We expect a highly competitive race, many many hills, sharp thorns, grueling hot sun but unfortunately no snow…

Live-tracking; https://tracktherace.com/en/raid-gallaecia-2019/live

Reports: https://www.sleepmonsters.com

Race website: https://raidgallaecia.com/en/

Photo: Honza Zak

Team Haglöfs Silva, together with 63 other teams from 25 different nations had gathered for 5 days of adventures on Reunion Island, a small volcanic island in the Indian Ocean, east of Madagascar. The race was hosted by the organization Raid in France, Reunion Island being one of 18 regions and France and a part of the European Union!  Reunion is only 63 km long and 45 km wide, but over 3000 m high, with active volcanoes, crazy steep mountains, deep canyons, tropical climate, and sandy beaches. Team Haglöfs Silva was represented by Aaron Prince, Björn Rydvall, Corrinne O’Donnell and Robert Lindberg. All three guys were in the team that finished 2nd at the World Championship 2017 In Wyoming, USA, while Corrinne is replacing Josefina who is home nursing her baby daughter. The competition was really high, with all of the world’s best adventure racing athletes assembled, rest assured team was ready to do absolutely everything we could (within the rules) to be the first team to reach the finish-line.

We arrived off the bus a bit apprehensive about the prologue, no one really knew what to expect.  Next thing we were allocated a local child (a young girl) from the village, a tyre and two sticks. The prologue was a traditional local relay game, where we had to wheel a tryer using only the two sticks to control it, around the village. It was an exciting start to the adventure ahead of us. We managed to finish this course reasonably well with a very relaxed but surprisingly skilled local child, who moved us up the leaderboard considerably on her leg up the finishing straight.

photo: Honza Zak

The next day the race started officially at 6am with a 100km trek, the first leg of a 430km race.  Our team soon enough found our feet as the bush was thick and teams were eager to position themselves well for the upcoming abseils.  We came out well and started to push the pace and shortly caught Avaya who were the pre-race favorites.  From this time on we trekked out the front with a couple of other teams close which kept everyone honest and moving along nicely.  Our team had a goal in this first trekking stage to come under the recommended time of about 38 hours and make dark zone in the next pack rafting stage, so we pushed hard resting for only half an hour during the first night.

photo: Anton Torstensson

Fast big open country climbs with massive paramaniac views, 100m abseils into canyons and hard rocky lava field tracks soon become slow moving thick untamed bush.

photo: Anton Torstensson

The question on our minds was “will we make the dark zone”, all this effort for maybe no reward. Yes, we took a risk by trying to make the dark zone although in the end it didn’t pay off, it is what it is.  As a result, we entered transition first and banked a lot of sleep, ready to fight another day. That afternoon and evening about 15 other teams also reached the transition and settled in for the night.

photo: Honza Zak

5.15am Morning broke and teams pack rafts lined the river, our team and most other top teams all set off down the river playing a game of snakes and ladders.  The river was low, our view consisted of rocks and a lot more rocks, navigating down rapids was testing. Although we all put our experience to work, maneuvering the rafts down stream with no major issues.

photo: Honza Zak

Unbeknown to us this was just a warm up compared with second part of the pack rafting.  Although getting to the second part of the pack raft was our teams real challenge.  To explain it better, we arrived from a trek ready for a dangerouhis rope section down to the pack raft. Where was this rope section? there was no marking on the map showing us where to go, we tried our luck with what seemed like a logically route choice, soon to be standing above a 100m water fall, Oops! We returned safely, exchanging a few stern words to the race officials with what someone quoted was like playing a game of track hide and seek.  We had lost 1.5 hours, but we gathered ourselves together and pushed on.  The next part became the “adventure” in the adventure race, we jumped in our pack rafts and it was carnage! We paddled grade 3 to 4 rapids, dropping down little water falls, squeezing between rocks and hitting massive wave trains. Unfortunately, we passed another teams raft which had punched also teams waiting for someone to be the guinea pig (us!).   We took it all in our stride and finished the section in tact with a bit more white-water experience under our belts.

photo: Honza Zak

At 7.30pm on day 3 the mountain bike boxes were a welcome sight. We progressed with a fairly uneventful MTB section through lots of sugar cane fields. This was followed by a lot of very spectacular trekking along the South coast of the island, walking along black cliffs made when lava flowing down the mountainside has met the ocean.

photo: Honza Zak

We managed to sneak though the final dark zone, a beautiful kayak section along the West coast of the island where progression was not allowed during darkness. During this section we saw several Sea Turtles and enjoyed being off our feet. In the last couple of stages, the race had unfolded into a battle between us, the French team Naturex and our major rivals Avaya. We were about two hours down going into the deciding final long MTB stage behind Avaya and within sight of the French, swapping position regularly.

