Expedition Africa

Hot Competition at Expedition Africa

Rob Howard / 27.04.2013

Maybe it was those pictures of runners passing giraffes or the great commentary from the Merrell team in the Wild Racers film last year, perhaps it was glowing reports on the organisation from travelling South African teams, or probably just because South Africa is just a stunning place to go.  For whatever reason Expedition Africa has become the ‘Go To’ race for a raft of highly ranked international teams this year and there will 31 teams starting on May 6^th with racers from 10 nations.

This is the 3^rd year for Expedition Africa, which is already well established in the AR World Series, and at 500km this year’s race will be the longest in South Africa.  As the next World Series race is not until mid-August it is an opportunity for teams who feel they have chance of a top two place to secure an early guarantee to be at the World Champs in Costa Rica at the end of the year.  If they succeed they can plan the rest of their racing year leading up to the World Champs, and if they don’t there is time for another go at the races later in the season.

The depth of experience in the entry is shown by the new AR World Rankings. Half of the entries are already ranked, so have some expedition racing experience, and of these 11 teams are in the top 50 rankings and two in the top 10.  The top ranked team (3^rd) and one of the race favourites will be Haglofs Silva from Sweden, who are among the most consistent performers at the elite level (5x on the World Champs podium) and have experience racing all over the world.

There is a strong Scandinavian entry all round with another Swedish entry in Team SWECO, two teams from Denmark (Skandia Adventure and Merrell Denmark), and Team Omjakon from Finland, winners of last year’s World Series Endurance Quest race.

The defending champions and home nation favourites are top South African team Merrell Adventure Addicts. They have had a successful core team for many years now, but preparations for this race were hit by a long term injury to team captain Graham Bird, with Tatum Prins already away from the team after having a baby.  As such they have what existing team members Donovan Sims and Hanno Smit refer to as a ‘new team’.  Smit said it, “It is a huge task to start a new team all over again,”, but after a tough, rain soaked 35 hour training session, Sims added, “the team dynamics were good, and that is the crux of any adventure racing team”. The new team members are Craig Carter-Brown and SanMari Woithe, and you can see a video of their training weekend here. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=4X3fyNLb42c

Just over half the field are South African teams and it is a chance for the home teams to show their mettle against some top international teams. Team Cyanosis have lots of big race experience including 4 World Championship outings with a highest place of 8^th, and earlier this year the team who will compete at Expedition Africa (Clinton Mackintosh; Jane Swarbreck; Ryno Griesel & Nicholas Mulder) took part in the Patagonian Expedition Race. Among the other S. African teams Capestorm/WCAD Racing, Pennypinchers, Red Ants, Olympus, Warriors, and Castle Lite are all returning after competing in Expedition Africa last year.

The U.S. challenge comes from Team Tecnu, ranked 6^th in the world.  Former winners of both the Costa Rica and Gold Rush Mother Lode World Series races they are bringing a powerful team for their first major outing of the season. Team captain Kyle Peter and Garrett Bean are joined by Canadian nav expert Bob Miller and Karen Lundgren, two of the most experienced racers of the past decade.  They are sure to be competing near the front, and you see some of their training for Expedition Africa in this video. http://vimeo.com/64040115

As if that were not enough competition there is a strong French challenge too, led by the Raidlight team which finished 4^th in the 2012 World Championships, where they were the top ranked French team.  There are three French teams taking part, the others being the experienced and well travelled SXM-France, and the Issy Aventure Team, who have been established since 2008 and have already competed in 14 World Series events.

There may not be any antipodean or South American challenge for this race, but there is plenty of competition, and it is sure to be a hard fought contest.