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

The fifth leg, kayaking 60 km from Sweden to Åland, was cancelled after a few hours of paddling due to hard wind and big waves (approximately 2 m). All teams were transported to Åland by ferry and re-started yesterday evening at 7pm.

Due to this re-start, teams will have time-credit according to the following:
1. Swedish Armed Forces Adventure Team +0
2. Estonian ACE Adventure +1:20:57
3. Sweco Adventure +1:29:47
4. Haglöfs Silva +1:48:18
5. Greener Adventure Team +1:53:16

The leaderboard show the correct time with this time-credit added, but the dots won’t show if they are leading or not. When the time-credit should be taken out is still not announced.

Follow the race on the following links:
http://live.arworldseries.com/niar18
https://www.facebook.com/TeamHaglofsSilva
https://www.instagram.com/teamhaglofssilva

And the organisations pages:
https://www.facebook.com/nordicislandsadventurerace
https://www.instagram.com/nordicislandsar/

The sections of the race. Currently they are on leg 7.

This is the first Expedition race for Team Haglöfs Silva for 2018, but we have not been laying too much on the couch until now… Apart from our daily life puzzles with family, work and training, we have attended a few shorter events.

Björn and Robert raced the Åre Extreme Challenge a month ago. It is the European Championships in Multisport with 20 km of kayaking, 15 km of mountain running (over Åreskutan) and a final 35 km of tough and technical mountain biking. Robert did another strong performance and finished 1st (!) for the third time, with Björn 4th.

Recently we have taken advantage of the crazy hot summer in Sweden to try to improve our skills in and on the water, with the upcoming race in mind!

The race course for the Nordic Islands Race covers a total of 637 km divided into a total of 11 sections, with kayaking, mountain biking, trekking, swimrun and packrafting.

This gruelling course will take teams from central Stockholm, across the Åland Sea, swimming and running between several islands of Åland, then over to Finland to finally reach the finish line in Åbo. All different sections will offer their challenges, but we expect some to be tougher than other, including the 230 km of mountainbiking, the 60 km of sea kayaking over to Åland, the 84 km of swimrunning on Åland and the 78 km of packrafting in Finland, the land of the thousand lakes. We think that there will be a good balance between physical, technical and navigation skills and the winning team will need to perform well in many different areas.

Team Haglöfs Silva will consist of Björn, Robert, Corrinne O’Donnell and Rob Preston. This team has raced together once before, on the AR World Series Xtrail Expedition Race in China last June. We will for sure give all we have to do even better this time.

Thanks for all cheering and support! /Team Haglöfs Silva

Teams from around the globe race through ancient landscapes and cultures on foot, bike and kayak. Many of the areas visited by the race are inaccessible to the outside world.

Team Haglöfs Silva finished 3rd in the 3-day long race. The episode contains an extended interview with Aaron Prince. Link to full clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vp6t-Ahrdc

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