1) since it doesn't look too taxing, 2) I don't really know this part of the state well and 3) I'm kinda busy at the moment.

CP #47 The North West
A variety of road, but nothing awful from the looks of the satellite image. Looks to be a combination of paved and unpaved roads for the first half, then a lot of forestry and 4WD roads towards the end.

CP #52 Rocky Cape
Again, I know nothing about Rocky Cape National Park. (There a much nicer national parks that are closer to Hobart!). However, looking at the map they have the teams doing a ~3km off trail section along the cliff line (from Cathedral Rocks to Anniversary Bay) and 1km between between Sisters Beach and the final transition. This could just be a super fun walk along the top of a cliff or rocky coastline, or it could be a nasty, coasteering section with big cliffs and thick coastal scrub. Probably the latter!

CP #53 Table Cape
35km road ride along the coast. Biggest hassle will be dealing with the traffic they'll be sharing the road with. Tasmanian roads and drivers are not cyclist friendly.

Silva biking in 3rd, about 2.5 hours behind Thule.
Thule finishing the bike in 2nd, chasing Seagate who are on the penultimate trek.in 2nd about. Trying to get splits but the map ain't cooperating. It does NOT look like a 4 hour gap. Maybe 1-2 hours.

OK - it's about 1:50 from Seagate back to Thule, who is now also starting the trek. Seagate has to haul ass in an epic way to try to get at leats a 3.5 hour lead by the end of this trek, which is mostly a 25km coasteer.

Tecnu on the river in 11th, about 1:45-2:00 behind 10th. Not sure if they can beat the dark zone off the river. They're running an awesome race!

Sorry: Tecnu is in 12th - keep forgetting about Adidas.
Wilderness Traverse has just started paddling in 15th place. They will have to camp on the river tonight.
Wild Rose and Ecuador are at the bike-kayak TA in 17th and 18th place.
Spirit is more than 1/2-way done the bike, approaching Warath, in about 25th
MBR is about 1/5th done the bike after having to go back for a CP. They're in about 30th.
Unleash is still moving steadily, almost done the uber-trek.

Finally got Seagate's track history, and they are now just under 2 hours ahead of Thule on the last trek. Gonna be close because of that penalty.

Silva has closed to 2 hours behind Thule, nearing the end of the bike - about 1.5 hours riding left for Silva.

How did MBR go from 24th to 15th? Ahead of WT.
Mistake on the leaderboard or short coursed?

I imagine Seaget is running as hard as they can and are gonna empty the tank on this trek, knowing they'll have 4 hours to rest and eat and drink before hopping on their bikes for a shortish sprint to the finish. That's their one silver lining in this penalty scenario, as Thule needs to pace themselves just a little so they can get straight onto the bikes at the last TA.

From the Tecnu Facebook page (where there are also lots of photos posted): The team had a REAL hard day on the mt. bikes, got in at 2 am so 24 hours on the bikes, they slept from 2-6am, got up, and transitioned, and got into the water at 8:30am in 12th place. No teams was within an hour of them, and 4 teams were withing 2.5 hours of them on the river, so top 10 is definitely within their grasp if they push it today.... They were tired, but looked good, said Marco was an animal yesterday and helped the team alot. RVG was driving the bike hard, Kyle took a stick in the eye, but looked ok, just tired. They stopped at a store yesterday and got $70- of food, caffeine and pies. They will push hard today, try to get the 3 river cps, and hit the dark zone close to the end, because the last of the race is only about 11 hours long.

MBR is still on the bike - they're semi-hidden under team 47 Hardtale.com.

Seagate-Thule gap holding at just under 2 hours right now.

The last bike is short and fast - not going to make up or lose much time there. I don't think there's enough course left for Seagate to get another 2 hours on Thule. Real bummer about that gear penalty.

There's a 6-team shoot-out for 4th place, and all of them will be off the water before the dark zone. Should be some frantic transitions coming up.

The next 2 teams - FJS and Columbia - are right on the edge of being able to beat the dark zone. Everyone behind them, starting with Tecnu, will get a good night's rest on the river tonight.