4.30pm the hottest part of the day, the final MTB started with a steep 2200m climb. We pushed it a bit too hard from the start and spent the rest of the ride trying to recover, as well as making sure we progressed down the mountain safely.  Now we had shifted our focus from racing for a position to getting the team to the finish line without a major crash. It was a tough night; great team work was what got us to the end unscarred.  All four team members helped one another to stay awake, fueled, warm and safe.

photo: Honza Zak

After an epic night we were amazed to see the French team waiting at the transition to the final short Pack Raft stage to the finish. They were using to last of their compulsory 12 hours rest time and so we made transition as fast as possible, throwing our bikes down into the boxes and running off down the hill towards the final creek with our rafts, paddles and life jackets slung over our shoulders.

Down at the river we frantically inflated our rafts and as we got on the water the French were right behind us. Across a marina to the last control and then onto the beach for a final 2km on the sand to the finish line the French were coming 100m behind us. We gave it heaps and managed to scramble along the beach holding on to our 100m lead, happy to keep second place behind Avaya who had finished a few hours ahead. We have a lot of respect for the French team but it was great to out maneuver them and get to the finish just ahead. To take 2^nd place by less than a minute after 120 hours of almost nonstop racing in a very challenging environment!

photo: Honza Zak

This race has been one of the tougher ones on our bodies and the last few days has mostly been spent lying down, either in bed or at the beach. No injuries, just 4 bodies that gave all they had to make it to the finish line as fast as possible.

We will now spend our last day at Reunion snorkeling on the coral reef nearby before we head back to reality…

Thanks for all the support and cheering and big congratulations to our mates from Avaya for taking the win, you have our respect!

/Team Haglöfs Silva

www.teamhaglofssilva.com

Reunion is only 63 km long and 45 km wide, but over 3000 m high, with active volcanoes, crazy steep mountains, deep canyons, tropical climate, and sandy beaches. More than 40 % of the whole island is UNESCO World Heritage. Reunion is also known for its unpredictable weather, and holds the world records for 12, 24, 48, and 72-hour rainfalls…

The race will start in Hell-Bourg village, located in the crater of a huge dormant volcano. From the start 6 AM on Thursday morning, teams will set out on a 430 km course of 10 sections, split into 162 km of mountain trekking and canyoning and caving, 182 km of MTB and 78 km of packrafting and seakayaking. The racecourse also includes several demanding sections of ropeworks. Despite the race course being relatively “short”, winning team is expected to take at least 120 hours (5 days and nights) to finish, due to the very demanding and technical terrain, with many steep parts, dense jungles and more than 17 000 vertical meters to climb.

Team Haglöfs Silva is represented by Aaron Prince, Björn Rydvall, Corrinne O’Donnell and Robert Lindberg. All three guys were in the team that finished 2^nd at the World Championship 2017 In Wyoming, USA, while Corrinne is replacing Josefina who is home nursing her baby daughter.

We except the race to be long, tough, technical and HOT! The competition is really high, with all of the world’s best adventure racing athletes assembled. Rest assured we will do absolutely everything we can (within the rules) to be the first team to reach the finish-line.

Once we finish we’re gonna take a long rest and catch up some snorkeling and sun-bathing…

Follow our progress on (starting on Thursday morning)

Live tracking at: http://live.arworldseries.com/ will keep you up to date with exactly where teams are during the race.  The site also has extensive photos, videos, leaderboard and reports.

Live Streaming Tune in on https://www.facebook.com/arworldseries for the start at on 8th November and the winners around the 12th November

Instagram

https://www.instagram.com/teamhaglofssilva

https://www.instagram.com/arworldseries/ https://www.instagram.com/raidinfrance/

Keep your fingers crossed!

