Red Bull Defiance Wanaka 2014 Ussher Report

The team of Richard & Elina Ussher continued their quest for victory in adventure racing - this time together as they battled for the mixed teams title at the recent Red Bull Defiance race in Wanaka.  One of their main opponents, Marcel Hagener and Simone Maier lead after day 1. Could the Ussher team take over to win ?  

Richard reports: 
It was great to have a new race on the NZ calendar and having raced the 2-person format a number of times both Elina and I were really looking forward to the event.

The pre race was all pretty relaxed but there is always something a little in your face with anything Red Bull, which gave the event a great vibe and you certainly couldn’t miss the multitude of Red Bull tents, cars, girls and the Hummer.

DAY 1

Loaded on a bus and then a barge we headed across lake Wanaka to Minaret Station, it was pretty fresh but anticipation was definitely running high by the time we landed and the day was clear but cold. There were plenty of Heli hours being put in to and we were treated to a couple of super low passes over the barge on the way over.

The start saw teams scrambling for position on the Mountain Bikes and within seconds we were into the first climb, which immediately sorted the field into some more manageable sized groups.

Elina and I made the second group with who we expected to be the major competition for the weekend, Jess Simpson and Glenn Currie and Marcel Hagener and Simone Maier.

What was a surprise was that the French team of Jacky and Mimi weren’t there – not that we were complaining about that.

Our group continued to get smaller until Simone and Marcel split it up once and for all on a slightly longer climb and it was now everyone for themselves.

Elina and I chased hard for the next 30 kilometers and managed to gap Jess and Glenn giving us second in the mixed category at TA1.

The next little run didn’t sound bad at only 7.5km but it was a never-ending climb to the top of a small mountain before a quick abseil and the completion of the run. We were still in full chase mode and managed to maintain our gap to the front and extend our lead over 3rd place.

Into the kayak and we seemed to be slowly gaining on the front until a nasty headwind blew up and it became hard to decipher the kayaks ahead in the whitecaps.

As we neared the beach we finally go the chance to turn the kayaks downwind for a bit of a surf into the beach but our boat just refused to co-operate, Elina checked the rudder a few times but with no success. On trying to pick the boat up it was obvious we had taken on a fair amount of water and when we tipped it over it gushed out of the front hatch, which had somehow been letting in water.  Apparently coming in to shore the water in the front plus Elina’s light weight in the back (or my not so light weight in the front) meant the tail of the boat was so far in the air that the rudder wasn’t even touching the water – hence the steering issues.

With 15 km of running left the main concern was warming up after the extremely cold water that had been washing over us combined with the wind chill. The feet finally found some feeling and we set off on the beautiful lakeside trail back towards Wanaka in the distance.

We had lost a little more time but not as much as the teams behind as the lake seemed empty of boats.

We had some great company on the run from Bob McLaughlin and the legendary Keith Murray, which gave us a great pace to target. We managed to hold on until about half way when they started to ease away from us.

At the finish we were just over 7 minutes down but almost 15 minutes in front of Jess and Glenn in third and more than 20 minutes in front of the French.

Elina and I both had pretty good days and apart from the ride had almost matched Simone and Marcel.

It was now time for the not so fun part of the day with clean up and repacking for Day 2. We were fortunate though as being in the earlier group of teams to finish saw us with far more time than those further down the field.

Up the very front of the race, men’s team of Braden Currie and Dougal Allen had romped away from the rest of the field to take a commanding lead over the Aussies of Peak Adventure.


DAY 2

The body was a little stiff at the start line of Day 2; the short 3km run down to the Wanaka
foreshore was definitely not going to provide a nice ease into the day.

The pace was on right from the start and Elina and I settled into mid pack trying to get the legs moving quicker and quicker.

Into the boats and we managed to jump on a wash from the Men’s team of Nathan Peterson and Ryan Kiesanowski and slowly reeled in the mixed teams in front. There was a small group of teams up ahead and as we hit the river we were able to get a jump on the others in our group and paddled up to the next two teams on the river – putting us into the top 5 overall which gave us a great chance of getting through the next section with out any backlog.

That activity was a clay bird shoot and at the end of the river we were in a tight tussle once again with Marcel and Simone.

Without any practice and my last shot with a shotgun around 20 years ago hopes weren’t high for hitting the clay first up!

Luckily for me the organizers had set it up with the clay coming towards us, it stalled right in front, giving almost a point blank shot at a nearly stationary target – and by some sort of miracle I did manage to hit it and off we set on the MTB section.

We had a bit of a chase but caught back up with Marcel and Simone and also Keith and Bob and the Torpedo 7 men’s team of Pete Smallfield and Hamish Fleming. Our four teams would see plenty of each other over the remainder of the day.

The trail soon turned upwards and our teams all spread out but no one was ever out of sight of the others. The French briefly threatened to join the party as they excelled on the uphill but they disappeared once the trail finally started heading down the hill and towards the final transition.

Our four teams rolled into TA within a few seconds of each other and were soon heading out for the final section of the race on foot.

The end was definitely not feeling all that close at this stage with an almost 1500m climb to the high point at Mt Alpha before a brutal drop straight back down into Wanaka.

The Torpedo 7 boys had got a bit of a jump out of transition but along with Simone and Marcel we gradually pulled them back in before the really big climb started. Keith and Bob were a few minutes behind. All of our teams seemed to go through a few lows and highs on the climb to the main ridge with different teams setting the pace and gaps constantly opening and closing. Keith and Bob suddenly appeared right I the midst of our teams when a bit of local knowledge allowed them to lop off a big switchback and all of a sudden we were all chasing them.

When we finally hit the main ridge we could see both Alpha and the final point Roys Peak where we would start out descent – they looked reasonably close but the best thing was we had knocked off the majority of the climbing.

Straight after the high point at Alpha we had a twisty and steep descent down onto the final climb to Roys Peak and Elina and I managed to get the smallest of margins on Simone and Marcel – the race was now on for the finish and we needed to crack them by an unlikely 7 ½ minutes to claim the win overall.

We gave it a good nudge up the final climb and got a few more seconds before setting off down the very steep and rough descent to the Lake front over 1200m below.

We had Keith and Bob up ahead to chase and we started catching up on them and creating a bit more of a gap to the teams behind, it was definitely an advantage being able to follow the lines of the guys in front and towards the bottom we were right on the heels of Keith and Bob.

Torpedo 7 and Marcel and Simone were still within a couple of minutes though so we knew we would have to give it everything over the final 4km to stay ahead for the day.

The final slog along the waterfront went by quick enough and it was great to make it home in 4th overall for the day and 1st mixed team.

Marcel and Simone came home just 90 seconds later to take a very well deserved victory overall.

In the men’s field Braden and Dougal had another dominate day with Peak Adventure again in second.


Overall it was a great couple of days out, a really tough course but one that took us to some real highlights around Wanaka. The atmosphere was great and no doubt there is going to be some amazing footage from the 5 helicopters that spent the two days buzzing the field.

It was also great to see some of NZ’s top sportspeople from other codes giving it a crack – Olympian Mike Dawson better known for his extreme and Slalom paddling teamed up with his brother James and really enjoyed the challenge by the sounds of it and another Olympian, Skeleton racer Katherine Eustace made a return to her roots of sorts.

Check out www.facebook.com/RBDefiance for more pictures and videos from the event.