Discussion: Untamed New England 2014

One week to the start of Untamed NE 2014! Here is the race course overview for future reference. (Hot pancakes - wow!)



Lots of Attackpointers in this one, and the RD Untamedadventur is an APer too. Here are a few:

Attack from Above - Browner, DoubleDownon_11, Escondido, Reeder (not on AP but frequently mentioned here)

Untamed Canada/Clinique du Pied Equilibre - Jackson5

Raid International Gaspésie/Xact Nutrition - Harps, Relentless

Team Untamed New England/MadAthlete.com - JayXC, Shrek Feet

London Untamed - Wokitoki

Dart-Nuun - DARTvg

A number of talented teams will be coming from outside North America. Our Wilderness Traverse champions Benoit Letourneau, Ryan Atkins (World's Toughest Mudder), Ursula Tracz and Vincent Meunier will be racing as O-Store.ca.

Who else?

Lots of excitement coming up!

Live tracking will be here.
http://www.pinnacletracking.com/Live/?une14

Here's a more comprehensive list- http://ar.attackpoint.org/eventdetail.jsp/event_15...

Others not on the list but racing: Sony on Rev3 and Mhayz on DART.

I'll be racing with Raidpulse.com
JayXC didn't mention his own teammate Shrek Feet, who wasn't listed above. :)

Thanks, I'll add her.

DART-nuun:
DARTvg, Ryan VanGorder is racing with Hayes, Mari and Ryan O.

I'll be racing with my teammates - journey-Altra zero drop racing

My predictions based mainly on 3 factors (experience (at this type of race), female athlete, and navigation). These are just meant to be fun, please don't take offense. I only ranked the Coed Elite field. I don't know a number of teams, and I ranked them lower because of that, but I could be way off, but typically if I don't recognize an athlete or 2, that means that I haven't raced against them much so they probably shouldn't be ranked high anyways.

1 #33 Team Columbia Vidaraid Bilbao, Spain
2 #1 Team France Font Romeu, France
3 #2 O-Store.ca Ottawa, Canada
4 #3 Dart Nuun Seattle, WA
5 #32 Peak Performance Are, Sweden
6 #36 Team Raidlight Paris, France
7 #7 Team Untamed New England - MadAthlete.com Kingston, NH
8 #37 Team Sweco Adventure Karlstad, Sweden
9 #5 Untamed Canada - Clinique du pied EquilibreQuebec, Canada
10 #4 Raid Intl Gaspesie - x:act NUTRITION Ontario, Canada
11 #29 Mundial St-Raymond - Raid Gaspésie Quebec, Canada
12 #30 Odyssey Adventure Racing Vienna, VA
13 #42 GOALS ARA Philadelphia, PA
14 #23 Executive Athletes Millbury, MA
15 #22 Checkpoint Zero - Tech4o Marietta, GA
16 #6 Raidpulse.com Quebec, Canada
17 #41 Walhalla Asuncion, Paraguay
18 #40 Untamed Adventure - No Boundaries MediaCharlottesville, VA
19 #8 Team NYARA - Krell Adventures Philadelphia, PA
20 #38 Teenek Racing Mexico Hidalgo, Mexico
21 #35 Team NYARA Jersey City, NJ
22 #21 BreatheMag.com Ontario, Canada
23 #20 Attack from Above Ontario, Canada
24 #28 London Untamed Ontario, Canada
25 #31 Carpe Vitam West Chester, PA
26 #39 Timber Wolves Bedford, NH
27 #25 Guambras: Powerade-Explorer Quito, Ecuador
28 #24 Finalin Quito, Ecuador

https://www.facebook.com/Kineticgear/photos/a.7102...

I can't understand why this picture is popping up on dart boards all over Ecuador :-)

Ecuadorians are little people. I wasn't about to put You and Will on the bottom of any lists!

Hey all, I'm sitting here at Race HQ, getting ready for the Adventure Symposium on Tuesday. So far, nobody has asked any questions to the panel! So, if you have any questions you want to ask the assorted Adventure Racers we'll have assembled, post up here, or email me at Todd@untamedne.com

and guess who will shooting pics/video and recording audio, and has a Pepsi in there pack

Love the predictions KP! FUN. This girl (this is only my 4th expedition) on #7 may not have as much experience as the other amazing girls but may be the most excited!! Does that count?? HA! Lets see how those predictions pan out ;)

The Canadian teams are going to do *way* better than that! Ha! :)

Bash, I'll do my best to ensure that my Canadian team (Raidpulse.com) does better than that. I think we can! :)

Wow Kyle. That is the most complete set of predictions for a race that I've ever seen. Nice work. It will definitely help set a fire to the lower-ranked team members on AP to prove you wrong. Good luck to you all. It will be a challenging event.

