Arctic Team Challenge

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ARCTIC TEAM CHALLENGE 2005 RACE DAY 1

Jesper Kunuk Egede / 16.07.2005

This morning, the rain was pouring down. It was going to be a long and wet day for the participating teams, but that did not seem to faze anyone - the racers were eager to get going. At the morning briefing at 7 AM, race director Hans Christian Florian informed about the route of today and had one piece of good news: The weather forecast for tomorrow and the rest of the race is good.

This is today’s stage:
Mountain biking 35 kilometers
The route takes the racers through town and on towards the Flower Valley behind Tasiilaq and then back into town. This route is repeated five times.

Mountain Trekking 30 kilometers
After the mountain biking comes mountain trekking over three mountain tops in a big circle around Tasiilaq. At the race briefing, the teams flipped a coin to get their route.
The following teams went clockwise around town:
PharmaNord/Inu:IT, Pikkori Sport/Neriusaaq, Bird’s Eye, Siku, ACG Ilulissat and 66 North.
The following teams went counter-clockwise around town:
Jabberwock, Saab/Salomon and Arctic Ladies.

AND THE WINNER IS...
PHARMANORD/INU:IT WINS THE FIRST STAGE WITH 13 SECONDS!
Please note that all times are unofficial until signed by the judges tomorrow morning.

The race couldn\'t have been closer. Although the two teams were racing in different directions as mentioned above, they passed the finishing line with only a margin of 13 seconds. Mikkel Lybaech of PharmaNord/Inu:IT, who is usually a very low-key guy from Jutland, sounded like a howler when his team crossed the line: YES BOYS! THIS IS SO GOOD! Showing great sportsmanship, the two teams greeted and congratulated each other right after crossing the finishing line.
‘We ourselves were surprised that we actually made it to the goal before Saab Salomon,’ says Christian Helweg. ‘We felt that we started out really badly on the mountain trekking. But maybe they weren’t doing that well either…Anyway, it’s a great feeling to make it over the line before them, and also to do it on a long course. Last year we beat them twice but this was on days with shorter stages. It feels good that we can also keep up with them on the longer stretches.’

UNOFFICIAL RESULTS
PharmaNord/Inu:IT 6 hours 41 minutes 54 seconds
Saab Salomon 6 hours 42 minutes 07 seconds
Siku 8 hours 37 minutes 50 seconds
ACG Ilulissat 10 hours 10 minutes 53 seconds
66 North 10 hours 18 minutes 31 seconds
Pikkori Sport/Neriusaaq
10 hours 29 minutes 55 seconds
Bird’s Eye 10 hours 39 minutes 15 seconds
Arctic Ladies 10 hours 59 minutes 10 seconds
Jabberwock 12 hours 56 minutes 55 seconds

(See more pictures on www.atc.gl)
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