Team Silva tells their story about Adventure Racing World Championship 2011

It was the closest championship ever with the 3 leading teams separated by just 1 1/2 hours after 5 1/2 days of racing.

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Team Silva’s second place in the Adventure Racing World Championship 2011 was both bitter and sweet. Half way through the race we held the lead and were battling it out with pre-race favorites Seagate from New Zealand. However at about the half-way point both leading teams were seriously affected by a stomach bug which turned the race on its head. The bug allowed the Swedish/French team Thule to sneak past for the victory with Seagate eventually finishing just behind us for third.

photo: Andreas Strand

The racecourse was both tough and spectacular with one of the early stages including clay target shooting. Teams had five shots and if all the clay targets were missed had to serve a 10 minute penalty. It was amusing to hear that the Swedish Paratrooper team FJS missed all of the targets, so there’s no need to worry about an airborne invasion from Sweden anytime soon! This was closely followed by a caving section which was both spectacular but also confined and wet, with some of the caving checkpoints a bit hard to find amongst all the passages. Out of the caves we were back on the bikes followed by trekking. Unfortunately we missed out on seeing one of Tasmania’s most scenic areas Cradle Mountain which we passed by at night.

photo: Andreas Strand

We ended this trek with some early morning canyoneering where the only way forward was to swim down some freezing cold pools of water interspersed with clambering around on slippery rocks down this narrow gorge in the Levin River. We filled up the rest of the day kayaking on Lake Mackintosh. This was an eerie experience as this hydro lake was filled after a forest fire, so we had to navigate our two person inflatable kayak with all four team members in it along the lake through a forest that was not only flooded but burnt!
The second night started with assembling our bikes and discovering that Björn’s derailleur had snapped under transport. We managed to make an ugly repair using the shaft of a toothbrush and some duct tape.

photo: Andreas Strand

The rest of the night was spent mountain biking in the rain along abandoned railway lines to Mid Camp and our first sleep of the race, luckily this was the only bad weather we had during the race. Mid Camp was a compulsory 6hr stop where we received a hot breakfast and a tent to sleep in. We arrived at Mid Camp 20 minutes behind Seagate, but in reality leading as Seagate had received a 4hr penalty for not carrying a piece of compulsory equipment. The gap to the rest of the field had gradually increased to over 3hrs by this point. Mid Camp was located in Strahan which is famous for Sarah Island Prison where the worst convicts that were deported from England during the early 1800’s were sent. It is said that even if a prisoner escaped they would never survive as the area is so remote and inhospitable.
Anyway we escaped Mid Camp after serving our 6hr sentence and set off with renewed energy along Ocean Beach and some pretty spectacular sand dunes. This was the longest trek of the race and after 30km on the beach we headed into the hills and our pace dropped dramatically. Aaron and Mattias had stomach problems and by the time we finished the trek the next morning we had to stop every few hundred metres to answer the call of nature.

There was no way we could continue on the next mountainbike section from Granville Harbour direct so the team stopped and rested in transition for over four hours to allow Aaron and Mattias to recover. Björn and Josefina played nurse providing electrolyte drinks and small portions of food, put all the bikes together and got the gear organised for the next section while Aaron and Mattias sat on the toilet or lay in their sleeping bags groaning. During this time Thule came through and eventually we made the decision to take our chances and continue even though things were not quite right. We continued slowly but determinedly through the MTB and as we arrived at the end of the bike on the fourth morning Thule were about 3 ½ hrs ahead. Seagate were about 2 hrs ahead after also having the stomach bug. But Mattias and Aaron were starting to feel better so the race was back on!

The kayak was so long that all teams would be forced to camp along the side of the river, the white water making it too dangerous to continue at night. This was perhaps the most spectacular section of the course, a seldom paddled river with enormous trees and rare eagles nesting along the banks. As we came off the water we had gained up to 2hrs behind Thule but lost to 3hrs behind Seagate (who would be forced to serve their 4hr penalty at the last transition). This meant that the pace was furious over the 3 remaining short MTB, Coasteering and MTB sections, because all three teams were fresh after camping beside the river all night.
We continued to gain on Thule but not enough, and when we arrived at the last transition Seagate were still there serving their penalty but would set out just 20 minutes behind us for the last 35km MTB. We forced hard through the ride but as expected Seagate were even faster after their 4hr stop, and when we finished after 5days 12hours 8minutes they were just 3 minutes behind.