/Team Haglöfs Silva

During those 4 days on racing we had been biking over 300 km on nice technical singletracks, swimming between and trekking over hundreds of islands on Åland and kayaked and packrafted over to Finland mainland before biking all the way to the finish in Turku. The whole team agreed it is one of the most beautiful courses they have raced, and there was a good balance of physical and technical skills.

Our team had some mechanical problems and made some bigger mistakes along our journey, putting us hours behind the leaders, but we also had some very good sections and this race was a good opportunity to identify some improvements to be made before the next race, AR World Championships in Reunion Island. Congratulations to Swedish Armed Forces and ACE Estonia Adventure for their excellent races and their 1^st and 2^nd places.

Thanks for all cheering and support!/ Team Haglöfs Silva

At the Xtrail Expedition in northernmost China, our team was represented by Björn, Robert, Rob Preston and Corrinne Smit. We made a solid effort with great teamwork and after 58 hours of nonstop racing on foot, kayak, rafts and mountainbike we finished 2^{nd ,} behind team Seagate (NZ).

photo: James Pitman

Two months later we, together with 60 teams from all over the globe, travelled to Wyoming, team Haglöfs Silva represented by Aaron, Björn, Josefina and Robert.  The world championship of 2017 started in ski resort Jackson Hole, stretched more than 700 km and finished in city of Casper. It took us over long mountain ridges above 3000 m, crossing large dams and travelling through high canyons. We were sweating under the cruel hot sun and shivered through some crazy cold nights during 83 hours of intense racing before we descended down Casper Mountain to the finish line with a smile on our face.  Once again did a solid performance with great teamwork and once again we finished 2^nd, behind team Seagate.

photo: Johan Lundahl

photo: JohanLundahl

photo: Johan Lundahl

photo: Johan Lundahl

Thanks to everyone who have supported and cheered us during season 2017 (and earlier) season(s). Without you, this would not have happened.

We are now looking forward to the adventure racing season 2018. Race schedule is still to be finalized, but for sure we hope to be on the start line at the world championship inNovember on the Reunion Island. We have no doubt that is going to be an epic adventure!

We wish you all a Happy New Year!

Aaron, Björn, Josefina, Mattias and Robert

We kept our motivation high throughout the rest of the course and pushed all the way through, with the team working really well together for the full 83 hours of nonstop racing, with less than 3 hours of total sleep.  Finishing 2^nd at the world champs is a result we are satisfied with considering this year’s team is a bit of a comeback team after new parenthood, illnesses and injuries, though we wanted to be first… It was great to race with this team of Robert, Josefina, Aaron and Björn, who have raced together for 10 years now, making it one of the oldest teams around.

photo: Johan Lundahl

The race started with some running around the Jackson and Teton National Park area. Then we had fun Pack Rafting down the Snake River. We found ourselves bumping along beside many other teams, including Swedish Armed Forces, Tiki Tours (NZ), Seagate (NZ), Teton (USA) and FMR (France).

The afternoon of the first day saw us starting the first long trek amongst the leaders. A high pace was set up the hill and onto a ridge that we would follow at 9 000 feet throughout the evening and inti the night. Seagate set a blistering pace in the heat and altitude and one after another the teams dropped off the pack.

photo: Johan Lundahl

photo: Johan Lundahl

By the end of the trek it was early morning of day two and Seagate had established a 15 minute lead over a chasing group of 3 teams, including us, Swedish Armed Forces and Adventure Medical Kits (USA). The three chasing teams quickly formed a pack on the following 130km mountainbike ride, and worked well together during the sealed first half of the ride. AMK dropped off the group after a while, although competent riders they had been trekking very hard during the night and were feeling the pace a bit.

photo: Johan Lundahl

The second long trek started in the early afternoon in sweltering heat. We struggled a bit and made a navigational error that cost us half an hour and allowed SAFAT to catch us again. As the sun set, temperature dropped and we managed to pick up the pace again. We ran away from SAFAT, had a great 2 hour sleep in the forest and as we reached transition we were still in 2^nd place.

Day three started with an extremely fun MTB, one of the best we have ever done, through historic mining town Atlantic City. Again, the sun was brutal and temperature rose quickly. We suffered in the heat and altitude and tried to make sure not to kill ourselves totally. Once again SAFAT caught up with us and the two Swedish top teams were riding together all the way to the next transition, for ropes and caving.