Silva might have a slim shot at getting 2nd place, as they're about 4 hours behind Seagate right now.

So, with four days and just over 2 hours to go, taking into account the dark zone and current position on the course, which of the remaining teams has a realistic chance of finishing? Anyone care to offer an opinion?

I wonder if the lead teams are aware of the relative positions of their competition?

From a race staff member on Twitter, Sun. 11 p.m. EST: "Heaps of team retiring at the moment at all stages of the race!!"

Team Wild Rose has started the paddle. Only a few hours before the dark zone but this should ensure that they'll be off the river by tomorrow night.

Seagate is eating ice cream as they sit out their 4-hour penalty at the final TA. It looks like the only question at this point is whether they'll drop to 2nd (behind Thule) or 3rd (behind Silva as well). It's only 35 km of road biking with a tail wind to the finish line.

Despite the penalty they must be loving the prospect of smashing home the last leg and beating what's been a tough challenge. I miss that feeling, but must admit would have succumbed to the cold and the monster course. I'll find (much) smaller doses of 'accomplishment feeling' locally.

Whoops. Painful mistake from the leading Aussie teams. Blackheart and CBD missed the last checkpoint on the paddle, and are trekking back from the TA 20 odd k cross country. Ouch.

Amen!!
Sweden take out 1st and 2nd with Team Silva coming into the finish line! Finishers lounge to be streamed live! #arwc2011

Seagate FLIES into the finishing line, just 3 minutes after Team Silva. A remarkable chase!!! #arwc2011

The top three teams are superhuman. We're not worthy! Here are some tidbits that I've dug up:

Chris Forne of Seagate was riding a single speed for the last 100km of the big bike before the kayak, as well as on both bike legs after the paddle.

From Thule - "Some of the route was in bush or sand dunes and there was no trail for some time. It was navigable but not rideable. You have to get on and get through these things. If you can solve these problems you are doing OK.”

Silva had made an emergency MacGyver to one of their derailleurs with a plastic toothbrush, and it held together for the whole 150km ride. Freaky!

News in the Lantern Rouge award: "Among those moving towards mid-camp are Driftwood, who were previously reported as being collected by car half way through the first trek. In the end they were not picked up, continued, and moved much more quickly than expected down the canyon ... so they are still on the full course!"

Super Swedes!!!
Seagate gave them a run for their money, despite the penalty. I feel for them. They rock! Can you tell I have a little Kiwi crush. :-)

Can't wait to hear about the Canucks coming through.

Painful mistake from the leading Aussie teams. Blackheart and CBD missed the last checkpoint on the paddle, and are trekking back from the TA 20 odd k cross country.

The map shows both teams making good time on foot on a nice-looking road right now. I don't know where the missed CPs are relative to the road/river but is it possible that they paddled hard to reach the paddle/bike TA before the dark zone with the intention of finding the CPs from the road at night? It's a long way but it's more productive than camping.

AXA and Adidas are neck-and-neck near the end of the final trek. Must be gut-wrenching to have to try to sprint for the last 6 hours of a 6-day race.

Tecnu, Wilderness, Ecuador, and Wild Rose are all camping on the river, in that order.
Spirit's track is over 6 hours old so I'm failry certain that they've finished the bike and are resting at the TA.
MBR has really hammered the bike and are nearing the TA themselves...but have just made the same wrong turn that took Blackheart out of the running.

Thule also took that wrong turn but looks like they caught it and turned around in fairly short order. Hope MBR does the same.

Unleash are done the uber-trek and moving well on the bike, about 1/3 of the way through it.

Looks like MBR took the correct turn the first time, then returned to the junction to go the other way. Those are all teams with good navigators, and at that junction, the correct road goes west, not north toward the CP, which could be confusing. I wonder if that is one of the places where the map is not showing current roads accurately.

Some good-ish news now: MBR have been stopped for over 1 hour, which means they're not going further off course. Whether they've noticed their mistake, or are too tired and need a snooze, or are lost and want to wait until daylight before going on is open to speculation...

