Patagonian Expedition Race
Whispers in the Patagonian Wind
Rob Howard / 10.02.2012
Some think the SleepMonsters logo has horns ... but they could be big ears, for hearing whispers, rumours and secrets. Adventure racing seems to have a lot of secrets, and those heard by SleepMonsters are never revealed – not ever ... BUT if those whispers are already published somewhere out there on the wilderness of the web they are fair game for a hungry SleepMonster. Which brings us to who is racing in the Patagonian Expedition Race this year ... well some of them anyway.
The prune powered Brits are back with 3 times winners adidas Terrex/Prunesco aiming for an incredible 4th consecutive win in the World’s Last Wild Race. It’s a very different and more international team however, with only Nick Gracie from the regular squad returning to Patagonia. He is joined by two Kiwi’s, former world champ Stu Lynch (who now lives and races in the UK), and Sarah Clarke, who was on the winning team at last year’s Raid The North Extreme, with the very experienced Spanish racer Albert Roca completing an international team.
Gracie said: “I am going back to try to retain the title, because if I win a race I want to go back and win it again. We’re going to a different part of Patagonia this year and it’s going to be tough. We’re going further south, so it will probably be colder and it can snow down there quite a lot, so that can be quite challenging – but the weather in the UK in last two weeks has been pretty cold and snowy so that’s been perfect for me. That’s ideal training!”
There is another, much less experienced, British/Kiwi mixed team competing as well. Team Pata – Gonna – Get – Yah! were put together by two British Cavers, Chris Jones and Dave Powlesland - who have explored some of the world’s longest caves together. They will join London-based New Zealander Richard Bramley and Auckland-based Irish woman Clare Dallimore to make their race debut as the only other British team. You can read more about the team here.
Elsewhere we’ve already carried news from South African team Cyanosis, and there are two strong teams traveling from Eastern Europe. Team Red Fox Gore-Tex are linked to Russia’s top expedition race (see latest news), and are joined by the experienced racer Maria Plyashechkco who now lives and organises races in Australia. (It sounds like another antipodean visitor will be top Kiwi multisporter Trevor Voyce who has just won the Speights Coast to Coast 2 day event, switching from the one day race due to ‘a late invite to Patagonia’.)
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