Ordos Adventure Challenge 28th Aug-1st Sept
2012
Looking toward the World Adventure racing champs, the Ordos
Adventure challenge presented the ideal opportunity for some final sharpening
to complete our preparation. France will be hot so the prospect of racing in a
warmer climate prior ad plenty of benefits. Priority one was to make sure no
one over cooked themselves and got sick.
Set around the edge of the Gobi Desert, Inner Mongolia this
race would also be some new surrounds to race in. Here is my account of how it
all unfolded.
Day 1, stage 1: 60km
kayak down the Yellow River, 22km Mountain bike, 18km Desert run to a 7 hour
compulsory stop.
Half the ordeal in Chinese organised races is the run to
standstill organisation we experience. “Come to the bus quickly….we must go”.
This generally means we will leave in 30 minutes. If a bus ride is expected to
take 1 hour, allow 3. Today was no exception and by the time we reached the
start line on the edge of the Yellow river the pre-advised start time had been
and gone. The day was now hot, it was 1pm and I was well and truly ready to
start. As we stood on the start going through another start ceremony complete
with delegate speeches and traditional music the nerves seeped in. In front of
us were Adventure Sport NZ complete with Richard and Elina Ussher, Braden
Currie, and Stu Lynch, Team CO USA with a top line up. Behind us were team
Thule Macpac and team Finland. All would be tough opponents.
It was to be a
staggered start with 1 minute intervals making life tough for the earlier
teams. All a following team needed to do was hunt down a team in front and
hence gain a minute of race time on them. Chris and I started well. Nath and
Sophie as some issues with getting into their boat so took a few minutes to
catch up. Once underway we paddled hard for a good for a solid 2.5 hours before
hitting some very shallow water. By this stage we had closed the gap on
Richards team to 30secs but the issue now was more of where to find some water!
15 minutes of slog later deeper waters returned along with some much needed
pace. Soon after however a boat full of officials waved both teams down and
tried to direct us up steam. A confusing 5 minutes ensued with the result being
resumption of our original course. Bugger…..the chasing teams had all but
bridged the gap. The next 30 minutes had it all. Shallow water, dragging the
boats through mud and a final slog through weed to the stage finish.
A
partially flat tyre cost time in transition but some efficient riding saw
Rich’s team back in sight. Chris topped this with some trademark route
selection putting us back in front and into the day’s final transition less
than an hour after starting. By now it was after 6pm and the desert waited.
Gaiters on, fluids restocked and into the sand. It was hot tiring work. As with
any soft sand the first tracks require more energy than those that follow.
Chasing teams were at an immediate advantage. Quickly aware of this situation
coupled with the fact that our speed had slowed we decided to allow Thule and
ASNZ (Rich…) to catch us and work together through the sand. Soon all three
teams moved as one sharing the lead. This continued until darkness fell
highlighting the fact that yet more teams were hunting us down. At this point
Nath took the lead, pulled the anchor and we paced out the final three k’s to
TA3, the desert camp. It had been a tough day. Hard paddling, a sharp bike,
finishing with a tough run through the desert. Sand as it will infiltrates
everything. The toughest part of my day had definitely been the feeling of
concrete in my shoes. It packed incredibly hard and without the option of
stopping made life difficult. The good news….tomorrows run would be twice as
far! Fun times ahead.
Day 2, Stage 1: 35km
Gobi Desert run, night at Hotel.
Nathan’s solid lead in the final kilometres acquired us a 1
minute head start on the others. This would soon be chased down but gave us a
slightly less frantic start into the desert. Today would involve 35km of
running through the dunes of the Gobi. Tiredness aside the 4am start provided
much needed relief from our biggest rival of the day – heat. Soon the three
fore mentioned teams were into their work hacking tracks in the dunes. It was
hard work and it was definitely a low point for me. I felt slow and my stomach
was uneasy. Focus turned for me to the
basics of eating and drinking. The early part of stages is always my weakness
and I knew that strength would return. It did and during the final 25km of the
stage I felt great. In fact apart from a few steep dunes and some mud to
negotiate the stage went relatively quick…..a bit of a blur I guess until the
last painful kilometres which dragged on. Team Colorado had smashed out a great
stage, catching up 10 minutes, Thule ASNZ and us all entered the final dash
together. Even at 9am the heat was uncomfortable and teams were edgy towards
the finish. We hung tough but were definitely stretched to stay in touch over
the finish. It had been a great team effort for the stage. Chris had managed
some great navigation in the sand despite not using GPS, Nath had run well
desite being a heavyweight for fast sand travel and Soph had managed most of
the stage without assistance. We now had the yellow jersey. Full credit to GPS
tracking ourselves and ASNZ had received a time credit for time lost on the
river. For us it was 3.5mins, enough to give us the yellow jersey albeit not by
much.