Bash - yeah, where they turned around the road had been going SW for a while, which is away from the TA. Looks like they stuck with it for 5 minutes to see if it would turn north and when it didn't went back the other way.

I'm watching their little dot like a hawk. I don't see any broadcasts between 2:30 a.m. and 3:30 a.m. so the best scenario would be that they went a little further down the road and are now on their way back. But even taking a snooze break would be a good sign that they're not comfortable with their route.

Yep, another broadcast from MBR at that same spot. They're taking a break shortly before sunrise less than 1 km from the junction so hopefully they've realized their problem and will be back on track shortly.

For those on Facebook, here's a video of Nathan Fa'avae of Seagate at the finish admitting his disappointment at placing 3rd in a race where his team was first to arrive at 51 of 53 checkpoints - but graciously saying, "We could have probably taken the title [without the penalty]. We'll get over it. That's sport. S&%# happens... It's good to see we can race at that level... I think I just need a shower, a sleep, a cup of coffee and I'll be right."

CBD and Blackheart are back at the paddle/bike TA around 4:15 a.m. almost 11 hours after they first arrived. It doesn't look like this was a strategic decision to avoid a dark zone. A couple of sources have referred to the missed CP as a "major blunder" by two top teams who appear to have been paddling together at the time the CP was missed.

And after a good nap, MBR returned to the road junction and are now making good time toward the bike/paddle TA.

Team Spirit's SPOT has been offline for about 12 hours but they should be paddling now. Wild Rose and Wilderness Traverse are moving well after their night of camping.

Blackheart and CBD seem to be biking together toward the final trek after their long night of looking for a CP.

After 6 days of racing, Adidas Terrex beat AXA by a bike length in a sprint finish around the velodrome. They finished 4th and 5th.

Photo on Twitter: http://twitter.com/?photo_id=1#!/bcroft76/status/1...

It's no fun being 5th.
http://twitter.com/?photo_id=1#!/bcroft76/status/1...

Actually, I lie. I'd *love* to be 5th. :)

Update on Canadians:

Team Spirit's SPOT is finally working again! They are 1-2 hours into the paddle with a riverside camp coming up tonight.

MBR are approaching the bike/paddle TA after banking some sleep.

Wilderness Traverse should be off the water by mid-afternoon. Wild Rose is a few hours behind and should finish before the dark zone if all goes well.

Tecnu's SPOT is 5 hours out of date but they should be finished the paddle.

Good grief, the photographers are like vultures.

I think the results equalling the finishing order is a good way for spectators and media - not to mention the teams - have a more meaningful finishing section. No long waits for time bonuses / penalties to be retrospectively applied.

Wow that race for 4th and 5th is tough. It feels like sudden death in Hockey.

Tooms I agree.

MBR is shown in the bike-kayak TA, but is listed as "unranked". Anyone know anything about that?

No. :( Sleepmonsters did say the weather was nasty last night - cold, thunder and torrential rain. If someone were feeling sick, it wasn't the kind of night to make them feel better. Hope everyone is OK. On the SPOT, they looked fine biking to the TA after their nap in the wee hours.

The website is giving me a hard time but: 6th place went to FJS, 7th Merrell Adventure Addicts - Once again teams have been racing to the line, and finishing close together. Team FJS raced in at 11.29, having moved right up through the field in the later part of the race. They are the only team so far to have timed it right, and been strong enough, to complete the Arthur River paddle without an overnight stop in the dark zone. (sleepmonsters)
8th Cyanosis, 9th Blackheart, 10th Adventures Junkies (who doesn't love a good love story?!) and 11th Columbia Vidaraid :)

MBR is not just unranked they are listed as DNF. At least they are all together & hopefully doing well.

This sprints to the finish are crazy. Makes for great excitement for the sport though.

Yeah, I have been plunking around the site to see if there is any more info about MBR. Though the leaderboard hasn't been the most accurate, but combined with the fact that their SPOT hasn't moved in 12 hours isn't painting a good picture. Hope everyone is reasonably healthy...all things considered of course.

Either way, great to see those guys doing awesome all the way along!

