Arctic Team Challenge

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ARCTIC TEAM CHALLENGE 2005 RACE DAY 2

Jesper Kunuk Egede / 17.07.2005

'I was up at three this morning and the weather was still depressing,' says Pia Nielsen of Arctic Ladies, 'so when I woke up again at five and the sun was shining, I was like 'HALLELUJAH!'

And right she is. The weather is beautiful, and though there are the occasional sore legs, the racers seem really happy about this change in the weather.

Today's race goes from Tasiilaq to the foot of the Polheim's Mountain by canoe. From here the racers trek to the top of the 1,000 meters high mountain and back down again. Then the racers go to checkpoint A6 and paddle on home (the racers had the option of paddling or running home to Tasiilaq, but all teams chosed to paddle).

'We will double our lead over Saab/Salomon today,' says Mikkel Lybaech, 'so after today's race, we'll be 26 seconds ahead!'

DRAMATIC START TO RACE DAY 2
Race Day 2 started dramatically, as Jabberwock from South Africa started with a dip in the water as their canoe tipped over. Otherwise, it's a beautiful day. The officials met at 5:45 this morning to make sure that all of them are ready at the checkpoints when the teams arrive.

AND THE WINNER IS...ONCE AGAIN, PHARMANORD/INU:IT WON THE STAGE
'Wow, our lead is 2 minutes and 53 seconds!' Team captain Martin Gjødvad is shouting with joy. Christian Helweg adds: 'Yeah, we wanted to double our 13 seconds lead but I think we multiplied the lead by something like 12!' In a close race, like this one between PharmaNord/Inu:IT and Saab/Salomon, it's the small margins that count. 'Tomorrow we will beat them with 5 minutes', enthuses Martin.
'It feels so good that a bunch of hicks like us who haven't trained together are able to take on a world elite team,' grins Mikkel Lybaech. But the team knows that it will be in the long expedition race that the real challenge will take place. 'It's not like we have a huge lead,' as Christian Helweg admits.

Team Siku was the first team to arrive at the foot of Polheim's Mountain but they lost valuable time going back, as the team skipped Checkpoint A5 and went straight to Checkpoint A6. Arriving there, they had to return to Checkpoint A5 to check in and then they could return to Checkpoint A6. Something similar happened to Jabberwock who missed Checkpoint A2 going up the hill. Going down, they had to go back to Checkpoint A2 before they could continue on to Checkpoint A5.

Mel's story
For Mel Blackford from Bird’s Eye, the trip to the top of Polheim’s Mountain was sort of overwhelming. Being treated with just the right touch of psychological insight is not necessarily something you encounter at every checkpoint…
Mel told this story to one of the cameramen and we were eavesdropping: ‘I’ve seen mountains before, obviously. But the mixture of the mountains and the weather is amazing. We all agreed that this mountain was like Matterhorn…But we were coming up on that really high mountain – and there was this crazy exposure to both sides at checkpoint 3. It was like a drop of 300 or 400 meters on either side, so I asked the lady at the checkpoint ‘What happens if I slip to the left?’ ‘You die.’ ‘Well, what happens if I slip to the right?’ ‘You die.’ ‘So I need some rope then.’ ‘No, just don’t slip.’
I didn’t expect her to say ‘you die’. I was hoping for her to say something like ‘If you slip, you fall two meters’. So I was nervous. But the Course Director made me do it. He wouldn’t let me not do it.’ And so Mel did it. Good for him!


THESE ARE THE OFFICIAL TIMES FOR RACE DAY 2
PharmaNord/Inu:IT 4 hours 17 minutes 20 seconds
Saab/Salomon 4 hours 20 minutes 13 seconds
Siku 5 hours 03 minutes 45 seconds
ACG Ilulissat 6 hours 14 minutes 50 seconds
Pikkori Sport/Neriusaaq 6 hours 27 minutes 44 seconds
66 North 6 hours 56 minutes 49 seconds
Bird's Eye 7 hours 01 minutes 47 seconds
Arctic Ladies 7 hours 55 minutes 08 seconds
Jabberwock 8 hours 33 minutes 30 seconds



ATC 2005 Rank After Day 1 and 2
Rank Team Total Time

1 Pharmanord/Inu:IT 10:59:14

2 Saab/Salomon 11:02:20

3 Siku 13:41:35

4 ACG Ilulissat 16:25:43

5 Pikkori Sport/Neriusaaq 16:57:39

6 66 North 17:15:20

7 Birds Eye 17:41:02

8 Arctic Ladies 18:54:18

9 Jabberwock 21:30:25

(See more pictures on www.atc.gl)See All Event Posts