The month of March will finally see the 2015 South African adventure racing season underway with two top-class, back-to-back races in the country.
Over the weekend of 13-15 March, Team Cyanosis will be competing at the Kinetic Double Moon in the Northern Drakensberg region of KwaZulu Natal. The full team of four members (Clinton Mackintosh, Hillary Pitchford-Bruss, Nathan Thompson and Nicholas Mulder) will be competing over a 200km distance against a handful of very strong South African teams. The race starts and finishes at the Mont-Aux-Sources Hotel and will have live tracking of teams from the 7.30am start on Friday. The expected winning time will be well over 24 hours, whilst the expected weather conditions predicted to be bad. It’s been quite a few years since the team last competed in a race that had poor weather, so this will definitely be an experience to remember….
A week later, Nicholas and Clinton will be teaming up as a pair to compete in the Non-Stop Wartrail Challenge in the Eastern Cape Witteberg mountains. The annual race is normally a stage race with a 65km mountain run from Lady Grey to Balloch, a 135km mountain bike to the Orange River and a 65km river paddle down to Aliwal North taking place over three days. A non-stop version started in 2014, with Cyanosis’ Nathan Thompson and Clinton Mackintosh taking the inaugural honours. The region has been dry in recent months, so a low river is forecast for the paddle. Hopefully the weather temperatures turn out a bit better than last year however, where sub-zero temperatures were recorded on the overnight mountain biking section. The non-stop course is expected to take Nicholas and Clinton about 26 – 28 hours.
These two races form the initial part of the season as Cyanosis build up to their first World Series race of the year, the Expedition Africa race over 500km. This year the race takes place in early June in the Kingdom of Swaziland. The team are looking forward to returning to Swaziland where they regularly participated in the Swazi Xtreme races in the mid and late-2000s, taking home the title on four occasions. Expedition Africa is a qualifying race for the World Adventure Racing Championships which will be held later this year in November in the Pantanal region of Brazil. The current team has been racing together since the start of 2014, so have been able to build up the experience and team focus needed for a good season.
Team Cyanosis is proud to have the following brands supporting them:
– First Ascent outdoor apparel, Salomon adventure footwear, Petzl headlamps and Foodstate vitamins and supplements.
– Specialized bikes and accessories, Concept Cyclery in Fourways and Melrose Arch, Form & Fitness Sport Supplements, BOS Ice Tea and Race Food (Real Food, Serious Energy).
For information on Team Cyanosis, profiles on team members, team news and photo galleries, please visit and ‘Like’ our Facebook page.
For information on the sport of adventure racing, local events, news and race reports, visit South Africa’s adventure racing website, www.AR.co.za.