Whoa! Team 51 was riding at least one tandem mtb! How cool is that?!
http://www.trackmelive.com.au/xpd2011/Photos.aspx?...

Also some really dramatic photos of the sprints to the finish here. Ya gotta feel for AXA.
http://www.trackmelive.com.au/xpd2011/Photos.aspx?...

Explanation from Adidas Terrex regarding the two top teams who missed the CP on the Arthur River and had to trek 35K return to pick it up: “We went up a side stream to get the last CP and that was when the two Australian teams passed us and missed the checkpoint. They carried on and on, and it was only when we caught them at the end that they asked where it was. We said it’s 12km back up the river! Blackheart were ahead and had lost their map and missed seeing the side stream, and the other team were 500m or so behind, and must have been following them!”

Tecnu is nearing the final TA, with 3 teams close behind, including Wilderness Traverse who are side-by-side with the other Adidas team. More sprint finishes?
Ecuador and Wild Rose close together nearing the start of the final trek.
Spirit is camping on the river, they'll easily finish the paddle tomorrow and have 5 other teams near them to keep things interesting.
MBR listed as DNF and are shown at the bike-kayak TA, but I haven't found any mention of them anywhere. If they're done then they had a great race, got further than last year's world champs so nothing to feel too bad about.

Where did Team Bones come from? I have been monitoring the top 20-22 teams for most of the race and don't recall seeing them until now. They've done a great job of moving up the ranks during the latter stages of the race.

WT is on their final trek just behind Adidas Terrex Accom. Should be a tight battle till the end for these two teams.

Unleash have finished the monster bike and are at the paddle TA waiting out the dark zone.

Tecnu just has a 10K ride to the finish to secure 12th place. Well done, Slice and company! 1st Canadian racer across the line!

The next group of teams continues to look interesting. Wilderness Traverse and the other Adidas team are together near the end of the final trek and they're only about 1.5 km behind Mountain Designs now. WT must be feeling good because they've been chasing and catching teams in this section. Stay tuned... there may be more velodrome action coming up in about 90 minutes!

More finish line and pizza pics of Tecnu for Facebookers. Tecnu's page says 4:31 and the race Twitter says 4:51. Based on their SPOT track, the 4:51 is probably right.
<http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.269437729...>

Woohoo! First Canadian to cross.

Just an FYI, the other Adidas Team as they have been affectionately called her is Czech! Adidas/Opava.

Adidas Terrex - Accom - OpavaNet

Too long and too confusingly similar to Adidas Terrex so I went with "other Adidas team" for clarity!

Hey, maybe you could translate their blog for us!

Wilderness looks to be about 15 minutes behind the other Adidas coming into the final TA. Time for crazy-fast transitions and then team time-trials!

Mountain Designs has secured 13th but Wilderness Traverse and CzechAdidas still look to be neck and neck. Finish time is now looking to be 4-ish our time.

Apparently Seagate bought an old bike from a local man while waiting out their penalty so Chris Forne wouldn't have to try to time-trial with a single-speed. The man got an autographed t-shirt. Talk about not throwing in the towel.

Not much to say about the CzechAdidas blog, expect maybe "navigation is pretty complicated, especially at night". No doubt.

Wilderness has been in the TA for over 1/2 hour, so it doesn't look like they'll be racing the other Adidas to the finish.

It was just updated and WT are approx 8 km behind Czech Adidas. Let's hope traffic is light at 7:20 local time. :)

At last check, it appears WT is approx 30 minutes behind Czech Adidas in the race for 14th place.

Both teams were in the TA awhile. Maybe the race for 14th vs. 15th wasn't sufficiently motivating to push like crazy after 6 days! 15th in the world is an awesome result. So proud of them!

It's not all over yet, but for my money this has been the best expedition ARWC in a looooong time...possibly ever. No strategic CPs to miss, no optional time bonus CPs, no moving cut-off, no 17 different short-course categories. Two thumbs up from the arm-chair racer. The only way to improve it would be to have it somewhere more accessible to the rest of the planet and maybe a bit less cold and wet, but that's my tight budget hypothermia speaking.

