Expedition Ozark

Perfect Weather for Day One at Expedition Ozark

Rob Howard / 03.04.2023

After a year planning and preparing the course, the months of training the teams have completed, and the thousands of miles many of them have travelled to be here, Expedition Ozark started this morning!

The teams were given their first set of maps, covering the first 4 stages of the race, at the Graduate Hotel in Fayetteville, at 04.30am this morning.  This was the first time they were made aware of the start of the 560 mile race, and they were given 14 of the 39 race maps.  These covered the opening orienteering stage at Shores Lake Recreation Area, a gravel ride through the Ozark National Forest, , rafting down the Mulberry River and a long overnight trek, also in the Ozark National Forest.

After a bus ride to Shores Lake the teams lined up on the lakeside at 7am, just as it was getting light.  Race Director Danny Collins spoke before they set off and promised they “would be inspired by the beauty of the Ozarks and want to tell the whole world about this place”.  Then he set them off on the day one of five, and stage 1 of 15.  Ahead of them is a 362 mile course, with 33,414 feet of climbing, which is expected to take the fastest teams 96 hours to complete.

Stage one was a 4 mile run in the Shores Lake Recreation area, with 3 checkpoints which were said to be on a mountain bike trail but teams came back with scratched up legs and saying they’d lost the trail in places.  Maybe they were taking short cuts.

Team Expenature.fr Sud Raid went for the glory of being the first team to run into the first Transition, but it was Vidaraid who were the first to leave.  Swift transitions will pay dividends in this race as there are 14 in all, and experienced teams like Vidaraid will be slick and efficient in every one. The teams new to racing may take hours longer across the whole of the race and even a few minutes lost at each will add up.

A big pack of teams followed Vidaraid, including Racing Denmark, Brazil Multisport and Estonian ACE Tactical Foodpack.  Soon after setting off to ride the 20 miles to the Byrd’s Adventure Centre they approached a junction racing hard and side by side, only to overshoot, slam on the brakes and return to take the turn they’d missed.  The gravel riding will be fast in this race, and the navigators will have to think quickly and plan ahead.  There are sure to be mistakes made.

There was some navigation choice on the first ride, and different choices were made.  First to reach TA2 were Racing Denmark and Brazil Multisport, riding together, and while Brazil were unaware they were in the lead, Michael Halberg just smiled and said, “We took a short cut.” 

It was the Brazilian team who were quicker in transition, using battery powered pumps to inflate their bright green Frontier packrafts and setting off down the river a few minutes ahead of the Danes.  The Danish team had bigger MRS rafts and inflated them using built in airbags, doing so remarkably quickly.  Halberg said, “We tested pumps and airbags and this way was much quicker.”

It wasn’t long before a big pack of chasing teams raced in, including both French teams and Vidaraid.  Romy Viale of the Expenature.fr Sud Raid team said, “The route we took was quicker on the map, but the trail wasn’t there, and those who went the longer way had more climb, but trail all the way. They were quicker and it was just bad luck for us.”

The leaders set off on the river raft at 9.32 in near perfect conditions, moving quickly in the fast flowing stream.  All of the teams were told on arrival the river state is ‘green’, so they could carry their drysuits and don’t have to wear them.  (If rivers are ‘yellow’ they have to wear them, and if it’s ‘red’ then conditions are too bad to paddle and they will take an alternate route.)

Tower Racing chose to put their drysuits on as it’s a long paddle (28 miles) with a fastest predicted time of 8 hours.  They thought maybe they would be cold later, but the afternoon was sunny and hot, and just about the most perfect weather for racing.  It might be a decision they’ll regret.

Teams continued to come in for the next few hours, leaving their bikes on the grassy clearing by the riverside and they will return to collect them as Byrd’s is also TA4.   Following the paddle, the teams will set off on a 45 mile trek which is expected to take the leaders 17 hours so all of the teams are likely to be on this stage overnight.  The trek will take them back to Byrd’s tomorrow (or maybe the day after).