Raid Gallacecia Expedition Race
Neck and Neck at the Front
Rob Howard / 13.05.2015
There is a battle royal going on at the front of Raid Gallaecia between Seagate and Haglofs Silva. The Swedish team lead for much of the first day and were caught on Illa de Arousa and since then the two teams have not been much more than minutes apart as they race on land and sea. Throughout the overnight sea paddling, orienteering and mountain biking stages the two teams have raced close together, neither having slept since the start 24 hours ago. (They will have a 3 hour mandatory top later today after the trek across Mount Pindo.)
For Seagate it makes something of a change to have such determined and capable competition. They are such a powerful and capable team that they often find themselves well out in front and captain Nathan Fa’avae regularly says they just like to race their own race. That is more easily done when they are out in front on their own and harder to do when a team is racing side by side with them. (When I have seen the team so far Fa’avae has looked strong, leading the way through the transitions and carrying the paddle bag and kit on the walks to the kayak put-in points.)
I asked him ahead of the race if the restriction stopping teams going onto the reservoir for the second paddle until daylight was likely to be a problem for them and he said, “No. On our timings we don’t think we will get there until 09.00.” ... they arrived at 09.16 ... so are slipping a bit!
As always the World Champions have prepared well and leave nothing to chance when racing if they can avoid it. They arrived in the country well ahead of the race and included Spanish racer Albert Roca into the team to help with translation issues and use his local knowledge, asking for the route book in both Spanish and English so they could check there were no translation differences. This morning they carefully checked the kayaks and rejected the first one Roca and Lynch picked up as they set off across the reservoir.
At transition they seem just a little quicker than Haglofs Silva, but only by a little. Neither team speaks much as they all know what their roles are and what needs to be done and it’s done quickly and with economy of effort.
Haglofs Silva’s performance is no surprise but shows great spirit for team dogged by recent bad luck. It’s no surprise as they are among the most experienced racers in the world and are perhaps the best team never to win the World Champs, which all the elite racers acknowledge they are capable of achieving if things go right for them in the race.
However, they’ve had bad luck in the last two World Champs, with injuries to Josefina Vikberg in both after bike crashes and less than a month before this race their captain and navigator Bjorn Rydvall had to pull out after being diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes. He has been replaced by Jari Palonen who is not a regular on the team. Despite all this they have come out fighting and are giving Seagate an intensely competitive race.
This morning the two teams had slightly different tactics. On a chilly and overcast morning Haglofs Silva wore their wetsuits, which are needed for the canyoning at the end of the kayak stage and they brought a portage trolley with them as there are several short portages along the river section this morning. Seagate chose not to bring a trolley (unless it was out of sight in a big dry bag) and kept their wet suits in their dry bags. It will be cold on the lake as there is a chill wind and the water is choppy so it may be a choice they regret.
The race is not just about these two teams however. Roca aside the leading Spanish team, Adventure Addicts are only an hour behind the leaders, which is not a big gap in a race of this length. They are in good spirits and were asking the football scores this morning, and they will hope the leaders might push each other into making mistakes.
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