They have done a really excellent job of covering the race online. No race is without glitches, and sure, I'd really like to know why MBR stopped racing, but, I've been really impressed. And like LosDobos said, it's been a great race to watch from home because you can actually get a pretty good sense of who's where and in what position since they're all on the same course!!! Been a blast following along. Thanks for all the posts from everyone as well. Been fun reading them!

Wilderness Traverse is about 10km from finishing 15th in the World. Brilliant!

It will be interesting to hear what the racers think but it did look like an interesting, challenging journey through beautiful, varied terrain. Endurance and strategy trumped speed. Except for the penalties, which were highlighted on the leaderboard, teams have travelled the course in the order of their ranking, which has made it fun and easy to watch. It was a different style of event from the recent Euro ARWCs. Not better or worse, just different. The coverage has been excellent with the exception of the delayed leaderboard updates.

A few teams are taking the long way around to get to the end of the big bike leg.
The last ranked team is just now getting to the end of the uber-trek. Team 78 Old Dog New Tricks. Hang in there guys.

I am curious to know how long some of these volunteers are waiting at each TA especially the one's in the middle of the race? That's some dedicated people who deserve alot of credit. I am sure there isn't alot to do in between the teams passing by although I am sure the geography helps (well without the cold wet weather).

I volunteered at ARWC when it was held in Newfoundland. I spent days at my CP, including two full days before the first team arrived. It was 2-3 more days until all the teams had gone by. It helps to have other friendly volunteers to hang out with. The race radio becomes a big part of your social life too! :)

WT was 3K from the finish line half an hour ago. They must be done. C'mon! Someone tweet already! ;)

I'm with you Bash. I keep refreshing the page like a nut. Ahhhh!!!

Wilderness traverse finish in 15th very happy http://t.co/DVl4Jhlz

Fantastic job!!:)) Now for some breakfast champagne and pizza.

Team Spirit Canada's SPOT isn't working right now but they should finish the paddle this morning (Tasmania time). Wild Rose is nearing the halfway point of the final trek along with Team "Fully Rad to the Power of Sick". Maybe we'll get another sprint finish yet!

Hats off to the XPD race promoters for putting on a Genuine ADVENTURE RACE world championships, after a few years of bizarre lame-ass orienteering format rogaine races. It appears to have been a true world championship RACE!!! Can't wait to hear the stories...

FRttPoS is a short-course team, so they may or may not want to duke it out with a powerhouse like Wlid Rose.

"official short course: teams now have option of skipping the river paddle from farquars and riding 50kms to rocky then trek and bike to end"

Spirit's done the paddle and are on the bikes. Woot!

Unleash has started the paddle, about 4 km into it with a few other teams.

Lantern Rouge Old Dog New Tricks has finished the uber-trek and is in the TA.

Barb - after seeing first hand the WC fiasco in Portugal (2009 -- remember the nice website with no info, anyone?) and the Spanish race (not a rogaine, but still a lot of chaos with teams skipping CPs everywhere and not much communication from the course) I concur that the 2011 course really delivered an expedition World Championship. France 2012 has a high bar to meet!

My only serious complaint is that I wasn't in this race! :) Roy Malone of Team Bones described it as "a match for Eco-Challenges of old". Sigh...

Thanks for setting me straight, Pete - I wondered where FRttPOS came from!

Bob and Jack of Wilderness Traverse have both phoned home. They're safe, happy, full of pizza and ready for a nap.

Delurking to add I saw WT Bob's name pop up on Skype and sent a quick congrats and got this back:

"Tough race for us, Jack got injured (ITB pain) on day 3, so it was basically survival thereafter. I'm just making some calls, then bed."

(And thanks to all the armchair racers who've been contributing to this thread. My wife thinks I'm nuts, but it really has been exciting following along)

Hey guys,

Great race discussion going on her. To answer your question we had to drop out because of a sprained ankle. Near the end of the second trek I went over a log and slipped I landed on my foot, twisted it and heard a loud pop. Since that point it's been tapped up and the team was doing everything it could to help me through. As the swelling got worse so did the pain, as well the tape was starting to pull off layers of skin. At the last paddle TA I was too swollen and sore to continue and we made the call to stop.

