Winners of Swazi Xtreme
Team ’uge.cyanosis are very proud to announce that the team won this weekend’s Swazi Xteme over about 330km, against some very tough competition. The team comprised of Clinton Mackintosh, Nicholas Mulder, Eugene Botha and Debbie Gerrand. Cyanosis were not considered as favourites for the race as Eugene and Debbie were new to the team, have not raced in three years and untested at the top level of the sport in this country. The Swazi Xtreme is considered to be one of the top 2 adventure races in southern Africa, with an 8-year history. This year a few changes to course design and rules allowed for a very technical and challenging race for any team wanting to finish on the podium. This included the addition of optional checkpoints along the main course, with the overall winner being decided by which team visited the highest number of optional CPs. By the end of the first day (Friday), ’uge.cyanosis found themselves tied in first place with about 5 other teams (out of a field of approx 45), all of whom had passed all optional points up till that stage within the cut-off at 18:00. This changed through the first night however, as only Team ’uge.cyanosis and Team Salomon Pro (Martin Dreyer, John Collins, Jeannie Bomford and Ryno Griesel) continued to visit all optional points, leaving Team McCain Adventure Addicts (Graham Bird, Tatum Prins, Hano Smit, Patric Mosterd) in third.
Towards the afternoon of the second day (Saturday), Team ’uge.cyanosis realised that they had to take a chance if they wanted to win the race, due to the phenomenal raw speed that Salomon Pro would undoubtedly show on the morning of the third day. The team decided to risk everything in order to collect 2 additional points on top of a distant mountain, pushing them extremely close to missing a race cut-off time. The gamble paid off and the team started Saturday night with a 1 point advantage over Salomon Pro. The final night was slow and torturous, with the team only arriving at the last transition about 1 hour before the last cut-off, allowing them their first 40 minutes of sleep during the whole race. It was enough however, as the team started off well on Sunday morning, maintaining a strong and steady tempo throughout the final 5 hours of racing that saw them maintain their 1 point advantage.
This was one of the most rewarding victories that the team has ever had. We’d like to thank you, our sponsors, for your belief in us and your loyalty. We are very proud to have you as our sponsors and to be promoting your brands. Once again our race equipment and kit was tested to the full this weekend and we’ll undoubtedly pass on any relevant comments and feedback. We should have some great photos that we will send through shortly, as well as a full race report later this week by Debbie. Our final thanks though must go to our support crew this weekend, Wilma Botha, Michele Botha and Liz Mulder who were our personal stars!
The Team ’uge.cyanosis sponsors are ’Uge Events Adventure Sports CC., adventure race and trail run organisation, First Ascent outdoor apparel (the new kit was superb!), Foodstate vitamins (4 x healthy team members at the finish), Island Tribe sun lotion (no sunburn, but not much sun either! :-) ), Petzl headlamps (the Swazi bush was very, very dark at 3am), Salomon outdoor footwear and backpacks (the best all terrain shoes by far), Wiley X sunglasses (kept the Swazi mud out of our eyes), Form and Fitness sports supplements (3 days of high energy and fast recovery), Kreature.co.za outdoor and survival equipment (essential safety items - thankfully not used), Lizzard wetsuits (the rafting was a tad cold), Specialized bikes and accessories (full suspension = Swaziland!), Summit Cycles in Midrand (reliable bike services) and Suunto field compasses and wristop computers (heavily used this weekend thanks to no moon and heavy cloud).
Quick results - 54 hours of racing - approx 330km.
1st - ’uge.cyanosis (Clinton Mackintosh, Nicholas Mulder, Eugene Botha, Debbie Gerrand)
2nd - Salomon Pro (Martin Dreyer, John Collins, Jeannie Bomford and Ryno Griesel)
3rd - McCain Adventure Addict (Graham Bird, Tatum Prins, Hano Smit, Patric Mosterd)
4th - Kinetic USN (Stephan Muller, Heidi Muller, Garth Peinke, Donovan Sims)
5th - McCain Adventure Fanatics (Jeanette Walder, Ryno Hodierne, Cas Van Aardenne, Garren Soutar)
6th - Olympus (Alex Wagner, Richard Kolbe, Rika Viljoen, Charl Keet)
Team ’uge.cyanosis
http://www.teamcyanosis.co.za