In news from Team Cyanosis… the team will compete in their fourth Expedition Africa over the next week. Experience should be on the team’s side as all team members competed in the Swazi Xtreme adventure races, which were held over a 10-year period between 2001 and 2010 in Swaziland. They won the race on five times.
The team will comprise of Clinton Mackintosh, Hilary Pitchford-Bruss, Nathan Thompson and Nicholas Mulder. Their goal will be a top position, but there is going to be some tough competition from South African teams Merrell Adventure Addicts and Jabberwock, Swedish Teams Peak Performance and Sweco Adventure as well as Estonian team ACE Adventure.
The race will be based and will finish in the Ezulwini Valley’s Lugogo Sun Hotel. At this stage, the start venue is unknown as teams will be bussed to the start on Sunday morning. Swaziland is not a big country, so a +/-500km race can easily start anywhere and visit most of the country along the way.
However, the course won’t be easy. The Swazi mountains and the rural nature of the terrain will make the navigation particularly tough. In places, some of the maps will be outdated given the rapid pace of infrastructure development in this corner of Africa. This race is also being held in winter; river levels will be low for paddling and the temperatures at night will be fairly uncomfortable for the teams. Space in each team’s support box is limited, so some tough decisions may need to be made between bringing extra food and extra warm gear.
Cyanosis have had a good season of training and racing leading up to this race. The team were narrowly beaten by Team Jabberwock at the Kinetic Double Moon race early in the year, but are determined to bounce back from this. Clinton and Nicholas have recently returned from the Sani2c stage mountain bike race where they had good results despite a few problems with flat tires (perfect practise for Swaziland!) whilst Hilary has been occupying the podium place on numerous mountain bike and trail running races around the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands. Nathan has recovered from his Two Oceans Marathon exploits and is extremely keen to get going and feeling very positive about the race.
The team are really looking forward to racing in Swaziland again. The country brings back many, many memories from the period of the Swazi Xtreme. It was the area that the team ‘earned their stripes’ as the terrain and nature of any course in the area are always going to be testing and exciting. It will be extremely interesting to see what the overseas teams make of it all.
There will be live coverage of the race at www.kineticgear.org . The website will include latest news on the race as well as live GPS tracking updates on the teams. There is also an event Facebook page. Additionally, Cyanosis will have a photojournalist, Kirsten Olivier following the team and posting regular updates.
Team Cyanosis is proudly supported by the following brands:
– 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 at www.facebook.com/team.cyanosis