Bitterly disappointing, but a magestic, tough course to race. Still amazed by the whole experience.

Tiny, great to hear your voice! Your team blog mentioned the sprain but you had been moving so well that it looked like you were doing OK. So sorry you had to stop early but congratulations anyway. You guys did really well, racing ahead of some of the best teams in the world including the defending world champions. Really proud of you! :)

Way to go Tiny! I can't believe you moved so fast and far on that ankle. Say hi to the rest of the team.

Wild Rose is on the final bike to the finish in 19th place. I'm going to hop on the trainer and join them for part of the ride!

Wilderness Traverse said they had a difficult race due to an early injury to Jakob Van Dorp so they were just glad to have completed the whole course. Team captain Bob Miller just shrugged and said, “These things happen sometimes.”

Sleepmonsters

Team Spirit started the last trek. And they got some food.

Look like one of the Wild Rose team has forgotten how to use an amrchair :-)

Wild Rose in the finish lounge

Pizza's all done, 19th place is secure and Carbon is recovering for the next race! Not *too* much tape on her feet.

I don't want to see those feet close up, though. :-)

Team Spirit is getting close to the finish on the final bike leg.

Apparently not going well. On the last leg they have experienced major bike issues. Their tracker battery is dead so we do not know where they are. They have moved down the Leaderboard to 26th as I suspect they may be pushing their bikes....but do not know for certain.

From Facebook Team Spirit Page

There'd be noe derailleur problems and single-speed conversions if they were riding Rohloffs...just sayin'. :)

Leaderboard has Team Spirit as arrived at finish. Woohoo!

Facebook photo of Spirit at the finish in 23rd place - possibly taken by FB's son Will since it is not the usual Twitter pic taken by race officials.
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=29275507074...

Urthbuoy, stop hogging the pizza! :)

Just woke up - legs and hands are puffy and going across the room seems like a challenge. Remind me again why I do this?:)

Wow that was epic - the last four days expecially with the beach trek (spectacular btw with long vistas, river swims, cool mountain trekking), the never ending bike ride with 4 km of pushing your bike through mud at the end (not to mention several km of bikepushing through sand at the start), the Arthur River paddle (quite the wild river - very cool but hard to enjoy when you are worried about not spending a second night stuck in a dark zone on the river with wet gear) and finally the last trek home which seemed innocuous but threw a few last punches with slow going coasteering (at least the views were still good!). And I haven't even touched on the second trek up to Black Bluff in freezing wind and then a pleasant swim in the firgid water below Reynolds Falls. All I can say is that the race report will take a while...

It truly was an epic expedition (although there were a few sections and CPs that hd me scratchingmy head and thinking this was not necessary and a bit gratuitous). For those that were wondering about CP staff mostl CPs except for TA's were unmanned.

I spent the last 3 days racing on a gimpy leg as I developed some tendonitis in my anterior tibialis. Right ankle is twice as big as the left. Also had some teamates with bad feet so in general we slowed a bit on the treks (and then seemed to make up time on the rides). Our last trek seemed very slow but some of that was also the lack of pressure from any teams behind (we were the last team through the dark zone that night). Very heppy with the result considering we had on rookie adventure racer (never even done a 24-36 hour race) on our team and the learning curve is steep but he did awesome. A few times I was expecting him to tell us he was quitting and that we were nuts but it never came and he just kept trucking along.

Congrats Revy! Thanks for the sum-up, can't wait for the full report.
But get some more rest & food before then.