Fascinating what you chose as the primary elements for the win--especially the female. I have heard in some circles as "the girl" being necessary equipment with a measure of disdain. This throws out all disdain and says, her ability and success is deeply critical and not ancillary. Feels like a step forward for women in the sport. And if I may add, Michigan girls are strong, smart and scrappy. And there are a few in that list. ;)

Course is revealed...

LosDobos is onsite writing for the Breathe Flashblog; he always provides great coverage. This time he's going to do more live reporting and less analysis of the map and trackers so that will be our job here on AP. :)

Some key points from Pete from the race briefing:

- There are 3 course cutoffs: Thursday night, Friday night and Saturday night. Teams missing any of these will be placed onto shortened courses.
- There is a dark zone at the white water rafting section, and that part of the course will be closed between 1830 and 1000 on both Friday and Saturday nights. This is for obvious safety reasons, although they had to extend it (it was originally going to reopen at 0500) due to a last minute change in the dam release schedules on the river.

what I can gather from the flyover. corrections welcome if I missed anything!

Leg 1 Stage 1: Paddle, Lake Crossing, 5mi
Leg 1 Stage 2: Trek, Little Kineo Loop, 6mi, +930'
Leg 1 Stage 3: Paddle, Bay Crossing, 3.5mi
Leg 1 Stage 4: Trek, Kineo Island Loop, 4mi, +1000'
Leg 1 Stage 5: Paddle, Lake Crossing, 16mi

Leg 2 Stage 1: Bike, Barren Range, 44mi, +4600'
Leg 2 Stage 2: Trek, Orienteering Relay (and pancake eating competition)
Leg 2 Stage 3: Bike, 100mi Wilderness, 30mi, +2500'

Leg 3 Stage 1: Packraft/Trek, Lost World, 33mi, +4500'

Leg 4 Stage 1: Paddle, Lake Crossing, 23mi
Leg 4 Stage 2: Trek, Urban Orienteering (relay? not sure)
Leg 4 Stage 3: Trek, Moose Mtn, 12mi, +3200'

Leg 5 Stage 1: Bike, Indian Pond, 29mi, +1200
Leg 5 Stage 2: WW Raft, Guided, Kennebec Gorge, 5mi
Leg 5 Stage 3: WW Raft, Unguided, Lower Kennebec Gorge, 7mi
Leg 5 Stage 4: Trek/Packraft, Dead River Loop, 9mi, +800'
Leg 5 Stage 5: Bike, The Forks, 13mi, +1600'

Courtesy of LosDobos:

This is straight from the race booklet.
The official race finish is at Northern Outdoors main lodge; the course closes Sunday June 22 at 1030. Teams crossing the finish after 1030 will not be officially ranked.

Cut Off #1: Teams must arrive at CP19 (completing the orienteering relay) by 1900 on Thursday June 19th. Missing this cut off places teams on Alternate Course #1 and they will bike directly to CP36, bypassing Leg 3 entirely.

Cut Off #2: Arrive at CP36 (complete Leg 3) by 1900 on Friday June 20th. Missing this cut off will place teams on Alternate Course #2 and they will be shuttled to CP42, bypassing Leg 4 entirely.

Cut Off #3: Arrive at CP44 by 1830 on Saturday June 21st. Teams missing this cut off will be on Alternate Course #3 and will bike directly to the finish line, bypassing the whitewater rafting and packrafting in Leg 5.

The race has started!

I will need to inform friends, family and work that I will be glued to my PC, tablet or phone for the next 4 days. :)

Let the lowered productivity begin, click, refresh, click, refresh. you all probably know this, but thought that you all would like to use the trail mail feature: http://www.pinnacletracking.com/Live/TrailMail.asp...

(Ahem, Michigan folks! Show your support!!!)

Love the prologue idea, is this signature to American expeditions, or just UNE?

Teams coming off the prologue, and into the paddle.
Was a bit wet out there...
https://www.flickr.com/photos/untamedadventure/144...

Seems like there is going to be a major wait at the ropes for some. Didn't UNE give out time credits in 2012 for this? Wonder if we will have to keep track on time credits this week!

While waiting for the ropes in 2012, you were off the clock. Not sure how that affected things later. We spent the better part of the first night waiting for the ropes.

Perhaps my favorite view from Control 8, where teams will be getting to in a few minutes.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/untamedadventure/142...

