Race director Stjepan Pavicic’s course for this year’s Wenger Patagonian Expedition Race proved to be one of the wildest yet.
Here, Pavicic explains his route choice through remote fjordlands with more trekking than ever, and reveals his thoughts on the drama in this year’s thrilling race…
Q: What did you expect from this year’s race – and did it live up to it?
Stjepan Pavicic: For this year’s race I was always planning to go to a really wild area in the fjords, very deep in the fjords, a place where we have never been before. We have been near here before, but never in it. This was a big challenge, because the fjord territory is very complex, a labyrinth with many cliffs and a very beautiful area with many contrasts from sections of very dense forest to very clear areas that are very fast. And it proved to be a beautiful location for the race.
Q: What was your favourite moment this year?
SP: It is difficult to say for me, because the race is a little different when looking at it from my perspective. Every day I am always concentrating on what logistical challenges occur, not where we have the good times! But I liked the first day, with the wind in the bike section. I think it was a very representative day of typical Patagonian weather. You can have a bright sunshine and clear skies but in one moment the wind comes and it can be very strong. During the biking section, at points the wind was so strong the bikes were like flags! I think it was a very beautiful day and it was nice to hear the teams saying ‘we are here for this, we want this, we want this weather, this is the challenge’. I like this, because I get a feeling from the teams that we have made the big challenge that they want.
Q: Did you expect it to be so hard to finish this year?!
SP: Yes, before the race I knew that the percentage of finishing teams would be less than in previous years. Just before the start, I was asked how many teams I expected to see in the finish line from the 14 starting and I said maybe five. In the end, it was six - although we had to shorten the race in part due to the weather. I think it was quite like what we were expecting.
Q: Were you expecting the challenge you had with the weather in the second trekking section, which ultimately caused a part of the route to be cancelled?
SP: Well, normally the fjord area is a very wet area and I did expect that this challenge would be difficult. The probability of bad weather in one moment was always present and it is therefore important to have the tools to make any changes at any moment, to be flexible. With this race we have to plan and re-plan each day, or each six hours, you always have to change the logistics. So we need to be flexible and creative to find good solutions in any moment.
Q: Are you happy with the shortening?
SP: I am never happy when we need to shorten the race. Sometimes it is not so hard for me, like at the start last year when we wanted to kayak across the Magellan Strait but had to cut it because of strong winds, I was happy because the Strait was too beautiful, with the big waves and the strong wind and for me that had more value than crossing the flat Magellan Strait without wind. This year I was not so happy. Firstly, it was going to be the longest trekking section in the history of this race and I think we lost a really beautiful part of the route. We have many contrasts in the divisions of the teams. Some teams thought it was a good idea and it was very necessary. Others thought it was not necessary and they could continue. It was a difficult decision. After the race, many teams that said one thing when they were cold, after the race they say ‘oh, it was good, we could have carried on’ but in the moment, when they are cold, they didn’t think like that.
Q: So what made you make the decision to skip PC11 to PC13?
SP: In some teams, for example Denmark, three of the team members were in good condition but the girl was not so good. They said ‘please, we can go out.’ But with other teams, the Japanese team for example, I know that the woman of this team had a very high pressure on her because the Japanese television was there, the culture of the country is very determined and I think she was not in good condition at the moment we cut it. If we hadn’t cut it, I think she may have had problems. Independent of me liking or not liking to shorten it, I think it was a good decision, principally for the safety of the teams and specifically some people in the teams.
Q: So, in the end, the British team won a third time – how do they keep on doing it?!
SP: This year we had very good teams throughout the field – that is why we had six teams in the finish, they were really good teams - but I think each year the British team has a new advantage. If they had taken a bad decision others would have passed them, but many teams are new teams here and as (British team captain) Bruce (Duncan) has said, nobody can train for this, nowhere in the world can you train for this. The British team has had two winning races before this, so this is a very big advantage compared to the others. This year, they came with new team-mates, but they were a good team with a very good captain and that was important because they had a very good leader in the team, a good navigator, and he knows what we have here.
Q: What did you think of the spirit of the race this year?
SP: I think in general this race was one of the ones with the best spirit, not only amongst the teams but also within the organisation, which is a big group, near to 80 people. There are some special people involved in this race and there have been many new people in the organisation and teams this year. With the teams we found many new teams with a good spirit for this race and now we have many teams this year that want to return next year. They are thinking new sponsors, new equipment, new team-mates, and I received many, many, many good comments about it.
Q: So you think overall the race was a success this year?
SP: Before we all got back to Punta Arenas I thought maybe the teams didn’t like the course because it was very hard, but after the race many teams came to me and said it was perfect. It was especially interesting for teams like the Denmark team, the French, the Japanese, Gearjunkie, all of them said ‘please keep it as it was, don’t make it easier, please keep it wild and keep the high level of challenge it has always had.’ For me that is very important.
Q: So no change for next year then?
SP: Right from the start we have put the focus on making an event with the Patagonic spirit. We could make a race like any other, near to civilisation or urban areas, but I think this is not the spirit of Patagonia. Patagonia is unique. It has many stories about explorers in the past and it is a tough territory and I always wanted to make an event like this. For next year, I have already sketched out an idea of what I want it to be – and yes, it will be every bit as wild and remote as it has always been...