The climbing section and caving were done during day three, it was still very hot and we were careful to keep food and drink going in. Repelling down the sunny rock face almost made our climbing gear glow…

photo: Johan Lundahl

We had a quick transition and as we started the long 264km MTB in the afternoon it was still very hot, meaning our pace was slow. However all teams were feeling the heat. Unfortunately we made a large navigation error during the night and once again positions was swapped with SAFAT, who passed us during the night, pushing us down to 3^rd position at the transition over to packrafting. Except for the nav error we did the majority of the ride well, as we (considering we slept one hour during the night) we were only losing time to Seagate amongst the top teams.

photo: Johan Lundahl

Day four started off with Pack Rafting on Parthfinder Reservoir and the upper Palette River. We passed down a beautiful canyon and crossed several dams. We took it very careful rafting down the canyon, not to damage our boat, which made our progress a bit slow. Once again we were travelling together with our countrymen of SAFAT (and for a while also French team Lozere Sport Nature), starting to get a bit nervous for the upcoming bike sprint over Casper Mountain to the finish line in Casper.

photo: JohanLundahl

photo: Johan Lundahl

photo: Johan Lundahl

photo: Johan Lundahl

Both teams started the final 54 km bike at the same time, but SAFAT had to turn back due to a forgotten GPS-transmitter, giving us a few minutes gap. The first 20 km of the final ride was on sealed road and we were riding in line, swapping turns and doing all we could to maintain our lead. We gave it all we had on the 1000 m climb over the Casper Mountain, looking over our shoulders for chasing lights before we descended down towards the finish line in Casper City just as fast as we could. As we passed the last switchbacks in the park just before the finish, we looked back to see that no one had caught up on us, allowing us to cruise the very last bit over the finish line as happy 2^nd place finishers at the 2017 Adventure Racing World Championship.

Now we will take a few weeks rest. Play with our kids, pick berries and keep our feets high. Thanks again to all of you supporting us, making this possible!

photo: Johan Lundahl

/Team Haglöfs Silva

The 750 km course includes Pack-rafting, mountain-biking, climbing and trekking. Racers face a total of 15 000m climb. The course will take teams over majestic mountain passes as high as 3 000m, through authentic ghost towns, down into dramatic canyons and along alpine rivers.

Scenic but hot on Casper Mountain, 800 m above Casper city.

Co-ed teams of four have to stay together and navigate throughout the course using map and compass. The winners are expected to take four days non-stop. Slower teams will have up to 7 days to reach the finish.

Nonstop racing means racers will sleep as little as possible, about 1-2 hours per night. It will be a balancing act between wasting time sleeping and moving faster and smarter through the course. Good navigation, tactics and a fast pace are the trade-off for spending extra time sleeping.

During the last two days, we have been doing some training in the surroundings. Considerable time has also been spent sorting out clothing, shoes, food and batteries for some 100 hours of nonstop racing. During the race we will be self-supported throughout the whole course, taking our gear and food out of the boxes we pack prior to the race start.

The opening ceremony and parade through Casper city was held today. Tomorrow will be busy with equipment checks and skills tests. Teams will weigh in gear boxes that will be placed along the racecourse by the organisers. Each time a team switches discipline, for example from MTB to running, a box will be placed in a transition This allows athletes to stock up on food and collect the equipment necessary for the coming stage.

Team Haglöfs Silva are aiming for a top finish. The team for the World Championship consists of regulars Aaron, Björn, Josefina and Robert. After a string of second and third place finishes the team are hungry to do better…

All teams will be carrying GPS-trackers and the race can be followed online on http://live.arworldseries.com/arwc17/

Xtrail Expedition started in the Kanasi natural reserve, close to the Mongolian border. An extremely beautiful area with snow on the high mountain ridges and crystal clear water in the Kanasi lake.  Many features in the terrain reminded us of the Swedish mountains, though the nomads in Kanasi travelled on horses and looked after their cows on the hills, instead of reindeers.