That's just looking down from the control

No time credit at the ropes and there is a major bottleneck. I am not sure I understand why Grant did this. This type of design has always left me wondering.

RDs seem to do it over and over again.

Yeah - hate to be negative, but this is particularly frustrating to watch when this edition is being touted as the 'most epic yet' and there are teams that have been stuck up there for over two hours within the first 6 hours of the race. For teams that will be working just to make the cut-off's (ie. the majority of the pack) it kinda sucks.

Forgive me - protective boyfriend voice speaking... :)

Will and I were looking at the course overview last night and his first comment was "that's gonna be a nasty mess at the ropes"

... of course I argued with him stating that there must be some provision we don't see... Lot's of routes... series of short ropes on slabs and via ferratta ... something so that the delays between racers is minimal.... optional by-pass with MINIMAL penalty.. something for sure
... apparently (as is not uncommon) I was wrong :-)

Huge bummer about the ropes bottleneck. I agree with Leanimal and STORM on this one. This early in a race that can hurt a team (racing for the poidum or just the cut offs) a lot.

is there a reason that Team France is called Team France instead of Thule?

missing a critical member I believe

Are the Thule members of Team France full time professional athletes? Not just trainers or coaches, but solely athletes? It's a naive question, I know. The top athletes I know all have real jobs, but I remember a comment last year that suggested this.

Anybody take a look at the map to get up to CP15?

http://www.breathemag.ca/flashblog/2014/06/18/maps...

From my perspective here at home (maybe racers got more intel), seems like too much information is missing for teams to make a smart choice. Looks like luck really played into teams getting through here...

http://www.breathemag.ca/flashblog/2014/06/19/the-...

I agree Kyle. With course testing it would be known if there are trails connecting there and that info. should have been passed on but in the end maybe there weren't any trails connecting and therefore the maps are pretty accurate meaning everyone is in the same boat and luck won't play a part. Let's hope that is the case.

At the moment, the top 10 teams are the same teams Kyle predicted for top 10 although not in the same order. His former teammate is kicking butt on Peak Performance, and O-Store.ca isn't having a great race so far. The 3 top Canadian teams are in reverse order of the prediction, and rookie southern Ontario team, Attack from Above, is in 16th, outperforming their predicted rank (which I expected after the terrific team training they had done). But we have to give Kyle props: it's awesome to get the top 10 right! So far, anyway. :)

Take a look at the Top 9 through CP 25 (which I think is the end of the 1st bike ride and start of the Abenaki PackRaft / Trek).

http://www.pinnacletracking.com/Live/CPDetails.asp...

There are 2 'in' times. Which one is accurate?

Also this list doesn't show some other teams which the tracking map shows ahead of DART (9th place).

This is harder than racing. I give you die-hard followers/trackers mega kudos!!

I've been interpreting the earlier "in" time as the "in time" and the later one as the "out time". But I've been busy over the past couple of days so I'm not watching the trackers closely to see if that makes sense. Someone else here can probably do better!

Oh, and the reason I think that is that the ranking is based on the later time, which would make sense if it was the time when the team left the TA.

Kyle, I wondered how you would feel being on this side of the screen. Following expedition races online, they eventually become a video game to us armchair AR fans. Have to remind ourselves that those dots are actually tired people.

Hmm, I don't see any teams ahead of DART on the tracking map who aren't listed ahead of them on the leaderboard.

Oh, I see. Odyssey Adventure Racing is going backwards on the route into CP25, which is confusing (for us) since they are meeting trekking teams head-on.

Oh, the teams 'ahead' of DART were still biking towards CP 25 so they were behind!

Top 9 through CP 25 (which I think is the end of the 1st bike ride and start of the Abenaki PackRaft / Trek).

O-Store hasn't updated at CP 25 yet, but the tracking shows they were #10. All of my top 10 predictions are in the top 10 at CP 25. HA! :) Nothing is locked up yet. A few for crap shoots like the route choices to CP 15 and these will get all mixed up again.

#1 Peak Performance (5) 0904 (I underestimated the skill of Staffan. Mikael has struggled the past few years since he lost his navigator Per to team Thule) Where has he been the last few years? http://staffanbjorklund.com/

~90 mins

#2 France (2) 1041 (+1.5 hours)
#3 Raidlight (6) 1051 (+1.5 hours)
#4 Sweco (8) 1051 (+1.5 hours) (fast starters)

~30 mins

#5 Columbia (1) 1126 (+2.5 hours) (strong closers)

~90 mins

#6 Raid intl Gaspésie (10) 1308 (+4.5 hours)
#7 Untamed Canada (9) 1312 (+4.5 hours)
#8 Untamed NE 1320 (7) (+4.5 hours)

~30 mins

#9 Dart 1406 (+5 hours)

~30 mins

#10 O-Store 1430(guess) (+5.5 hours)

I think maybe you didn't see the props I gave you for that above. :)

Btw you are becoming an excellent online spectator. This isn't easy for a rookie. Well done. ;)

So who is thinking about the Rafting Dark Zone?!?!?! I crunched some number, and I am thinking these are the top possible outcomes (this all assumes the Urban O isn't more than 1 hour)...

