Harry Wiltshire and Craig Metherell stepped down from the Adventure Racing World Series in Corsica after organisers ruled continuing as a two-man team unsafe.

Team Jabberwock, a Lowveld cycling team, entered the Adventure Racing World Series (ARWS) in Corsica, France, which started on October 1 and runs until October 9.

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Fever forces cyclist out

While the team has made amazing progress so far in the race, they faced a challenge early on in the race. After team supporters realised that the team’s tracer had not moved for a few hours, they received a message from team member Harry Wiltshire that fellow cyclist DeWaal Visser had been struggling with a fever since that morning.

Despite attempts to push through, he was picked up by the media team for surveillance by the medical team and declared unfit to continue the race. The rest of the Jabberwock team, Wiltshire, Craig Metherell and Sara Archdeacon, had to return to Transition Area Five, where they had to regroup and repack their gear before continuing with the remainder of the course.

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Stormy weather and illness halt mountain trek

Yesterday, the kayak section of the course was cancelled due to stormy conditions and the team had to cycle over mountains to the next transition area. Archdeacon developed the flu, so only Wiltshire and Metherell completed the mountain pass.

The ARWS organisers then ruled that it was just too dangerous for the two cyclists to do the mountain trek as a two-man team. After much negotiation, Wiltshire and Metherell were allowed to continue, but made the decision with race officials to retire from the race.

Jabberwock supporters extend their congratulations to the team and commend them for continuing despite multiple challenges.

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