The race started with a 25 km kayaking on the lake, followed by a 11 km rafting down the Kanasi river. We got a great start of the race and reached the transition a few minutes behind Seagate, together with a strong South African paddling team. After a quick transition we headed out on the rafting.

photo: James Pitman

Travelling to the start line we had seen parts of the river from the buss, which made us spend some extra time packing our gear in drybags and tie them to the boat. That was not something we regretted afterwords…

The rafts supplied by the race organisation was small and light, but probably not really made for paddling class 3 rapids. After a few km, we almost lost the inflatable bottom from the boat, though we managed to hold on to it, it was no longer helping the boat to float, but rather stopping us from paddling as we had to make sure not to lose it. Thanks to great steering from Rob and probably a bit of luck, we got through the section without swimming, though we sometimes were sitting deep down in the water.

photo: James Pitman

Dropping the rafts at transition we quickly changed to running shorts, picked up food and headlamps and headed out on the 49 km mountain trek as 2^nd team, 8 minutes behind Seagate. A beautiful stretch that brought us over high mountains, passing yurts on the slopes and in close contacts with wildlife. Halfway into the section we got a quick reminder of the unpredictable weather situation in the mountains as a thunder storm quickly came in with heavy rain and hail. We kept a consistent pace through this section though paying some extra attention on the navigation that we expected to be challenging. Maps did not have exactly the same accuracy as back home, being scale 1:100 000, having contours differing from 20-40 meters and some of them not updated since World War II.

Unfortunately we lost some 30-40 minutes trying to find the last checkpoint of the trek, which was not really where it should have been, and at transition for the long bike (around midnight) we were an hour behind Seagate still with no other teams in sight. We got through the transition rather quickly, though spending a few extra minutes refuelling with foods and preparing some hot coffee in a drinking bottle, knowing we had a 210 km+ section coming up. The leg started with a climb up a sealed road, but quickly changed to a 300 m vertical climb with bikes up a steep track. The weather had once again changed, thunderstorms were gone and as we biked through the night, on small cattle tracks on the mountains sides, the full moon was lighting up the mountains.

photo: James Pitman

Temperature was perfect for racing, we crossed several streams where we could fill up water and navigation was fluent. At 5.30 am sun was rising and we were descending towards the rocky desert. A few hours later it was gruelling hot, especially for the two swedes coming from winter.  We kept on riding, refilling water bottles and adding electrolytes, knowing that bit by bit we were getting closer to transition. At the 2^nd to last checkpoint of this section, we got the information that the route had been changed, due to a flooded area (new dam), adding some extra 45 km of riding (!). Rather ironic, having been dreaming about cold drinks for some 10 hours and getting a route change due to flooding. This new route though took us through a town and we actually found a small shop with drinks, which was well needed.

After more than 250 km of riding and pushing our bikes over mountains and through the desert, including a gruelling last part where we were having the worst midge-invasion experience in our life team, we finally reached a transition again. After a quick transition (partly thanks to the crazy amounts of midges) we went out for 15 km of kayaking along the calm lake which ended in a beautiful sunset. Once again, the midges pushed us through transition as we headed out on the 40 km rocky desert trek. Knowing it was a desert we brought some extra water on this section, though the map had some rivers shown. Our original plan was to catch some sleep out on this trek, as we were in the 2^nd night of the race, but we realized that would be difficult to sleep with all the midges without putting up the tent, so we carried on. Navigation on this section was even more difficult than the previous one, as the desert had very few features, being very flat and tracks kind of randomly shown on map. It felt like we were moving really slow through this section, but afterwards we found out that no one did it faster and that most teams had similar experience. At the end of the trekking, the sun rose and we were in the 3^rd day of the race.

Back to the kayaks and still around an hour behind Seagate we started paddling back towards the bikes. The water was perfectly calm and we did our best not to fall asleep in the boats, not having slept for more than 48 hours. Suddenly we all woke up as the wind picked up and within a few minutes we had storm winds coming from behind. We were crossing a bay, heading for the only checkpoint of this leg, only 5km from transition when things became a bit too exciting. As the waves were heading away from land and the boats and the spraydecks supplied not really being made for that kind of sea-kayaking we decided that it was not safe to continue kayaking.

photo: James Pitman

We managed to get to the shore and used our Satellite-tracker to contact the race organisation to clarify if we could carry on by foot. The kayaking was cancelled for all other teams and we were told to continue on foot to transition. As Robert and Corrinne had left their shoes in the last transition, they were walking in theirs socks, with the insoles from Björn and Rob as the only protection from the sharp rocks on the road. When we made it to transition, the gap to Seagate was more than 2 hours as they managed to finalise the kayaking before the storm.