A) Only Peak Performance gets through by the skin of their teeth tomorrow night (Friday at 1830). This would put the race for the remaining top 10 spots up in the air.

B) No one gets through. The win would be up for grabs by any of the top 10 as the dark zone is so long the difference between 9 hours of sleep and 4 hours won't matter much for the final 8 hours of racing.

C) Peak, Raidlight, Sweco, Columbia, France all get through. Whoever doesn't get through from this bunch will be game over. This would then test which of the 5 teams could manage their sleep monsters the best for the final 7 hours of racing. They all would be going into night 3 with no sleep. YIKES!! Putting the winner across the line at 0230 SATURDAY. A smart move would be for teams to catch a hour of so of sleep tonight (Thursday night), but with the 'finish line essentially being tomorrow before sundown, a team might not be able to benefit from it.

LEG/STAGE TOD Start Day TOD Finish Day
Packraft 1130 THUR 0045 FRI
Paddle 0145 FRI 0700 FRI
Urban O 0700 FRI 0800 FRI
Trek 0800 FRI 1300 FRI
Bike 1400 FRI 1810 FRI
Raft Guide 1830 FRI 1920 FRI
Raft 1920 FRI 2030 FRI
Packraft 2030 FRI 0000 SAT
Bike 0030 SAT 0230 SAT

And teams not leaving CP 25 (start of Abenaki Packraft/Trek) by 0300FRI will probably get stuck in the Dark Zone on Saturday night!

This info from BREATHE BLOG changes everything potentially allowing all of top 10 to be able to get to Rafting Friday. 23 mile paddle to a 10 mile road ride! I wonder when racers get this news, because if you are teams 6th-16th you may stop to sleep tonight and miss getting on the raft on Friday thinking that you will be missing it anyways!!

"Due to high winds in the forecast, race management have elected to not have racers paddle from TA3/CP36 to Greenville. They will instead bike down to Greenville for the urban orienteering section."

And, just read about Peak struggling with false summits. And, if I am reading the trackers correctly, hoo wee, things could really change.

Finally got a chance to catch up. Some things I find puzzling and I'm sure we'll have to wait for race end to get the 'scoop'... but this is very exciting. Peak is killing it! Let's see if the great nav holds up on little sleep!?!

Too many people to cheer for in this race. It hurts my head!

Heaps of tracker artifacts teleporting teams back and forth at random intervals - making me lose my mind trying to figure out breadcrumbs and sometimes even a team's location. Never seen this before with Delorme/Pinnacle.

Really impressed with the race Alex and the rest of Untamed Canada are having so far, and Peak Performance are seriously for real...so far. Stephan told me this is his first time navigating in an expedition race, but he's been nailing it up to this point.

Looks like Goals ARA and Attack from Above have opted to keep their packrafts in their packs and run the road from 26 towards 27. Such a waste of a great packraft section. :)

:)

Day 1 Summary Video from Breathe Mag - great for those who haven't been able to keep up with all the great coverage. Also, lots of Canadian content.

What a lineup at the the rope section!

More video from day one
http://youtu.be/5cYg10WcSSw

It looks like nationalities are coming into play. The French teams are together and the Canadian teams are together coming off the mountain.

Wow. This is exciting!

Looks like less than 2.5 hrs separating the top 5 teams leaving the Urban -O!!

It's a mad dash to the White-Water cutoff! No-Sense saving it for the finish if you can make the cut-off and drop your 'chasers'!

WOW! Grant destroyed the top 10 teams on the 'Lost Trek.' 53 KMs in 24 hours (2.2 kph!!) Looks like this is the defining leg to the race thus far.

first 7 teams through ranked on time on Lost Trek...