Day 3, Stage 2: 4km
horse ride, 100km bike, 2km dune run.
Today was to be the shorter of race days. The horse ride
involved Chris and Sophie riding with Nathan & I running alongside with the
reigns. En route to the start organisers decided to neutralise the ride to
remove ‘horse fitness’ from dictating the outcome. It soon became apparent that
there would be a significant head wind on the bike section. Even without the
horse section timed teams were allowed to complete the section as fast as they
wished. Timing began once they completed the section. As with stage 1 however,
racing the horses would see us out on the road first battling the wind. Chasing
teams would then have the opportunity to bank further time. Instead we took it
slowly and hit the bikes with Thule, ASNZ, and several other competitive teams.
What un folded from here made for a frustrating ride
initially. With the exception of a few, no one was willing to work
cooperatively in the bunch. Teams Red Bull (China) and Nuun (Aus) disappeared
up the road and were working to establish a lead. Despite concerted efforts
from Rich and Nathan, support from the front was not happening. For a period we
gave up the chase and the gap opened at one point to 11 minutes which was
concerning. Finally at around 60km along they tried again this time forming a
core group of workers keen on chasing down the break away. Nath and Rich were
riding really strong and were joined by myself, Braden Currie, Martin Flinta of
Thule and 3-4 others. The relentless wind had taken its toll and with 15km to
go we caught Nuun and shortly after Red Bull forming one big bunch for the
final kilometres.
With such a short section in the dunes coming up we needed a
good finish. It’s a bit of a blur as to what exactly happened but Chris and I
got ourselves up the front with Nath leading Sophie out for a final sprint. With
other teams seemingly napping we all emerged at the front and lead into transition
and onto the run. I quickly hooked Sophie on tow and we hit the dunes. Straight
up for 100m then 2 members slid down the other side on sleds, the others
running. A final surge for the final 1km back to the finish and we placed 3rd
for the stage behind the Americans and Thule by a matter of seconds. It had
been a good finish to the day not to mention retaining the yellow Jersey. Nath
had done some great work today on the bike both pedalling and organisation. We
could now relax for the night knowing we had a section more suited to our
strengths tomorrow.
Day 4, Stage3: 18km
gorge run, 42km mountainbike, 20km paddle
With an absolutely crap night’s sleep I felt pretty jaded at
5am as I took our tent down. It had been raining steadily for a few hours. Electing
not to put a fly on has its price….an early wake up call. Nonetheless we got
organised and onto the start line for yet another starting ceremony complete
with delegate speeches. At day 4 of racing with more to lose every day the
tradition and faffing around factor were beginning to take their toll. Let’s
just start the bloody race!
From the gun Chris was in his element. Mud, waist deep marsh
crossings, navigation….for him it couldn’t get any better. The gorge was
different to others I have experienced in China, more sand, mud, swamps etc
instead of rocks, cliffs and waterfalls. It was scenic in its own unusual way.
18km went quick. Animal trails and a core group pushing the pace saw to this.
