Keen Adventure Race, Great Ocean Road Australia
The World Champions and Australia\'s most famous Ironman surge to the lead
Rapid Ascent / 15.03.2007
Stage two of the Keen Adventure Race is the Queen Stage, the most daunting stage, of the event. Competitors started at Apollo Bay at 7am this morning, and the winners won\'t finish the stage until late morning on Friday.Heading into the stage, world champion Kiwi\'s Richard Ussher and Gordon Walker (adventuresportnz.com) held a 5:23 lead over stage one winners, Guy Andrews and Darren Clarke (Anaconda). In third place is Gary Sutherland & Brett Stevens (Mountain Designs), 54 minutes behind.
The stage began with a hilly 35km mountain bike ride to the Otway Fly, where competitors then had to negotiate a difficult ropes course on the famous walkways. Heading into the ropes, Anaconda and adventuresportnz.com were neck and neck, but Anaconda negotiated the course better and left on their bikes three minutes ahead of the Kiwis. The 45km ride to Blanket Bay was full of hills and they took their toll, with the Kiwis making their move and putting an amazing 30 minutes into Anaconda, who arrived at the Ocean with Mountain Designs and the fourth placed team overall, NSW Stingers (Rob Preston and Richard Mountstephens).
The paddle back to Apollo Bay included a short swim at Marengo where competitors has to retrieve a checkpoint. The Kiwis lost 15 minutes here for a rule infringement, and upon arriving at Apollo Bay, their lead had dropped to 17 minutes over Anaconda and Mountain Designs.
Meanwhile, the tough week was taking its toll on the field, with the winners of Tuesday\'s Port Campbell prologue - Bruce Dunlop and Liam Drew - being withdrawn by the race doctor with dehydration.
As the race heads into a night with threatening skies, adventuresportnz.com leads Anaconda and Mountain Designs by 27 minutes. Teams are slowly leaving Apollo Bay for a grueling 20km trek to Sabine Falls. The trek involves several tricky navigational challenges that will favour the navigational skills of the Kiwi team and Mountain Designs.
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