At this point there were only one section left of the race, but not just any section… 140 km of riding, over mountains, through the desert and crossing numerous of fields and villages which were not there when maps where drawn some 60 years ago. In the beginning we had a strong tail wind which made us move at 35 km /hour without much effort, but suddenly our route turned and we got the storm in our faces… We kept on chatting and singing to stay awake, all of us having some tough times but luckily not all of us at the same time. After some 8 hours on our bikes we reached the last mountain of the race, carried our bikes on a 400 m ascent up through a canyon before we had a nice 30 minutes of downhill biking towards finish. We crossed the finish line in 2^nd place with big smiles on our faces.

For sure, we all wanted to win this race, but considering the strong competition and all challenges we went through along the race course we were still happy finishing 2^n2. We had a great team spirit through the race and though going through some tough times at parts of the race, we are leaving China with many great memories.

/Team Haglöfs Silva

Teams racing the Xtrail Expedition Race have already loaded their gearboxes and bikes on the truck and tomorrow morning at 7 AM, they will receive the racing maps, being locked in without any access to the outside world (to avoid cheating with google maps or similar).

At 11 AM local time (5 AM in Sweden) the race will start with a short hectic run down to the kayaks.

Leg 2, 25 km of kayaking on the Kanasi Lake, is followed by a challenging 4-person raft (no guide) on the river. After the rafting, teams head up to the mountains for a 49 km trekking section, which is expected to finish around midnight. Leg 5 is a 201 km (!) mountain bike section with lots of ascending and descending, expected to take 18 hours for the fastest team.

Having been running and riding for more than 24 hours, teams will get a short rest for their legs on the 15 km of kayaking, before another 40 km of trekking (Leg 7). Leg 7 ends with a special orienteering section in the desert, before teams get back in their kayaks for 55 km of kayaking (Leg 8). Depending on how the time estimates have been this far into the race and how the team is feeling, they might take some sleep prior to this kayak to avoid falling asleep on the water…

After some 8 hours sitting in the kayak, teams will place their butt on the bike instead for the last real section of the race, 106 km of mountain biking. This section is partly to be in the desert, probably the same desert where many teams (including team Haglöfs Silva) found navigation to be really tricky last year. Fingers crossed our team will manage through this one without any mayor mistakes this year!

After finishing this last bike ride, there is only a short run in to the finish line, which according to the time estimates should be around 22.30 Wednesday night for the winning team.

We will do all we can to be there as early as possible!

Follow us LIVE at http://live.arworldseries.com/xtrail17

/Björn, Corrinne, Robert and Rob

The race overall:

Trekking 93 km

Mountain bike 304 km

Kayaking 84 km

Rafting 12 km

Expected winning time 54 hours.

The race will take place in the Altay-region in northern Xinjiang province of China. Its northwest connects to Kazakhstan and Russia and its northeast border with Mongolia, taking us to regions that are not normally accessible to tourists be they Chinese or foreigners. The area is strongly influenced by the Kazak and Mongolian culture and their agricultural and nomadic lifestyle. The surroundings include the Altai mountains, with peaks up to 4500m the great Kanas lake and the Gobi Desert.

Xtrail Expedition is a 500 km non-stop unsupported race with the disciplines of trekking, mountain biking, kayaking, rafting and rope skills. The race course is unmarked, and teams will use maps and compass to find their way, day and night. The course will pass through mountains and desert landforms and the exact journey is kept secret until 24hrs before the start.

Race start is around lunchtime (local time) June 5^th and first team is expected to cross the finish line after 72-84 hours of non-stop racing.  We will be doing our utmost to make it there as quickly as possible!

Last year, the Xtrail race had great live coverage, with GPS tracking where dot-watchers all over the world could follow the progress of the race real time. We expect top coverage from the media and GPS again this year.

Follow our progress in China

http://xtrail.arworldseries.com/ and www.arworldseries.com

Team Haglöfs Silva, photo: ARWS