Well done Revy and Wild Rose! Thanks for checking in. We've been thinking about you and our other friends in Tasmania and have probably hit the "refresh" button a gazillion times over the past week. Looks like an incredible expedition and an impressive result. Hope your ankle shrinks soon. Time for sleep, food (lots of it!) and laundry. :)

Someone: They have done a really excellent job of covering the race online. Hmmmm. The tracking often took forever to load, sometimes didn't display any teams (incl right when the winners were finishing), the main leaderboard was way behind, even now the unfinished teams on the full course are two days behind, the dates are a mixture of formats (is today the 10/11 or the 11/10), the live video was not. I might say that other events also seem to have overlooked the simplest thing which is recording arrival order ASAP onto a non-fancy web-page. The world orienteering relays were hopeless if you were following a team outside the top 10.

Kudos to LosDobos, Bash, and all others who have contributed to this online attackpoint coverage. It's been fantastic and all the coverage I've needed! Much appreciation to all of you.

Gruver, I can't speak for others but I didn't have the problems with tracking that you describe. Compared to many races with SPOT tracking, this one was quite spectator-friendly. Some of the credit for that goes to the course designers who ensured that teams travelled the race course in order of their ranking - until the end, and then it got confusing when the short course was implemented.

You're right about the leaderboard. It improved as the race went on but never became the central source of information that it could have been.

From the Van Dorp Racing Facebook page, posted by Jack's Mom:

Jack (Wilderness Traverse) phoned tonight after spending 10 ? hours of sleep in a bed, getting up for McD chicken wrap (only food place open at late night), then more sleep.

They were really pleased to be 15th team in.... His IT band (which stabilizes knee) was strained on the 65 km coastal trek so he could not run . The team decided to continue at whatever pace together. Several of them also had the GI effects of wild water, sun, rain, dehydration for a day or 2. They may have enjoyed the adventure a little more because they could not go so fast especially on the treks. The Arthur River paddle / camp (even with rain +++) was amazing. Now they have until Saturday to relax, sort gear, see the area, and pack to return home Sunday.

Considering the ridiculous logistical, technological, meteorological, geographical, and sleepmonster-ogical challenges involved, this event went off wonderfully. The online coverage was the best I've seen since PQ Utah. Compared to the last 2 years, updating and summarizing the events for this race was a cake-walk: no rocket-science required.

Cograts to the race organisers for putting togethr a throw-back, old-school Eco-Challenge-esque expedition and even bigger congrats to all the teams who battled their way through it.

Speaking of which: Unleash should be at the final TA right about now. Go Frenchie!

Unleash Compression finish about 45 min ago! Congratulations Frenchie!!

I agree the race coverage has been one of the best we have seen in ARWC history.

Of course it could have been better but between all free social tools available (twitter, facebook, attackpoint) the only requirement from the organization stand point is to have a leaderboard, spot tracking and an official news channel, the social web will do the rest.

Special thanks to Bash and LosDobos for their unrelenting contributions! You made it even more exciting!!

I second the thanks to LosDobos and Bash. Plus an additional thanks to a piss weak Aussie who shall remain nameless for his contributions on course insight.

Having more than half of the teams completing the full course is a very good news. Too often lately we have seen races ending with multi courses that could be perceived as a lesser accomplishment. Having completed the same course as the top teams means a lot for racers, and is easier to understand for viewers.

I hope ARWS will use this event as the standard requirement for a ARWC.

Press release from team #4 Merrell Adventure Addicts - 7th place
http://www.ar.co.za/2011/11/adventure-addicts-blow...

I echo what revy posted. A very epic course, but also bnkeautiful with somle highlights being the sand dunes, huge beaches, highlands and ocean side treks. I felt pretty good through the race with few issues. Had my feet taped up in order to prevent blistering and to keep a couple of small ones at bay. Had onke very low moment when a leech got stuck in the roof of my mouth just behind the teeth. Thought at first it was a stinger piece as I had just been eating those. Had you been there you would have heard me cursing out loud. Also had to bite together hard in the river paddle as I was wet and very cold for pretty much all of it. I was in the front of the hard plastic boat and there was no way to keep dry. I'm super happy with our placing. We were up to 16th for a while but lost a few positions on the paddle. Revy hung in there despite his ankle and other team mates hung on to the race even thgh their feet were bad. The last trek really pounded the last bit of comfort out of your feet. Lots of stories from this race for sure. Will start writing some soon on our blog. Have some really great photos too. Thanks everyone for following the race and for having such great discussion here!

