The Legend XPD race in Australia starts the 2024 Adventure Racing World Series as the first Qualifier of the year, with the winners claiming a place on the start line of the Adventure Racing World Championships in Ecuador in November.
As teams prepare for the race, which starts Sunday February 25th, Ecuador will be far from their thoughts, and all of their focus will be on the 450km course set for them by Chris Dixon of Wild and Co, following the route of The Great Ocean Road.
The race is the second Legend XPD, and following the inaugural race in the Snowy Mountains of New South Wales, the race moves to Victoria and one of Australia’s most iconic and varied coastlines. After the first race Dixon said, “We asked the teams where they would like to go with Legend and I realised they wanted to go to all of the best locations in Australia! So, we decided to take on a circumnavigation of all of the states and Victoria is leg 2!”
Teams will meet in the beautiful coastal town of Apollo Bay, where the race HQ will be at the Mechanics Institute Hall, known as the “The Mech”. There they will prepare to race a course open for 6 days of non-stop trekking, off-road riding, paddling and navigating. Teams won’t know the course details until just before the start but are prepared for a bold and dramatic opening stage – a sea kayak on the waters of the infamous Bass Strait!
The race features 13 stages in all, and Dixon said, “As always it’s been a real privilege to explore the region and to put the course together – the region really is one of the great wonders of the Australian landscape.
“We’ve worked hard to make sure that each leg plays an important part in the journey, highlighting something unique about the area and we’ve included the biggest highlights and experiences of the region.
“There’s an epic ocean paddle leg to start the event with a sheltered launch and a fun beach landing along one of Australia’s most iconic shorelines. This will be followed by a series of breathtaking trek and cycling legs taking in waterfalls and the wild coastline that the region is so famous for. And while teams will be tempted to stop in the tourist towns for coffee or a pub meal, an epic journey along some of the best gravel roads and mountain bike tracks in the country await teams as they head into the Otways.”
The first Legend XPD delivered an epic course and stunning scenery, and expectations are high for the route along The Great Ocean Road!
The teams on the start line will include a mixture of experienced racers and those new to expedition racing. Both Wild Yaks and Kang Racing are well known teams and will use their experience to aim for a full course finish, with Kang Racing keen to make up for a DNF after injuries last year.
Happy Wanderers are a defence forces team taking on their first expedition race. There's a renewed interest in adventure racing in the defence forces in Australia and this team is taking on the biggest race in Australia.
Team MMI "The Band" are long time AR supporters and with team captain Morgan Coull leading they are in good hands. He's raced XPDs, Eco-Challenge Fiji and almost every AR in Australia. He's also just launched the Total Recon race in South Australia, which will feature in the ARWS Oceania Series this year.
Two of the strongest teams will be the two all-female line-ups, Mountain Design’s Wild Women led by Kim Beckinsale and Vortex Diva’s lead by Liz Woodgate. Both teams include Legendary Australian racers and took part in the first Legend as well, with Wild Women taking second place.
The race is sponsored by Mountain Designs, Trail Brew and Wild Magazine and will have live satellite tracking on https://live.trackmelive.com.au/legend24 provided by Track Me Live.
There will be regular reporting and photography on the Wild&Co Facebook page – @wldnco – and news on the social media pages for the Adventure Racing World Series (@arworldseries) and ARWSOceania (@arwsoceania).
For full information on the Legend Expedition Race see – https://www.legendexpd.com.au
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