GODZone Chapter 9 - Rotorua
Richie McCaw – Adventure Racer
Rob Howard / 08.03.2021
Richie McCaw was a world beating rugby player, but that’s in the past. He’s a competitive adventure racer now, as his current performance at GODZone proves.
His fame and celebrity status from a stellar Rugby career as captain of the All Blacks, which he finished with a second World Cup win, will define him as an athlete, but his achievements in his new sport of adventure racing are pretty impressive too.
His team at Godzone are isport (#7) and for most of the race they’ve been in second place and closest challengers to the mighty Avaya. There is currently a good race going on with the teams around them, whose members have competed in many previous Godzones and dozens of other expedition races, and he’s racing with the current men’s and women’s Coast to Coast winners, so his team’s performance is definitely at an elite level.
He got into adventure racing thanks to Rob Nichol, who has competed with him at Godzone and the Coast to Coast, and who was meant be racing this time, until he was locked down in Aukland! Rob is head of the New Zealand Rugby Players Association, and has been part of the Godzone story since racing in chapter one. Over the years he’s encouraged retired rugby players to try adventure racing, as a focus and a challenging objective after a professional career.
As his friend, AR mentor, and team mate, he knows all about McCaw’s adventure racing journey. “I’d spoken to him about maybe trying Godzone before his retirement at the World Cup Final,” he said, “and he was interested in the idea and followed it up.
“About 6 weeks after that final game we went out and ran the Hillary Trail with some other guys. It’s around 85km and 3000m of climbing, and it was stunning. Not everyone finished, but Richie did, and then told me the longest run he’d done before then was 15km!
“You have to remember he came from a sport with a focus on 80 minutes of intense effort and explosive bursts for 2 minutes at a time. He had to put on weight while trying to remain quick around the pitch, and took a lot of knocks. With the move to adventure racing he’s dropped weight and hardened up with lots of long rides and tramps, and of course he is just really strong.
“Adventure Racing works for me, and I think for Rich, because it’s not too structured and training becomes a part of your everyday lifestyle. If you go out for a long ride or run on a Sunday, it’s relaxed and fun, just part the daily routine. When you are preparing for a big race there is more of a focus of course, especially as you don’t want to let the team down, and then I guess then we might be doing 14/15 hours a week in training.”
McCaw first teamed up with Nichol for the Tasman Godzone in 2016, racing with another top Rugby player, Ben Meyer. Sarah Fairmaid joined the team and her experience from over 30 expedition races helped guide the team to the finish line. (Nichol said she ‘ran the team’.) Nichol remembers McCaw struggling on the more technical trails due his lack of biking experience. He’s had another 5 years now to learn and improve the wide range of new skills adventure racing demands.
Just as impressive was the impact McCaw’s participation had for Godzone, coming as it did so soon after his final match at the World Cup. Nichol said, “It was so cool, there were people everywhere wanting to see him and they had to cordon off our area at transitions.
“I remember one night riding down some quiet roads at around 3am and at every house families and kids were out on their drives with blankets and barbeques, all waiting to see him pass by and handing us Easter eggs.
“Another time we had arrived at a junction and about 40 kids were waiting for us to go right, but there was a shop on the left and we stopped for pies. As we pulled up at the shop the kids were all running towards us and we were going to get mobbed ... so we left Richie outside with them and shut the door!”
His celebrity status raised the publicity and awareness of Godzone in New Zealand to a completely new level, above and beyond what any other national adventure race has ever achieved. The team also raised over $300,000 for the Cure Kids charity. (The isport team name in this race comes from the charity set up by McCaw, Dan Carter and Ali Williams which aims to inspire and enable youth to participate in sport and be the best they can be - no matter their circumstances.)
McCaw and Nichol raced in the Fiordland Godzone too, as Team PWC, finishing a very impressive 6th overall, so McCaw has 100% full course finish record to uphold. For that race they were with Sarah Fairmaid and Bob McLachlan and the plan for Rotorua was to have the same team ... but in the end only McCaw made it!
Simone Maier came in for Fairmaid and MacLachlan was to be replaced by Aaron Prince, but he then broke his wrist at C2C, so Theo Wordsworth was a late call up. Then Nicol was locked down, so Dougal Allan was a late, late call up. All of this left McCaw with a team where he’d not raced with any of the others before.
“We felt sure the team dynamics were going to work,” said Nichol, “and Richie enjoys being with adventure racers. Everyone in the sport is very down to earth and understated, and they are really high achievers. They’ll get on well I’m sure, and, being a pilot, Richie was looking forward to his role as second navigator too. Plus, we have our super supporter, Marcel Hagener, who will look after the team.”
With a world champion as team support, two current C2C champions, and an expert navigator on his team, McCaw will have to use all the skills, tenacity and mental strength he’s learned from his rugby career and his previous adventure races. He’s the least experienced on a team who are pushing for a podium place, in the longest Godzone he’s raced so far. He’s definitely going to get the challenge he so obviously relishes from being an adventure racer.
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