13 October

Wulong Quest is over! And a massive shout must go out to Richard Ussher and his teammates Elina Ussher, Braden Currie and Stu Lynch – winners of the race in super fine style!! A sensational performance. Wulong winners 2012 !!

Before we hear from Richard, who describes the last day of racing below, a big cheer for all the other teams racing, especially Team Seagate and the other Kiwi teams. World Champions Seagate dug very deep to keep racing despite race fatigue and injuries. A stonking year for them.

Top racing from all the teams at Wulong, with every team racing hard all the way to the finish. A cracking race and a cracking performance from everyone!

Here’s Rich:

“Wrapped the race up today – missed out on a clean sweep of the stages but came home for 2nd for the day behind Thule who raced really well. They also moved up to second overall with Tineli having some issues today and it came down to only a few minutes between them and Aye up for 3rd which they just managed to hold onto.

Team R&R Sport also from NZ had a real breakthrough day getting 3rd on the stage and shows there’s plenty of new talent coming through behind the current crop of Adventure racers

Seagate had some health issues and Sophie also opened up the cut she had stitches in from France

Celebrated with cleaning bikes and packing gear to bug out tomorrow morning – looking forward to some fresh food

More later

RIch”

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12 October

One day to go and Richard Ussher delivers us some more great news from China!

“Good day for us today – another stage win – team was awesome, tough day, huge vertical on the bikes and pace was on all day, all top teams pushing very hard. Americans (aye up lights) came home second after a high tussle with Tineli (Marcel and co) and moved within about a minute of second overall so that will be a tight contest, Thule continue to go amazingly well considering they did France and Seagate had a solid day in 5th but again just lacking that punch they usually have.

We have 17 minutes now over second so one more day to stay focused, tactics will definitely be to not endanger 1st overall chasing a clean sweep of stages but if we’re in the hunt for the stage will definitely be fighting for it if we feel good.

Tomorrow is a big run broken up with a short kayak on a small lake. A big abseil on the second half of the run and a big uphill bike to finish.

Has been super hard race on the bikes, everyone has had issues of varying degrees but thankfully no one seems to have been sick due to food which is a huge positive.

Rich”

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11October 2012

Things are going well – very well for Richard Ussher and his team. He’s playing it soft – like most people that excel he’s not really giving himself the credit he and his team deserve….

Let the Camo be clear about the position – they’re smashing it!

Here’s the man himself:

“Day 1 of real racing, things still really close. A few results under review so nothing official yet. Our team had a cracking first 70% of the day and got out to quite a good lead before the chasing pack brought us back a bit on the final ride due to us being a little over cautious on the super muddy and slippery descent of around 15km and also getting frozen to the bone although that was pretty much par for the course. 

…………………………….

The MARCH is interupting the interview with AR god Richard Ussher (see below) to post Rich’s report from the prologue of Wulong Quest!

Hear me now – he’s a legend. And day 1 has gone ok….

“Hi Guys 

…………………………

7 October 2012

AR god Richard Ussher has the strength of 2 men. He alone can carry a team to victory. He skied in the Olymipcs, is basically unbeatable over the Coast to Coast, is a multiple AR World Champion, has completed an Ironman faster than any NZer who has ever lived, and has won just about every other race on the planet. Oh, and he’s an awesome guy and as modest as he is unbeatable.

As he left for Wulong Quest (which naturally he won last year) he still found time to talk to the MARCH. Over the coming days we’re going to post his view on some key questions we put to him:

The MARCH – Tell us about your team for Wulong Quest?

R.U – The team for Wulong is made up of Elina (the wife), Braden Currie (young buck, just married yesterday, 3rd at Coast to Coast this year) and Stu Lynch (UK based Kiwi, former world champ with team Orion) + me (generally just good at finding strong team mates to drag me around courses)

The MARCH – How would you describe the race?

R.U – Wulong is a stage AR race, a prologue and 3 beefier days. 5-7 hours is the usual length for the days and they are really fast compared to the expedition racing. The courses are usually marked (if you’re paying attention) and everyone starts each day together like Tour de France. Wulong is about 4 hours north of Chongqing city which according to certain sources is the largest population base anywhere in the world. Wulong itself is mountainous and we often race over 2000m of vertical in a day.

The MARCH - Sounds like a corker! And as last year’s winner you’ve gotta be in the frame this year, but lets cover some basic stats for us fans. Where do you live and what’s your favourite beer and favourite wine?

R.U – I live in Nelson and I go for Tall Black Beer by Wanaka Beer Works and any good Pinot Noir.

The MARCH – We all slip up – some more than others…what’s your favourite takeaway?

R.U – Subway – it’s a good thing they’re a sponsor aye!

The MARCH – Nice! Now closing off the basic stats, are you happily single or even happier married?

R.U – Happily married to Elina – imported from Finland 7 years ago.

 

[Look out for more extracts from this interview soon – in the next instalment Richard talks through some of his race strategy and training detail]