Who Will Take the Lead?

Rob Howard / 04.08.2017

The AR World Champs is in the USA for the first time next week, hosted by Cowboy Tough in Wyoming and many teams are already on their way or taking the chance to see something of the country before heading for race HQ in Casper. 

There is a very international entry with 17 nations represented among the 59 teams … if I counted right.  (The race organisers have a very weird team numbering system!)  Of those 29 are from the USA, so half of the field.  Europe and South America are well represented, but strangely the hosts of the last World Champs, Australia, have no entries at all.

The start list include 6 teams who won AR World Series qualifying races, and others who finished high enough in the various qualifiers to earn a place on the start line. (Only Skylotec, winners of Expedition Africa, have not taken up their place.) The European champions, MDK Russia-Ukraine Adventure, will be on the start line too after a win at the Red Fox AR.

The favourites will be the top ranked teams in the World Series and it wouldn’t be a great surprise if those teams filled the top 5 places in Wyoming.  There is plenty of competition of course, and it’s frequently said that anything could happen in an adventure race … but the top places at World Champs events are still fairly predictable! The experience required to do well, make the least mistakes, and cope with whatever happens, is hard won over many years of competition and there are no short cuts.

There are team changes among the regular podium contenders however, and the top two teams from the last ARWC have different team line-ups. Neither Nathan Fa’avae or Kyle Peter, who were the captains of the top two teams in Australia last year, will be racing. 

Fa’avae has retired from competitive racing and defending champions Seagate will have Bob Mclachlan racing in his place with Stu Lynch, Chris Forne and Joanna Williams. Mclachlan is a 6 times GODzone finisher and an expert paddler and with all their experience Seagate will still be favourites on the start line. 

Team Adventure Medical Kits were the only team in Australia to even stay in touch with Seagate last November and have won every previous Cowboy Tough, so they have a title to defend too.  As the top U.S. team they will have all eyes on them and want to claim a home nation world title, but the recent withdrawal of Peter was a surprise. He has since said he is suffering from a prolonged period of injury and depression, and is replaced by Olof Hedberg, who is a very experienced U.S. racer and was on the winning team at the recent Teton Ogre AR (ahead of AMK).

Seagate’s change of line up is a managed progression but for AMK it’s about adapting to a late change and it will be interesting to see how they race and if the change of captains is significant.

The importance of team captain in AR is hard to quantify, and could be seen as purely administrative, or about who is the spokesperson for the team.  The media and captaincy roles often seem to go together and that’s perhaps not surprising as the captain is also often the driving force in the team.  That’s certainly been the case with Fa’avae and Peter on their respective teams in recent years and AMK and Seagate will not have their strong personalities in the team dynamic this time out.  (The media are also going to have to decide who to talk to!)

There are other team changes too.  Columbia Vidaraid are still world ranked #2, but have not had a great year of racing, their only ARWS result being 3rd at Expedicion Gurani, and they will be racing with Tania Diaz for the first time in an ARWS race.  She is an experienced ultra runner but I’m not sure what AR experience she has and Vidaraid are perhaps not the easiest team to join in a long expedition race as they often have a tactic of not sleeping as much as other teams around them. (They’ve also changed their nationality since the last ARWC!)

Of the other top ranked teams Estonian ACE Adventure and Naturex (FRA) have been very consistent for the past couple of years and have the advantage of arriving with well established line-ups who are all familiar with racing together.  The Estonians have fallen foul of the rules and suffered from penalties being applied in several races (and so did Naturex at the last ARWC), so they will want to be on their best behaviour!  

Haglofs Silva were once a reliable top 3 team but a run of bad luck resulting in DNF’s and then the diagnosis of their captain, Bjorn Rydvall, with diabetes has seen them drop down the rankings and race less often.  For this ARWC they are back with Rydvall at a big race for the first time since his diagnosis, so where others have ‘lost’ captains theirs has returned.

The series winners will all come into the race with some confidence from their victories, and these teams are Tiki Tour (NZ), Cyanosis AR (RSA), Terra Aventura –Finalin (ECU),  Naturex and Lozere Sport Nature (FRA), and Seagate (NZ). 

There will be many of the experienced US teams with aspirations of a top 10 or higher finish. Bend Racing/Yogaslackers are the best known and strongest past performers and have Jason Magness back in an ARWC after hip surgery.  DART, Untamed New England, Teton AR and Wedali all have experienced squads. andTeam Good ‘Nuff are top of the NYARA rankings this year.

There are several other very strong French and Kiwi teams too, and former World Champions  in the GODzone Adventure Team, so the race will highly competitive throughout the top 20. Which, if any, of these teams can shake up the established order?   And how will the top two will race under new leadership?   We’ll find out soon.

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