Rank Team Time Time Behind
1 O-Store 20:17 0
2 Columbia 20:45 0:28
3 UntamCan 21:24 1:07
4 France 23:07 2:50
5 Peak 23:57 3:40
6 Raidlight 25:30 5:13
7 Sweco 26:24 6:07

TOP TEN at end of Lost Trek:

1 1 #33 Columbia 0811

60 mins

2 5 #32 Peak 0903 (-1 hour)

45 mins

3 2 #1 France (-1.5 hours)

60 mins

4 3 #2 O-Store.ca 1045 (-2.5 hours)
5 9 #5 Untamed Canada 1045 (-2.5 hours)

45 mins

6 6 #36 Raidlight 1215 (-4 hours)

60 mins

7 4 #3 Dart 1320 (-5.5 hours)
8 8 #37 Sweco 1330 (-5.5 hours)

30 mins

9 7 #7 Untamed New England 1400 (-6 hours)

Not yet in...

10 10 #4 Raid Intl Gaspesie

It's 1430 in Maine. Dark Zone starts in 4 hours @ 1830. Can the top guys finish up the trek and do 40k MTB leg in 4 hours? The map makes the ride look flat, but the course notes say 1200 feet of climb so it is mostly little rollers. I think Columbia can do it. Peak will have to really hammer!!

Dark Zone Time Credits and Bonuses from Breathe Blog:

"Note that there is a Dark Zone before the whitewater rafting section for safety reasons. Teams must leave CP44 by 1830 or they will be held until 1030 the next day. Teams stopped by the DZ will camp at CP44. Time credits will be given to any teams who are stopped by this DZ, with the time credit extending from when they arrive to CP44 (after 1830) until 1030 the next morning.

Any teams making it through CP44 ahead of the DZ on Friday will receive a 6 hour time bonus; this adjusts for the fact the chasing teams will be resting off-the-clock, potentially for a long time, and be moving much more quickly the next morning."

Soooo.. make the DZ clear the WW and take a 5 hour nap? :-)

Wonder why the 10:30 start... 4.5 to 5 hours after daybreak? .... maybe they don't open the dam until 10:00 on Saturdays? (Joe, the damn weekend guy is always hungover until about 10:00 on Sat?) :-)

Interesting. It's hard to make these things fair but where a dark zone is deemed necessary for safety, that is probably about as fair as you can make it. It's going to be quite a party at CP44!

Pete mentioned this was was related to a last-minute change to the dam schedule. Grant had expected the dark zone to end earlier in the morning when he set the course.

Columbia just left on bikes. 3 hours and 20 mins to get on the water!!!

Definitely a tough call on credits and bonuses. Ideally if EVERYONE bitches then you probably got it right... you'll never make everyone happy, so everyone unhappy is likely the fairest solution! :-)

This is unrelated to the darkzone conversation but ...... Was the conservation project chopping, hauling and stacking wood? If so I think it's awesome! I wonder if Grant has listened in on some of our AP conversations regarding what we consider training.....;-)

I guess the DZ options are:

1) No dark zone (safety, liability and/or permission issues)

2) 16-hour DZ with no time credit (no chance of competing with anyone who beat the DZ, neutralizes earlier gains over teams behind)

3) 16-hour DZ with full time credit based on arrival time (allows very leisurely transition, long rest, etc. - penalizes teams who beat the DZ). I've done a race where the DZ time credit was supposed to start after we completed our transition but they ended up bending the rules to allow us to get out sleeping bags, food, etc. so we wouldn't sit there freezing all night.

4) What Grant did - with variations on the bonus time.

I'm not sure I could think of any better solution for the given course design.

@Ang, if so, you would have crushed it! :) I would expect that AMC proposed the conservation project.

Have you guys noticed the very large backpacks that Alex Provost and team are using? Must have made the bushwhacking last night a bit more bearable compared to the teams with wing-dings handing all over the place.

Also...

I can't believe how many teams are carrying 2 piece paddles!! YUCK!

Ugh! Epic should offer 10% off 4-piece paddles to UNE competitors. I'll bet they'd sell a lot of them to survivors of this trek. :)

Interesting observation re Untamed Canada. They're very familiar with dense bush.

A photo on Facebook shows the Lily Bay Mountain CP35 as thick and gnarly. Know wonder it was such slow going up there.

Go Columbia! I've been a fan since they crushed Gold Rush Motherlode a couple of years ago, the year of the fire.

I agree with Bash on Grant's solution. The tipping point will be the 6 hour bonus. If, say, Columbia (and maybe Peak, for eg) are happy with it and everyone else is pi$$ed off then I'd say he missed the mark.....
whereas if it were 2 hours and, say,... Columbia and maybe Peak (?) were moaning and everyone else was moaning.... Bingo, you hit the target!! :-)

I agree with the concept. I think you need to weigh in the length of the stoppage, the amount of the course covered prior to the DZ and (perhaps most important) the amount and difficulty of the course AFTER the DZ.

