Expedition Oregon - Americas Toughest Race
Are you Tough? Or Just Plain Stubborn?
Adam Rose / 14.05.2021
Heading into the 3rd day of Expedition Oregon, not a lot has changed, but there are some warning signs. Bend Racing's cunning course design is living up to its tagline, "America's Toughest Race".
It's 43hrs old, and there have already been some seriously tough stages. Not just the terrain, but the combination of soaring daytime temperatures and snow on the ground (therefore nasty nights) means the teams will be challenged to maintain the correct layering, in addition to the first bike stage taking longer than expected (which could mean low food supplies en route).
La Jolla IVF / Vidaraid went through something of a slump yesterday, slowing down, especially in the Spanish Peak region, but after hitting CP10, seemed to find their stride again. Now through the bulk of stage 3 (packrafting and trekking), they have re-established a serious lead over everyone else.
Of the 12 Pro teams in contention, exactly half took the wise shortcut from CP8 to CP9, which will have been a morale boost for 6 of them. Well, at least they didn't experience the slog of the western route from CP8 down.
3 teams have retired, and a further 3 teams are non-competitive. Team Onyx (26) are in the latter category now, which was a wise move. They were far back after stage 1, inching their way towards Dayville. It must be the pies, because suddenly they found their mojo and sped up the steep eastern approach to CP4. Still trailing, they opted to drop CPs 6 and 7, and this has paid dividends. They have now completed that bike stage, ahead of at least 7 other teams.
This is a learning curve for novice teams, knowing when to drop the race and focus on the adventure. I've done it many times. It's not fun to make that choice, but if your goal is to cross the finish line come what may, you have to learn when to stop being stubborn (and risk being timed out), and create your own journey from the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity offered by an epic adventure race. After all, we've already seen plenty of experienced teams drop Pro points to become ranked in the Full category, which is essentially no different in principle to Onyx skipping CPs 6 & 7.
The full wisdom of such decisions becomes obvious when you look at how much of the course remains. There is a looong way to go, with the number of teams shifting down the rankings only to grow. How many will still be in the Pro category in the end? Place your bets!
There were rumours pre-race that the winning team would take less than 3 days. That is NOT going to happen. I'll put money on it right now!
Watch the live tracking here: http://live.enabledtracking.com/xpdor21/
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