Team Cyanosis: Second place finish at Expedition Africa

Last week, Team Cyanosis raced to a second place finish at Expedition Africa, the continent’s premier 500km adventure race. The team raced well over a very fast course to finish in 2 days, 15 hours and 38 minutes, finishing about 2.5 hours behind Team Merrell, also from South Africa and 3 hours ahead of Team Accelerate from the UK. The team was a mixture of experience and youth, with Nicholas Mulder and Clinton Mackintosh being joined by Nathan Thompson and Jane Swarbreck, both competing in their first expedition length race.

The race was a tight affair over most of the first half of the race with Cyanosis, Merrell and Accelerate regularly changing the lead. With a sunrise start on Monday morning, Cyanosis quickly established an early lead on the first 14km trail running leg around the streets and mountains of Hermanus in the Western Cape. Merrell then took the lead on the extremely windy paddle on the Klein River estuary linking Hermanus and Stanford, where wave heights reached 1 metre in a head-on gale. Cyanosis and Accelerate subsequently set about chasing them down on the next leg, a 35km beach trek along Walker Bay to Gansbaai.

Teams left Gansbaai on a 140km mountain biking stage that would see them through most of Monday night. Cyanosis put together an excellent ride through some consistent riding and navigation, first taking a joint lead with Accelerate before getting the outright lead as the teams passed near the Quoin Point lighthouse, a tough section with tricky navigation in the rolling sand dunes. Upon arriving at the foot of the Bredasdorp mountains, the team had opened a gap of 40 minutes on Accelerate and 1 hour on Merrell.

A tough 47km mountain trekking stage proved to be the turning point of the race, with Cyanosis taking a route choice between two checkpoints that proved significantly slower than anticipated. This gave the lead back to Merrell and Cyanosis, with two developing injuries in the team, found themselves unable to keep the growing gap in check. The end of the stage brought teams into the half-way mark at Beloftesbos, at the foot of the Salmonsdam Nature Reserve and a compulsory 5-hour rest stop.

The second half of the race was easier and faster than the first, now that the two hardest legs of the race were behind the teams. First up was another lightning quick ride through the dark on the district roads of the Overberg region, through the towns of Grayton and Genadendal to the foot of the Riviersonderend Mountains. This set up an ‘up-and-over’ trekking leg that culminated in a fun canyoneering and abseil section before teams made their way to the Theewaterskloof Dam for a 24km paddle.

The Dam paddle luckily took place in calm conditions on Wednesday afternoon, with none of the big waves experienced on the earlier paddle in the race. Cyanosis encountered both Merrell and Accelerate on the paddle when going in different directions, confirming a 2-hour gap either way to both first and third positions, a time difference that was unlikely to change significantly in what remained in the race.

The final 70km section of the race saw a nicely flowing and mostly downhill bike leg from Theewaterskloof, down the Van Der Stel Pass back to sea level at Hermanus, with a quick stop at the Hamilton Russell vineyard for a 2 hour orienteering section. Cyanosis maintained a comfortable and consistent speed over this section, reaching the finish at Onrus Caravan Park just before 11pm to claim second place in the race. Congratulations go to Team Merrell for taking line honours.

Once again, as per all Kinetic races, the Expedition Africa was an exceptionally well organised event. The start and finish arenas and campsites, the midway stop (which provided us with tents for a quick sleep as well as a pasta meal) as well as the marshalling, rope sections and general course layout were excellent. It was great to see three of the team’s own sponsors, First Ascent, Salomon and Petzl all being involved in such a prestigious race. The addition of international competition in the form of Team Accelerate from the UK was a big positive for the race and we look forward to Expedition Africa in 2012 being a full international-level race.

Apart from the big thank you to Kinetic (Heidi and Stephan Muller), their marshals and helpers for this years race, congrats must also go to the other teams, with the entire field of 22 teams all crossing the finish line. It has been 3 years since the last expedition in South Africa, so there were lots of novices attempting this distance for the first time. Well done on finishing!

Team Cyanosis is proud to have the following brands supporting them:

First Ascent outdoor apparel, Salomon adventure footwear, Petzl headlamps and Foodstate vitamins and supplements.

Specialized bikes and accessories, Summit Cycles in Midrand, Form and Fitness sports supplements, Suunto field compasses and wrist-top computers, O’Neill wetsuits and Island Tribe sun lotion.

Nicholas Mulder
Team Cyanosis

For information on Team Cyanosis, profiles on team members, team news and photo galleries, please visit our team website at www.teamcyanosis.co.za

For information on the sport of adventure racing, local events, news and race reports, visit South Africa’s adventure racing website, www.AR.co.za.
Image by Jacques Marais