I think Kyle indicated about 7 hours after the DZ? Looks pretty straightforward too. So if only one team makes the DZ with a 6 hour bonus - that's the finish line, even if the next team is 5 minutes behind but misses the cutoff.
... maybe I'm missing something? ... well, I'm definitely missing something, but maybe I also lack info on the last bit of the course ;-)

Oh No.
If the tracking is accurate right now, it looks like Columbia may have blown by a CP and are now looking for it south of where it is?! :-(

What I thought would be a certain DZ beater is now up in the air.

Apparently I CAN get my heart rate up sitting in a chair!

!!!

Agreed with your point above, FB. The original rules were different btw. When the dark zone was supposed to run from 7 p.m. to 5 a.m., teams caught by the DZ were going to be given a time credit of their total DZ time minus 3 hours. I guess when the potential DZ got up to 16 hours, they re-evaluated.

Nothing personal but I hope Columbia misses the DZ cut-off so we have an exciting race for the podium, all the way to the finish!

Looks like they may see Peak soon! Will make for a great finish.

I just feel for them after soooo much hard work. They could end up with no lead heading into tomorrow am!?!

and a handful of teams within an hour or so behind them. I hope all the other teams (AKA the Canucks :-) ) are pushing HARD for the DZ to minimize the time credit gap

Columbia is leading because they didn't sleep on the 2nd night so they were gambling on "winning" the dark zone bonus. Stephan of Peak Performance told Los Dobos that they didn't think anyone could make the DZ so his team was gambling on the opposite. They slept 2+ hours last night so they could race more quickly with a clearer head today. Both teams (and others further back) chose which risks to take and worked hard in different ways so we'll see how it turns out!

Ack, we don't have the map showing the CP Columbia is currently searching for. LosDobos! Please find wifi! (We've become SO spoiled by Breathe Mag.)

We were dying for the same info...so we melted and contacted Dobos on Facebook...no word yet. Yes, we're so spoiled by his great coverage. I feel ill for Columbia, searching around for a CP that is on a straight road that goes right to the TA. Not sure why the CP is there...

I assume it is off the road on some feature they had to find at the proper location along the straight road. Perhaps the lack of sleep is catching up with them - or maybe the CP is gone or something. Peak Performance has arrived now so we will see. I hope Columbia's latest track is a GPS error...?

Without the map of this section, it's tough to know exactly but our hunch is that there might be a few CPs which force teams to the east, south toward Little Indian Pond, and then NW to the TA. If this is the case, firing this bit off in the next 45 minutes seems out of the question. So much conjecture without knowing the CP locations?!?! Exciting to follow never the less.

Are there non-numeric CPs in between? We have the map with CP42 and we know CP44 is the start of the raft. So I thought we were just looking for CP43.
http://www.breathemag.ca/flashblog/2014/06/20/maps...

Now Peak Performance is moving in a non-forward way as well?

Meanwhile back in the mountains, it isn't looking good for the 7 p.m. cut-off at CP36. Most teams remaining in the race will be short coursed. Raid International Gaspésie will make it and that is probably all - just the top 10.

And agreed, the leaders seem to be heading to Big Indian Pond, as Leanimal surmised. The blue line isn't the route.

looks like France is about to join the mystery CP43 party! this leg was titled "Indian Pond" biking so maybe Grant conveniently left out a relevant adjective.

it's 1815 local race time, looks like Kyle's DZ scenario B is coming true:

"B) No one gets through. The win would be up for grabs by any of the top 10 as the dark zone is so long the difference between 9 hours of sleep and 4 hours won't matter much for the final 8 hours of racing. "

Phatty was thinking maybe they grabbed 43 on the side of the road there and possibly the rest of the road was out of bounds. Not sure why but it's a possibility so the only way around is the direction they are headed. I don't think anyone will make it and it's going to be a hammer fest tomorrow morning after 16 hours of rest. Columbia will be gutted about searching around for that CP but I suppose that's racing.

Given that all leaders will arrive after 18:30, they will get different time credits depending on arrival time. So everyone gets to remain in the position they've earned so far. Columbia's gamble of racing a 3rd day without sleep may have been worth a try but it may also explain their difficulty in finding that CP.

Where are Columbia and PP going?

Not sure but here's a clue: There is a CP 43B.
http://www.breathemag.ca/flashblog/2014/06/20/map-...

All 3 leaders are tracked in that general area of 43B, with Team France the closest.

Conjecture: All 3 leaders turned around in the same general vicinity of this one road, though Columbia took a tour before leaving the area. So maybe they changed the course?

