Team Helly Hansen-Prunesco became the first team to retain the Wenger Patagonian Expedition Race title when they beat a strong field of contenders in the 2010 race, arriving a full 16 hours before second-placed Air Europa Bimont from Spain. As they travelled back to Punta Arenas after the race, they revealed the stories of their struggles and accomplishments along the way:
Q: What made you come back?
Nicola MacLeod: It was tough last year, but it was an amazing experience. This year we knew the course was going across Tierra del Fuego and thought there would be a Beagle Channel crossing, so it was a different route and we were easily tempted.
Q: What was the most spectacular place on the race course?
Nicola MacLeod: After pushing and pushing, we got to the top of PC 12, dropped into the bowl and just stood there looking at the stars for five minutes; they were twinkling, bigger and better than we had ever seen before, with a massive crown of mountains surrounding us. It was pretty remarkable.
Q: How was the mountain biking section?
Andrew Wilson: The winds were really tough the whole way. Most of the mountain biking was into the wind, there were times when we were literally blown into the ditches at the side, and there’s nothing you can do about it.
Nicola MacLeod: It’s frustrating when you are strong on the bikes and are unable to ride them because of a cross-wind. If you bike methodically and just keep pushing despite feeling you are getting nowhere, you get there quicker than anyone else. It showed that persistence pays– which is the motto of this race in a lot of ways.
Bruce Duncan: I got up to more than 50km/h without pedalling – but it was amazing. It’s just a shame it didn’t blow us all the way to the finish.
Q: What about the swim across the river when your team missed doing the Tyrolean traverse?
Andrew Wilson: I didn’t enjoy that much at all. It was very daunting. The water seemed too fast and I thought there were dangers further down the stream if I didn’t make the bank. Two went over and once they got to the other side of the bank, I knew I had to do it.
Nicola MacLeod: We got very rapidly swept downstream, but we chose the right spot and managed to get out. There was a real possibility that we could have been swept down into trees or faster flowing water that would be difficult to get out of, but fortunately we didn’t and we all got across alright.
Bruce Duncan: I just thought of my dad telling me not to do anything stupid, which he did about 100 times before we came out. I was slightly worried. But I know Nicola knows how to read water, so I was reasonably confident in her.
Q: How was the final trek?
Andrew Wilson: We were led to believe there would be paths and great swathes of green carpet, all leading us across the mountain top to the finish – but that was a serious case of lost in translation I think! We mentally relaxed and kitted out really light, and then we got into the worst challenge we had all race.
Andrew Wilson: Things got worse and worse with the blizzard coming in and it got cold and wet. We were never lost, but it was just tough going.
Bruce Duncan: To make matters a little bit more interesting I thought we’d just get rid of the map. I think I was eating some chocolate and all of a sudden I looked down and…no map. We just stuck on a bearing and knew we would hit the Beagle Channel at some point and work it out from there.
Nicola MacLeod: The final 20 hours we had to keep moving all the time, otherwise we would have frozen. We couldn’t stop to sleep because we didn’t have enough kit and we couldn’t stop to eat for more than about 30 seconds.
Andrew Wilson: That last night was a small reminder of the previous year.
Q: What was the hardest moment during the race?
Mark Humphrey: I think I tore a ligament in my left knee during the first beach run, right at the start. It swelled up like a balloon. Going downhill it was really painful, the guys took my pack for a while, and the teamwork got me through. I had to push through the pain a lot.
Bruce Duncan: If we hadn’t have known about it, we wouldn’t have noticed. He was a bit slower than usual, but he was still bashing through the forest, wading through the streams, so real credit to him to push on, he was clearly hurting and took one for the team.
Q: What was your most emotional moment during the race?
Bruce Duncan: The whole race was great, being with the same people and getting on so well, having fun so much out there. Reaching the finish line was more of a relief than anything else having navigated across this barren landscape with no map for four hours. The last couple of days I have been so happy. We have come here to this beautiful, beautiful place, raced out of our skins and had a great time doing it.
Q: How did you gel as a team throughout the race?
Nicola MacLeod: Even when people don’t agree, we can just laugh about it; that’s one of the secrets. Everyone does different stuff.
Andrew Wilson: Everyone is tough enough to do it and you don’t have any doubts that everyone is going to give everything for it. Even when you have different opinions, there is a lot of experience that goes into their opinions, so you also have trust in their decisions.
