Team Haglöfs Silva are in for a real expedition in the race starting on Thursday. With 63 other teams from 25 different nations we are preparing for 5 days of adventures on Reunion Island, a small volcanic island in the Indian Ocean, east of Madagascar. The race is hosted by the organization Raid in France, Reunion Island being one of 18 regions and France and a part of the European Union!
Reunion is only 63 km long and 45 km wide, but over 3000 m high, with active volcanoes, crazy steep mountains, deep canyons, tropical climate, and sandy beaches. More than 40 % of the whole island is UNESCO World Heritage. Reunion is also known for its unpredictable weather, and holds the world records for 12, 24, 48, and 72-hour rainfalls…
The race will start in Hell-Bourg village, located in the crater of a huge dormant volcano. From the start 6 AM on Thursday morning, teams will set out on a 430 km course of 10 sections, split into 162 km of mountain trekking and canyoning and caving, 182 km of MTB and 78 km of packrafting and seakayaking. The racecourse also includes several demanding sections of ropeworks. Despite the race course being relatively “short”, winning team is expected to take at least 120 hours (5 days and nights) to finish, due to the very demanding and technical terrain, with many steep parts, dense jungles and more than 17 000 vertical meters to climb.
Team Haglöfs Silva is represented by Aaron Prince, Björn Rydvall, Corrinne O’Donnell and Robert Lindberg. All three guys were in the team that finished 2nd at the World Championship 2017 In Wyoming, USA, while Corrinne is replacing Josefina who is home nursing her baby daughter.
We except the race to be long, tough, technical and HOT! The competition is really high, with all of the world’s best adventure racing athletes assembled. Rest assured we will do absolutely everything we can (within the rules) to be the first team to reach the finish-line.
Once we finish we’re gonna take a long rest and catch up some snorkeling and sun-bathing…
Follow our progress on (starting on Thursday morning)
Live tracking at: http://live.arworldseries.com/ will keep you up to date with exactly where teams are during the race. The site also has extensive photos, videos, leaderboard and reports.
Live Streaming Tune in on https://www.facebook.com/arworldseries for the start at on 8th November and the winners around the 12th November
https://www.instagram.com/teamhaglofssilva
https://www.instagram.com/arworldseries/ https://www.instagram.com/raidinfrance/
Keep your fingers crossed!
/Team Haglöfs Silva