Sophie had a great run despite the pace being hot. I towed her a little toward
the end but largely she was self-sufficient. Culminating the section was a
steep 100m climb followed up by an abseil back into the gorge. Rather than
vertical the abseil had a few drops on and otherwise steep hill. For me it was
a backwards downhill run. 2km later we were in TA and onto bikes. Nathan
quickly took Sophie on tow whilst Chris and I concentrated on catching Thule
and ASNZ who were now a few hundred metres up the road. Our transition had not
been slick. Soon after catching Thule we hit mud, and lots of it. This was no
ordinary mud with a glue like consistency that stuck to the bikes with a
vengeance. Initially I think we attacked
this section with too much aggression. The harder we tried to go the more we
lost traction or simply fell off. ASNZ had gotten a jump on us and were not in
sight. I think this was a good thing turning the focus more to what we were
doing. The pace dropped to a more steady and consistent effort. More traction
resulted and more ground was covered. Nath broke his tow line so I took
responsibility for towing Soph. Consistency soon started paying off. ASNZ came
back into view and my mind shifted towards a new target of reeling them in. In
hind sight I took this goal a bit too fast and put the team through some short
term suffering….Nath soon told me to settle down but the job was done. ASNZ
were right in front of us. Nath still riding strong went and helped Rich at the
front for the final 10km. Rain still poured and like drowned rats we entered
transition. 15 minutes compulsory rest before the final paddle.
The kayak section was to be pivotal on the day’s results.
Early on we had no idea as to what was going to eventuate. For me it split into
4 sections. The first we had insane trouble steering (rudders disallowed for
this paddle), with Chris struggling to keep the boat straight. The second
(after a CP) I shifted to the back and our boat led the way to the furthest CP
location. Problem……no CP at marked location. Several minutes of faffing around
and discussions later we headed back towards the finish. GPS would confirm our
course. Section three of significance I title “catching up”. Chris being the
perfectionist he is wanted to make double sure the decision to head back was
the right one. In the process the others left, time ticked by, and the workload
required to catch back up shot up. Catching up was hard and by the time we did
catch up I was battling to keep the boat straight and therefore on the wash.
Enter section 4 for me “the blow”. ASNZ
were setting a good pace and we weren’t hacking it. I blew. Chris had gone from
a lot of “I hate kayaking” to silent. Not a good sign. Drifting off the back I
entered a blurry world of hurt somewhat out of reality, still paddling hard but
2-3 boat lengths behind. For some reason the wash further back was easier to
steer on, no further gap opened and the blurry world of hurt kept us in touch
touching land just a few seconds back on the others.
Another successful day was complete. Despite losing touch
mid stage we had displayed some grit and regained it. Grit in fact, was an
integral part of today’s racing. The whole team had worked hard all day and not
only kept in touch with ASNZ but retained the yellow jersey. Rich and his team
had also had an awesome day. Further close racing had proved that we were the
most in form teams of the race. One day to go!
Day 5, Stage4: 30km
bike, 10km paddle
Today was to be a short town based stage. Biking entirely on
the road and paddling surrounded by empty high rise buildings. With ASNZ and
Seagate being 1 + 2 we decided to work together on the first bike to keep a gap
from challenging teams. Only a crash or mechanical would burn enough time for Thule
to step up the rankings. It was not a day for risks especially given the cool
wet conditions.
Biking was miserable but went essentially according to plan.
My legs were leaden but still managed their fair share. Rich and Nath as usual
rode strong. Onto the paddle we went all locked up. Chris and I were feeling
much better than our efforts yesterday and kept things moving but it soon
became apparent things were not as ideal in the Nathan Sophie boat. Water in
the stern made steering for Nath really difficult and they drifted off the pace
slightly. The consolation at half way was that Rich and ASNZ were further off
the pace (having similar issues). A gap had opened and due to some gutsy
paddling from Nath and Soph and we finished up 3 minutes clear, therefore taking
the race outright. Awesome!
The Wrap:
The Ordos Adventure challenge included some great racing. As
a team we had raced hard and worked well during much of the race. I personally
felt fitter and stronger than I ever have and can only trust that this will
continue. Despite probably displaying a low key attitude to winning the race we
are absolutely stoked to win against such high class opponents. Many will have
known we planned Ordos as a build up for the Adventure Racing World Champs in
France and it definitely served its purpose, but it’s hard to celebrate when a
greater objective looms. The focus now shifts solely to France, getting healthy
and doing everything possible to make this trip 2 from 2. Tough roads are ahead!
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