Never mind, I see that they are making their way back. I can't wait to see the race maps from Los Dobos.

LegendaryRandy's video of the top 5 teams coming off the mountain trek. Some folks (especially Europeans) aren't so sure that bushwhacking through dense forest is their cup of tea.

Arrival at Dark Zone:

1) Columbia Vidaraid - 20:18
2) Peak Performance - 20:42
3) Team France - 21:12

Looks like O-Store.ca should get in around 23:30 in 4th.

But hey, look at Jackson5's interesting route choice on the bike ride to the dark zone. In the absence of a map of this section, Untamed Canada #5 is giving us an indication of where the CPs might be. They are in 5th place.

Raidlight started the bike leg in 6th, half an hour behind Untamed Canada in 6th. They probably saw Untamed Canada backtracking after going to 43B but they are continuing on the same route taken by the lead teams. I wonder if Untamed Canada is going to Greenville for food. It looks like they could do that and then take Dyer Road up to Big Indian Pond and continue to CP44.

Did I miss something what happened to Mundial St-Raymond?


Through CP #36 at 6/20/2014 20:54 Mundial St-Raymond - Raid Gaspésie (#29) Unofficial

Lyne is out. From their Facebook page (along with Google translation because I'm too lazy to write an English version!):

Salut! Tout va bien jai du abandonne mes trois mousquetaires suites à d immense ampoule sous la plante des mes deux pieds . Le leg 3 a été beaucoup plus compliqué non à cause des superbes qualités de Dan a nous amener toujours pile point sur le PC mais au fait que les sections de pacraft on du se faire par détour à pieds car le vent etAit horrible. Nous avons du nous arrête cette nuit pour un dodo...Nous sommes repartie à 5h du matin pour les sommets. Les ampoules ont finalement eu le dessus je ne peux presque plus marcher. Le moral des gars est super il s ont reparti sans moi mais je suis avec eux en pense! PS la section de cano a été changé pour du vélo de montagne , ce que les gars ne savent pas encore ..ils seront heureux à leur arrive à la transition t3!
Hi! All goes well. I had to leave my three musketeers suites of huge bulb on the soles of my feet. The leg 3 was not much more complicated because of the superb qualities of Dan we always bring battery update on the PC but the fact that one of the sections pacraft be done by turning on foot because the wind was horrible. We had to stop for a night sleep. We distributed at 5am for the vertices. The bulbs have finally got over I can hardly walk. The morale of the guys is great it s have left without me but I think with them! PS section cano was changed to mountain biking, what the guys do not know yet .. they will be happy to happen to them in the transition t3!!

No stop in Greenville for Untamed Canada but they are taking Dyer Rd. up to Big Indian Pond.

LosDobos has just posted the mystery maps showing CP43B (which we'd already seen), CP43 (the one we'd wondered about) and CP44.
http://www.breathemag.ca/flashblog/2014/06/20/maps...

It will be interesting to see how the different routes to CP43 turn out for Raidlight and Untamed Canada.

Re: European bushwhacking, reminds of Bash's comment from ARWC France.

http://www.attackpoint.org/discussionthread.jsp/me...

" the trekking is all on trails. So it's a Euro race, not a Canadian race."

And not an American race either!

We've mostly been watching the leaders but tonight I'm thinking about friends on Untamed New England and Raid International Gaspésie who are on the trek before the bike to the dark zone. They're mixed in with short course teams now so it's hard to keep an eye on them on the map. Based on what we saw in Randy's video, I'm guessing that the long pack raft / mountain trek leg really beat people up but they're still looking strong.

LosDobos just chatted with Raid International Gaspésie.
http://www.breathemag.ca/flashblog/2014/06/20/team...

Harps said it was the worst bushwhacking he's ever seen. Given what we did together at Untamed NE in 2010, that is really saying something. I remember stepping off a 2 meter cliff that I couldn't see. Fortunately, I was caught by dense pointy trees before I hit the ground.

Speaking of the long trek, I'm sending even more positive thoughts in the direction of friends in the area of CP35, including southern Ontario teams Attack from Above and London Untamed. They and other teams in that area have been out for more than 24 hours so hopefully they're doing OK for food. They'll have been wet from pack rafting, chilly from wind and cool temperatures, and tired from fighting their way through dense bush. Stay strong - you're all doing so well!

@Bash. Don't worry too much about AFA and being wet from packrafting. I don't think they pulled out those expensive rafts too much. They have been on their feet for 99% of this section. :)

In that case, I'll just feel sorry for them for spending $900 on those rafts! ;) Also, I'll bet their feet don't feel so great by now.