Thanks to everyone who contributed, with an honourable mention to LosDobos and Pat-hetic. I enjoy "watching" the race with people who share my crazy interests. When there are so many different information sources, it's helpful to pull some of the key info together in one place.

I'm afraid the chatty Canadians dominated the discussion but we are certainly interested in teams from other countries, so when the next race comes up, I hope other Attackpointers from around the world will share info about the teams they're watching too.

Thanks especially to the racers who have taken the time to drop in here and give us an inside perspective on what looks to have been an amazing experience.

It has been great following along. I was almost OCD with following along on AP & ARWC website. Thanks to all that were providing the updates (LosDobos & Bash in particular) - it was almost like being there. Congrats to all teams that participated - epic!

From Twitter: "Results are not official yet - there are quite a few missed cps etc. Penalties will be applied over the next few days."

Wow, I forgot how exhausting it can be to follow from home. Great threads. We tried our best to keep our spot working, resetting and getting new batteries but I guess we were out of sight for a while even still. Course was great, like Revy said, a few CPs that left you scratching your head. We have some more "behind the scenes" stories that I will cover in my report. Organization was awesome. Logistics could have been simplified a bit for us but considering the size of the event I am happy.
Leukotape is the BEST! Bash I still owe you for that by they way. I taped my feet before the race, never had to re-tape, and didn't have ONE blister. I love the stuff. Pics are on FB and a report to come. Great experience out there.

I've heard magic things about Leukotape and I've tried it twice. Apparently I have weird skin that it just won't stick to. Both times it had come unstuck and bunched up within an hour. I made extra sure the skin was clean and dry beforehand too. Specifically, what did you use? There are all kinds of high tech tapes out there - was it for sure "Leukotape"? Also, what colour was it? I want to make sure I was using the right stuff...thanks.

It was definitely Leukotape because I bought two rolls for Leanimal and myself. It is light brown and says "Leukotape P" (big letters) and "Rigid Strapping Tape" (small letters) on the box. It's available on the Internet or at Shopper's Drug Mart Home Health Care stores which are often located next to a normal Shopper's Drug Mart with their own separate entrance and cash.

In my experience, it sticks really, really well for days if I've put it on properly. Sometimes if I have a small random piece of tape on a rounded part of my foot and get my feet really wet, it will come off when I remove the sock. But if I put the tape all the way around my foot and stick it to itself, it would probably survive a nuclear incident.

I've never had a problem with adhesion. If I take Leukotape off prior to it being worn out the adhesive will actually separate from the tape and stay on my foot causing my foot to stick to the next thing it contacts pretty securely. This past Sunday it was the school cafeteria floor in Hamilton.

@JayXC: that conversation we had about tape and Kinesio vs Leukotape . . . I had used a Leukotape I found in Switzerland and it isn't the same stuff you all are talking about. I've ordered some of the "expedition grade" Leukotape and my friends assure me it's superior to Kinesio brand. Just avoid the "swiss grade" Leuko!

Final ARWC review on Sleepmonsters

@Untamed, in Switzerland you would have to look for one of these Leukotapes:
"Unelastische Klebebinde"
"Bande adhesive rigide"
"Benda anelastica adhesiva"
;)

danke viel moehl!

Race report on the winners, Team Thule Adventure.
<http://www.sleepmonsters.com/racereport.php?page_a...>

does anyone know how (or if it's even possible) to look at the tracking for this race and see where we went etc.

On the few occassions when I was able to get the tracking 'module' to open up many of the teams were not even listed? Maybe it's just me?

If the info is not available, I wonder if there are any plans make it so, or is that now ancient history and not worth the effort?

A friend spoke to Louise yesterday and she said that the live website will be back up and running in a few days. Last year they sent out a .kml file with every teams trace a few weeks after the race, they may do the same this year.

That would be great!

Thanks for the update

A detailed race report for Team Cyanosis in Nic Mulder's log over here:

http://www.attackpoint.org/viewlog.jsp/user_1566/p...