Adventure Racing World Championship 2016
Hike-a-Bike in the Hills
Rob Howard / 10.11.2016
Overnight a few teams were no doubt wishing they were back on the coast as they tackled the first long ride of the race, with some steep climbs and a hike-a-bike to remember, or perhaps to try and forget!
As darkness fell on teams for the first time they were spread out along the coast, trekking, paddling and riding on the early sections of the race with the leaders setting a fast pace. The ride took teams up into the Morton National Park (there are a huge number of state and national parks in the Shoalhaven region).
In the early stages of section teams were aiming for a high point at Florence Head (where the map warned to stay on the trail due to a risk of unexploded ordnance!) But it was descending from here that they hit a Craig Bycroft special booby-trap – the hike-a-bike from hell which was a marked route down through the cliffs.
“Good job it was marked,” said Sam Maffett of the Rapid Ascent team, “otherwise there was no way I would have considered taking a bike down there!
“At least for us the earlier teams had beaten a route, you couldn’t call it a path. We were dropping or lifting our bikes 2 or 3 metres up and down outcrops, there were steep drop offs, and a lot of the time we were on steeply sloping ground. Oh, and it was in the bush. And it was dark.
“I think that section took us about an hour and we were held up a little by one team ahead of us, but there were a lot behind and it was a bit of a bottleneck as you could only go as fast as the slowest person. Otherwise it was a good ride and the navigation not too difficult.”
This team, in around 30th place, looked comfortable and were through the transition at Kioloa fairly quickly. Not everyone will have agreed the navigation was straight-forward – especially teams Spirit (66) and Powerbar Swiss Explorers (33) who went on a long detour to take in CP44 between CP’s 7 and 8! Obviously they didn’t want to wait until the end of the race to get there!
Spirit are a Canadian team, one who have raced big expedition events all over the world for two decades and include father and son Dave and William Hitchon. Suzi Fisher Hitchon said, “My husband and son are competing together. 20 years ago when my son was 2 months old we flew to the finish line to see his father finish Eco Challenge BC. Now the torch is being passed as my son competes with him.”
The Bivouac Inov8 team, who almost became the first to become unranked at the end of the ride. Dane McKnight has been suffering with illness since before the race and after a long stop it looked like he would pull out. However, the team went to get something to eat nearby and when they came back to transition decided to push on. I spoke briefly to Dane, who said, “I’ve been having gastro problems for days and the race pace was just dragging me down, so I thought I’d pull out, but will give it another go.” He wasn’t up to much in the way of conversation and looked unhappy.
The transition was at a local sports club, with a field for the boxes to be spread out and a clubhouse where teams could get hot water for their packet meals. (Unfortunately for Merrell Adventure Addicts their gear box had gone missing, so they had to push on planning to get some food along the way.) As promised there were a few kangaroos on the field, watching on from a distance, though there weren’t any on Merry Beach at the start of the next coastal trek, not when I was there anyway.
Beyond Kioloa stage 5 is a 38km coasteering stage in the Murramarang National Park, with one swim and some of the headlands impassable at high tide. Tides have played a part in the experiences of the teams during this first coastal stage of the race and will continue to do so as they head inland for the 6th stage, paddling up the tidal Clyde River.
[Update. Nicolas Vallego of Argentian Sportotal took a fall on the mountain bike stage today and has a suspected shoulder fracture. He's been taken to hospital and the team are withdrawn from the race.]
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