Red Bull Defiance
Day One at Red Bull Defiance
Press Release / 21.01.2017
At around 9°C you wouldn’t have thought it was the middle of a New Zealand summer this morning, when 66 teams-of-two boarded a barge for their spectacular cruise to Minaret Station, the start line of Wanaka’s Red Bull Defiance.
The nippy morning shaped favourable temperatures for endurance racing though, as elite and amateur teams embarked on stage one - a gruelling 43km mountain bike ride that involves a number of steep pinches and daring fast flowing descents.
Teams transitioned into a steep technical climb, before completing a daunting abseil together off a cliff into the native bush of Diamond Lake.
Spectators started to see some distance between teams by the time they make it to the Matukituki River, pushing their kayak into the water and giving it all they had for the final 20km paddle right up to the finish line at Wanaka’s waterfront.
Multisport legends Braden Currie (NZ) and Josiah Middaugh (USA) darted through the finish line 14 minutes ahead of Alex Hunt and Daniel Jones, crowning them the day one Elite Men’s champions. As it turns out, the international racing rivals do make a great team!
“This guy Josiah is an absolute legend. You race with some people and you know that they will suffer through everything you throw at them - and he’s one of them,” said Currie.
The Mixed Elite category is usually the most fiercely contested, and today was no different, as love birds Marcel Hagener and Simone Maier made 16 minutes on Richard and Elina Ussher crossing the finish line. Marcel was a true gentleman, helping carry Simone’s bike across the river when she was having issues with her legs.
“Today was a bit hard. I’m just not feeling that good. He was the puller today - he helped me heaps. It was a great course - I love it, but my legs just did not love it today.”
Elite Female winners Sia Svendsen and Joanna William showed true comradery, really looking after each other as they pushed hard to catch the other teams in their final paddle. They will enter day two with a 15-minute lead.
The unique Defiance course traverses some of greater Wanaka’s challenging terrain, across eight beautiful high country stations. For Colorado based Josiah Middaugh, it was his first time ever in Wanaka.
“Oh man the race was so intense it was hard to take the view in, but at one point we were up on a really high ridge and Braden says, ‘Hey what do you think of that view mate?’ and I’m like ‘Oh wow that’s great - it looks a lot better than your backside’. Pretty amazing place here, unbelievable!”
Looking forward to tomorrow’s final race day, Braden Currie thinks today’s time difference is “not really that big of a gap.”
“Daniel has been in the States on a scholarship for running. He’s an incredible runner like Josiah. I’m sure those two will be setting the tempo up over the Skyline and it will be up to me and old Alex to just hang on and get in that hurt box.”
In Daniel Jones’ words, the only way teams will be in with chance to be crowned one of the Elite champions tomorrow will be to “Go harder I suppose!”
You can follow the live tracking and results at www.redbulldefiance.co.nz
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