All Bets Are On as Seagate Shuffle

Rob Howard / 01.04.2016

GODZone Adventure Chapter 5 starts tomorrow at midday on Kaiteriteri beach at the top of the South Island, although by the sound of it the weather won’t be ideal for a beach day as rain is predicted.

It’s a huge race, the biggest in the world unless the AR World Champs in Australia later this year tops the 71 starters, and the team list page is a healthy jumble of names and flags which scrolls down and down on your screen. There is some exceptional media interest with ex All-Black superstar Richie McCaw taking part and for the first time at this race some real uncertainty about the likely outcome.

The reason for this is ‘the Seagate Shuffle’ as the remaining team members of the most dominant AR team in the world over past years split up for the event following Nathan Fa’avae’s retirement. (He’s helped with the course setting this year.)  Seagate have won all 4 previous chapters of the race and in a way that’s not good for an event, so things are shaken up this year and it should be a very open and competitive race to follow.

There is still a Seagate team wearing the No. 1 race bib however and it’s an all-female team lead by Sophie Hart.  She is racing with Fleur Pawsay, Emile Forne and Lara Prince, and that’s a powerful team with a lot of experience and expertise … and a few very experienced family members and partners to cheer them on as well.  Seagate will still be in the mix, even after the shuffle.

So where have Stu Lynch and Chris Forne shuffled off to?  Lynch is racing with Swordfox, teaming up with his old Orion Health teammate Brent Edwards. (They were on the team which won the 2008 World Champs in Brazil.)  Forne had found his way to Team Yealands Family Wines and both teams have heaps of experience and good local knowledge and are tipped as potential winners by Race Director Warren Bates.

That’s not to say they’ll be the top NZ teams, there are plenty of others who could take the win, including Torpedo7, RebelFood, Next Generation and Bivouac Inov8.  The latter two are moving from up and coming teams into the ‘very experienced and hardened’ category and all of them have the advantage of lots of Godzone experience to draw on.

There are also quite a lot of well known AR and multisport names from the past scattered around the team lists, including Jim Cotter, Neil Jones and George Christison to name just a few.  That level of experience is going to count for a lot even if the years have taken the edge off their speed over the ground. The success of Godzone has encouraged them out to race once again, and their competitive edge will still be there I’m sure.

By this point you may be wondering about international teams at the biggest AR World Series qualifier of the year.  I’ll come onto those, but if you look at that huge team list it’s mostly kiwi flags and that is testament to the strength of adventure racing in the country. There are a lot of races in the country to choose from to prepare for Godzone, schools and university competitions encourage new young talent and teams and the profile of the sport and the top racers is higher within New Zealand than it is anywhere else.  

All of which means the strength in depth is considerable and it’s going to be hard for any visiting team to even make a top five place, let alone take the win.  No visiting team has won an expedition adventure race in New Zealand since 2001.  However, last year Columbia Vidaraid came as the world’s #1 ranked team and finished 2nd to Seagate.  (Before that team Blackheart of Australia were the highest ranked visiting team at Godzone in 4th.)

This year the international challenge is lead by Team Adventure Medical Kits, who are 3rd in the AR World Series rankings (taking on that place after their performances at Team Tecnu).  There are other very strong teams who have travelled to Kaiteriteri as well, including Mountain Designs and Paddy Palin AR from Australia, Outnorth Adventure from Sweden and Team MONARX and Team Bones – Primal Quest from the USA, but most attention will focus on the AMR team. 

They have the most realistic chance to break the kiwi stranglehold and are a fiercely competitive and ambitious team. They know how hard it will be however – the AR World Series rankings don’t count for much when expedition racing in New Zealand, and they know it.  Hats off to them for taking on the challenge.

It’s going to be a fascinating race, sure to keep the compulsive dot watchers awake for much of next week and with the peerless YB tracking they can be assured of continuous dot movement to go along with the race live coverage. [SleepMonsters don’t have a reporter at the race so we won’t be providing our regular detailed coverage. We’ll be among the dot watchers this time and provide some commentary from the comfort of home.]

Despite their shuffle this introduction to the race is still headlined by Seagate, but from tomorrow that’s past history and it’s all about the teams setting off for Godzone chapter 5.

The race is on, and it’s not a sure bet any more. Who is your money on?­

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