Hmm, Raidlight ended up taking a different route to CP43 too - but not the same as Untamed Canada. Unfortunately, Untamed Canada's GPS track is a little messed up so it's hard to know exactly what happened. Their track doesn't show them going up to CP43 but surely that's not right...?

As per above...
http://www.breathemag.ca/flashblog/2014/06/21/crea...

Yeah, I was just looking at that and you are right it doesn't look like they went to CP43. I REALLY hope that is not right but it seems that their tracker was updating frequently at that time. No word from anyone yet and Dobos didn't mention that it was strange that their tracker didn't go there. Mmmmm.

I think the CP may have been misplaced (or mismarked on the map) down on the road (DYER?) and they found it on 'the way to it'? If you look at Dart they did the exact same thing.

That's what I'm hoping! :-)

Yes, they got 43...spoke with them at the DZ camp. Tracker snafu is all.

From fb on team Attack from Above:

"Caught a glimpse of our team this morning at CP36. They're all in good spirits and are on their way to a 50km bike - hoping to make the cutoff for rafting this evening......."

Glad to hear that! :)

Looks like they are at the raft!

great job AFA!!

So is Osprey the last team on the full course?
… Not a chance I'm attempting that full name…

We met up with AFA this morning at CP36 (as mentioned above).

Storm: Heather is a Rockstar!!

The whole team looked really good considering the trek they just came off of and they are super happy for all the messages people have been sending their way.

They mentioned they tried to packraft but after getting about 20 meters from shore, determined it was really unsafe due to the whitecaps and pretty cold water.

Yes, yes she is! So proud of her! :)

Grant must LOVE the frenchy whining, sarcasm intended or not.

Squirt! I didn't know you were there. Please tell the team we are thinking about them pretty much all the time this week. They are doing SO well in their first exped race. :)

And the winner is: Columbia Vidaraid!

2nd place is Team France by just 3 minutes over 3rd place Peak Performance!

4) O-Store.ca
5) Untamed Canada
6) Sweco
7) DART-Nuun

Times on the leaderboard are being dark zone-adjusted as teams come in.
http://www.pinnacletracking.com/Live/Leaderboard.a...

So far these teams were all included in Kyle's Famous Top 10 Forecast - and he had 4 of the top 5 correct too. Untamed Canada made the top 5 rather than DART-Nuun.

Top U.S. team was 7th. I guess home field advantage didn't play a big role!

Bash - yes we made sure to mention that there were folks on attackpoint cheering them on!! :)

Thank you! :)

Fun with Pack Rafting (a LegendaryRandy film):

All teams in!

Congrats, all!

Well done. Looking forward to some great stories/reports!

Here are some stories on the TA! podcast.
http://adventureraceworld.podomatic.com/entry/2014...

So quick - thanks! By the way, if the racers are wondering why there wasn't much discussion here on Attackpoint, it's because the coverage of various types was good so we didn't have to try to explain the race to one other. :) I know a lot of us were obsessing over your dots, cheering your progress and hoping all was well with you. Glad you all made it out of the woods in one piece and really look forward to hearing your stories!

What Bash said :) Awesome job everyone who raced and congrats to all!
Enjoy well deserved rest and we're looking forward to reading the reports:)

... and a good number of the people who would be in the AP discussion were out on the course!!

can anyone help - how did teams currently ranked 15th through 20th (who were shortcoursed earlier) finish ahead of teams ranked 21 through 27th, that were not shortcoursed until a later point in the race?

You'll have to check with organizers but that's something we noticed too and assumed it was an error yet to be fixed.

Ya it must be a glitch.

Thanks to all APers for cheering for our team. What a fantastic community. Race report to come soon.

Looking forward to it. Congratulations on your fantastic performance! :)

@KyleRPeter We used Hyperlite Mountain Gear 3400 Windrider packs (http://www.hyperlitemountaingear.com/packs/3400-se...) specifically for the legs where we had to carry the packrafts and everything else. We where able to fit everything --really everything-- in the packs so nothing standing out which indeed made the bushwack "easier". We still had food and things in the big mesh and side pockets so it worked great.

I was amazed that the packs where still in top condition after the Lost World trek, these are made for serious conditions. I highly recommend HMG products.

Didn't HMG have a table two years ago at UNE before the race showing their dry bags and packs?

Yes they where there 2 years ago.

#UNE14 Race report... en français:

http://advracers.blogspot.ca/2014/07/edition-2014-...

Great Pics Alex!

Now I have to get my kids to translate it to me. :-)

Right click on the page and select Translate.

Thanks MRAPhil! Made for a funny read, but understandable.