Last week I posted that the Expedition Africa adventure race was set to get underway in South Africa, with 40 teams from 17 countries competing. The event, which is a qualifier for the Adventure Racing World Championship to be held in Ecuador later this year, promised to be a tough one, with a course that is more than 500 km (310 miles) in length, through beautiful, yet challenging, backcountry. The race has lived up to that hype – and then some – and while most of the teams are still trying to make their way to the finish line, the podium finishers have all completed the course.The New Zealand team of Seagate claimed first place, finishing the course in a little under 81 hours. That means it took them less than three and a half days to trek, ride, and paddle their way across all 500 km. Thats a very impressive time to say the least. Coming in second place was Team Haglöfs Silva from Sweden. They were the defending champs, and finished about 2.5 hours behind Seagate. The American team of Tecnu has finished in third, with Painted Wolf finishing fourth. That team consists of three South African men and a woman from Chile.
As of this writing, those are the only teams to have completed the race. The others are still out not he course, struggling to reach the end. Some of those will have to be short coursed, as they are starting to run out of time, but quite a few will have the chance to finish the full race before they are through.
You can continue to follow all of the action, including live tracking of the teams, at the Expedition Africa website. Or look for updates on the race's Facebook page, with detailed reports at AR.co.za.
Congratulations to Seagate on the impressive win. I have no doubt they'll be one of the top teams to watch in Ecuador this November. The next big event in the AR World Series will be Untamed New England, which will take place June 17-22 in the U.S.
