Uge#2 Sprint Race
By: Ryan Hodierne
The first UGE AR Sprint race was held at the Bushtrails Environmental Education Centre in the beautiful Magaliesberg region on Saturday 03 February 2007. A large number of entrants gathered at the start of the 1st race of the series, everyone knew a fun and adventurous day lay ahead. The RED ANTS entered 3 teams who included, Ryan Hodierne & Gerrard Booyens as a male pair, Brian Gardner & Nicky Booyens as the one mixed pair, with Garry Townsend and Heidi Kalidas making up the other mixed pair.
At the start, we had the choice of doing either the short run leg or the bike leg first, most opted to get the bike leg over with, this proved to be the better option as it was a very technical section that required quite a bit of bike pushing in the heat. Having started at a quick pace, Gerrard and I tried to maintain it up the steep hills as we found ourselves accompanied by the male pair of Team Cyanosis, Nicholas & Clinton, who were pushing real hard. Having passed an arrow half way up the hill that we were unsure about, we proceeded to the top of the rocky climb only to find out we were going in the wrong direction, with all the other teams following us as everyone thought we knew where we were going. So back down the hill we went in search of the right path, Cyanosis, both mixed and male pairs, managed to find it earlier and were a good few minutes ahead, so the chase started.
We headed down some very steep and rocky descents, and soon caught up to the 2 Cyanosis pairs who were in a bit of trouble as Nic had fallen off and injured his shoulder. Gerrard and I then pushed on and got into the transition to the run leg together with the Cyanosis mixed pair of Ryno and Susan, sadly the male pair were forced to pull out, as Nic's injury wasn't looking good. The heat was taking its toll on the racers and many stopped and caught their breath under some of the shady trees in the area, it truly was a hot day!!
The run leg that followed included some pretty simple navigation, tree climbing and a bit of swimming. It was over quickly and a short navigational run section followed, that took us up a rocky outcrop and then back down into a gorge where a check point was placed on the cliff face and the only way out was a short climb up a cargo net to the top. It was then back into transition and onto the final and most exciting section, the obstacle course! We made our way through a whole lot of tyres, tunnels and muddy holes, we clambered over cargo nets, high beams and tree stumps followed by a fun little swing off a jungle gym, through the last mud holes and onto the finish.
The first male pair, Gerrard and I, finished in a time of 2hrs 00mins 01sec, the pair of Brian and Nicky finished in an impressive 3rd overall, 2nd mixed pair, with a time of 2hrs 12mins 34sec, with Garry and Heidi having a solid race, finishing 32nd overall.
An adventurous day was had by all, with the RED ANTS starting the year off on a winning note. We would like to thank Eugene and Michelle once again for an awesome race! We'll certainly look forward to the rest of the series! Thanks must also go out to our sponsors, Adventure Inc., together with Montrail, Buff, Black Diamond, Body Glide, Julbo eyewear, Bruce Reyneke Cycles and USN supplements. Thanks for all the great support and awesome products!
We look forward to an exciting year of Adventure racing!!