TEAM SEAGATE – Convincing victory in Patagonia
New Zealand Adventure Racing squad Team Seagate has won the opening
round of the World Adventure Racing Series in the Tierra Viva race held in
Patagonia, Argentina. (February 18th-25th)
The team of Sophie Hart, Nathan Fa’avae, Chris Forne and Trevor Voyce
swept through the course to win by a significant margin.
The race began with a 60km kayak stage on Lake Lolog, Seagate
immediately went to the front and set a steady pace. Midway through the leg
the wind increased and provided some good sailing conditions for the teams
that had them, or downwind surf paddling for the teams without sails or kites.
By the end of they stage Seagate had a 40-minute lead over the second place
team Zenith Deporcamping, with 2011 Tierra Viva winners Cristagua exiting
the paddle stage in third place, both from Argentina.
The next stage was a bike / hike section that had a multitude of options. There
were 3-bike sections and 2-hikes that could be done in any order teams
chose. This meant strategy and planning was a major factor.
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Seagate Team Captain Fa’avae
says “we opted to do the longer
ride first, mainly to use a tail
wind that was blowing at the
time. We then did the bigger of
the 2-hike stages, basically to
get the hard stuff done early
while we were fresh. A bonus of
this was that it meant we did the
volcano climb in daylight which
was our race highlight I think”.
Because of the options it was
close to impossible for any
teams to know where they were
placed for almost a day. The
50km hike stage in the Laguna
Verde included difficult navigation, thick forest and high mountains. Night
temperatures dropped below freezing. Seagate emerged first from the stage
but it was unclear what their advantage was.
They then biked to the 2nd trekking stage, two mountain climbs including an
ascent of Volcano Aseret.
From there it was a 50km mountain bike stage to base camp. The team
suffered 2-bike crashes on this stage when Forne lost balance on a narrow
bridge crashing and damaging a front wheel. Later that night Voyce hit a
corrugation while making an adjustment to his riding light, with a hand off the
handle bars and crashed onto the road bringing down Hart and Fa’avae. He
suffered mild concussion and the team were uncertain for the period if their
race was over. Thankfully Hart is a Doctor and was able to make a qualified
decision on what needed to happen and what was possible. They rallied
together and completed the stage and took some sleep.
At this point teams had even more decision making to do.
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Three stages remained, a 40km kayak on Lake Lacar, an 85km mountain bike
stage on Mount Chapelco and a hike / bike stage in the Quilanlahue region.
This included a 50km mountain bike and 40km mountain trek.
After a 2-hour sleep Seagate opted to do the mountain bike stage first,
departing at 2:00am. Team Zenith Deporcamping was in second place
estimated about 5-hours behind.
After completing the stage Seagate took to the lake for the 40km kayak,
ensuring the dark zone between 9:00pm to 6:00am would not impair their
progress on course.
Coming off the water Seagate opted for another 2-hour sleep. Still unsure of
their lead they quickly started the final stage, expected to take about 20hours.
Fa’avae adds “because we had very little idea of what stages other teams
were on, or what order they were doing things in, we had to keep pushing all
the time. It was actually quite a good situation as it forced us to be diligent.
Had we known our true lead starting the final stage we probably would have
taken more rest. Instead we only took a 40-minute nap in the field”
The team reported the final stage was brutal, a cold night and an extremely
hot day. The navigation was extremely difficult working from 1:100000 scale
maps. There were very few trails or easy terrain to move on.
Seagate won the 550km race in 77-hours and 52-minutes, narrowly sneaking
under the 80-hour estimated winning time.
Team Zenith Deporcamping would have finished in second about 12-hours
behind but were disqualified on a number of rule breaches. This meant team
X-Bionic Extreme from France was 2nd and Cristagua 3rd some 23-hours
behind the Seagate convincing victory.
“We raced really well as a team. Chris was on excellent form with the maps,
the only time we got delayed was when a control was in the wrong place.
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Sophie is always fun to race with and is a good motivator, keeping things
moving.
Trevor did exceptionally for his debut expedition race, our pace through the
difficult course provided some epic tests, especially carrying an injury after his
bike stack. We made lots of good decisions I reckon, that’s what ultimately
won us the race by the margin we did” Fa’avae says “The event was
professionally run with ultra friendly people. The scenery in parts of the course
was amazing, I guess that’s what Patagonia is famous for. We’ve had a great
trip, a solid race and overall a memorable experience.”
Sophie Hart rated the Tierra Viva Race as one of her best adventure racing
experiences “The people at the race were super friendly and I think Patagonia
was especially made for adventure racing, it’s a stunning place, I want to go
back” she stated.
The team are now focusing on recovery before they start their build up to the
next round of Adventure Racing World series, The Godzone Race, being held
in Queenstown in early April.
Sponsors: SEAGATE, Silva, Bridgedale, Tineli, Patagonia, Awaken Energy
Bars, GU, O2B Healthy, Inov8 Shoes, Ready Set Go Anti Chafe, GoLite
Packs, Wildside Travel, Rocky Mountain Bikes
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