Discussion: GODZone Adventure Race

The weeklong expedition race started today. There is one Northern Hemisphere team of "3 Bald Eagles and one Kiwi". Seagate is leading right now along with another team, whose name I forgot.

http://live.godzoneadventure.com/

Best AR tracking website out there. Going to be a not so productive week in the office. :)

Wow, only 1 northern hemisphere team!?

Seagate and Harraways are making some major time. I don't recognize the team name Harraways as one of the international level teams that was supposed to beat Thule or even Macpac, but I recognize some names on the roster including Aaron Prince.
Agreed, Kyle. I'd like more pix and video uploaded (though it is early in the race), but the tracking and mapping and course routing is awesome.

Whitewater pics look like fun! Surprised Thule (2nd northern hemisphere team) isn't closer.

Agree too, best AR tracking to date. Lots of updates on FB also, great pictures. All RD should inspire for their coverage. Love the leaderboard, I like to think it should be standard for all ARWS. I hope the gear list is only a starter.

Did you guys see the nav decision Seagate made at CP 11? Harraways took the same route and now those two look untouchable, completely separated from the rest; if the beacons are accurate.

Thule has pulled out. No reason given yet.

This is all I could find. Hope it's nothing serious..

Thule Adventure withdraw from race
Team Thule from France and New Zealand have become the first team to officially pull out of the 2013 GODZone adventure. The surprise decision came late this afternoon as the team made their way down from CP 11 off the top of the Dingle Burn trek section. Descending rapidly down to the edge of Lake Hawea, the team made their way to Hawea Motors where they contacted Race HQ to announce their intention to quit the race.
Race Director Warren Bates says while the reasons for Thule leaving still remain unclear, he thinks the team must have made up their minds to leave the race up at CP11. “ Its obvious from the route they took down to the lake edge that's what they planned to do. It’s disappointing because they are a good team of racers, highly thought of and we felt they would be one of our top five finishers.”
The team had a blistering first day yesterday, charging through the field sharing third and fourth place together with Team Macpac.

That's too bad. Macpac can just hang and keep up the pace and stay on third by themselves now. It will be a very interesting race to see how first and second work out. Last update had Seagate 45 minutes ahead of Harraways on the river, coming into a transition. Though both teams are very experienced, the pressure on the navigator must be quite intense I think. 45 minutes doesn't allow for many errors over the rest of the course. Our US/NZ team had a slow start, but are now reeling in a couple of the back of the pack as they seem to be having a stronger time of it. It's fun to see the route choices teams make.

I read that Seagate had a few "good" hours of sleep in the dark zone but they believed Harraway's didn't have the same opportunity.

I read the description for stage 7, where the winner will likely be decided given the navigational challenges there. Sounds like a lot of fun. On the first day of a long race.

"Pinpoint accuracy is needed to find the CP's themselves. They are all hidden under small overhanging rocks or tucked into notches on the many rocky tors that litter the top of the Pisa Range."

I thought we agreed not to hide flags in AR.

That is nice coverage.

They got the rock outcroppings mapped on their Topo maps down in NZ...

http://www.topomap.co.nz/

Take a look at the Pisa Range Trek.

Awesome that those topo maps are online!

Just had a chance to check out the topo maps (while at work, no less) It's cool that it has the transparency slider at the top that you can fade in or out the satellite images. Good resolution.
By the way, the US/Kiwi team of 3 Eagles&Kiwi is hanging out at the back of the pack, and seems to have just made a major error by going in a big loop in the dark while cycling, losing 2-3 hrs and energy and esprit and their placement in the race in the process. I hope they can keep their heads up and keep slogging away.

It doesn't look like a Nav mistake as much as they just turned around and returned to the last TA. I hope everybody is OK!! Maybe they left something behind. The tracking shows that most teams went to the northwest out of the TA and around the hill instead of west and up the hill as the intended route line shows.

Yeah, you're probably right. I had thought that if they wanted to pull out, they would have backtracked, but then I actually looked at the map and saw the hill and see what you mean. Well, they pulled out of the race now it seems, so hopefully just a mechanical, or perhaps a small but significant riding injury. Yes, hopefully nothing too serious. I'll find out when racers Joe (my brother in law) and Tom get back in communication range.
Maybe now I won't waste as much time at work, because the teams in which I was interested and following are done or pulled out.

Brakes. Perhaps team dynamics as was mentioned on the website, but I'll check with Joe later.

The website is getting more interesting as the race commentators are getting more colorful in describing their views of the race. Such as with Brasilia Multisport:

"It will be interesting to see how Team Brasilia are going when they get to TA7 later today with some animated discussions between the team members on their individual racing styles last night on the Pisa Range. Kiwis and Brazilians working it out."

Sorry, but can't resist. More from Godzone's website on team updates:

"Team 2 Kiwis and 2 Brazillians (the team formerly known as Team Brasillia) have arrived in TA7. Bernard is really struggling with a strained and bruised quad. International relations might be strained a bit more."

I like this kind of coverage.