Race Start

Teams have arrived by bus at the top of Mt Buffalo, ready for the race start in 10 minutes. En route, the buses stopped at the picnic area at the bottom of the hill, where the teams unpacked their bike boxes and assembled their bikes, leaving them there ready for the start of leg 2.

Leg 1 consists of a 30km trek with 5 checkpoints which may be collected in any order. There appear to be two options for tackling the loop in either a clockwise or anticlockwise direction. The leg finishes back at the picnic area at the bottom of the hill, approx 1200m lower than the start.

The forecast rain has held off so far, although a few sprinkles have been felt in the last few moments, and the forecast for the next couple of days is not too good.

(Photo of NZ teams at XPD. Nga Rakau, 4TC, securify.co.nz and Girls on top)

Course revealed

Craig Bycroft (race director) revealed the course and handed out maps this morning. Looks like a tough course - stage three is a 85km trek and stage 5 a 210km mountain bike. Each expected to take a minimum of 20 hours for the fastest team. The race is starting at Mount Buffalo, going through Falls Creek and finishing up heading over Mount Kosciuszko and down into Thredbo. There should be some good navigational challenges and similar to last year there is a special orienteering stage which will benefit the teams with good orienteering skills. Three paddling stages are spread evenly throughout the race, two on rivers and one on a reservior.

Teams have been busy today marking up the maps and organising gear which was loaded on to the trucks at 3pm today.

An early start tomorrow - 6am on the buses for a 6 hour drive to Mount Buffalo. Race start is expected to be at around 2pm tomorrow.

Messages for the team

There should be a facility available during the race to send messages to the teams which will probably be given to them at the mid-camp. You can also send messages to my email address (stuartlynch_nz@hotmail.com) and I can pass these on whenever I see the team.

Cannonball run

Some footage from a run on the Downhill MTB course here at Threadbo. 600 m vertical descent in 5km :)

Gear Testing

Verifying that the tent a.k.a the tardis, can fit the whole team in.

Registration complete

A relatively pain free registration, gear and skills test session this morning was over in a few hours.  Teams received their race bibs and introduced themselves to all the other racers. A couple of the skills tests were located up the mountain - fortunately lift passes were included in the race packs.

 

A few hours now for some rest before the safety briefing tonight and dinner with the rest of the teams.  Another superb weather day however the forecast for poor weather on Wednesday still holds. 

Some scenes from Thredbo

Some views from around Thredbo