7th annual Siku Extreme Arctic Challenge
Siku Exteme Adventure Challenge 2007 - Day 2
Jesper Kunuk Egede & Jesper Sand Mortensen / 22.07.2007
The second day of the Siku Extreme Arctic Challenge 2007 started this morning at 9 AM Greenland time (-3 GMT).READ THE LATEST UPDATE FROM 10 PM AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS PAGE
We’re off to a rocky day. First the racers have to bike 35 kilometers, repeating a 7 kilometer course 5 times. They drive through the town and out into the Flower Valley. We know from earlier years that this is one of the really tough parts of the race.
After the mountain biking race, the teams have to climb three mountain tops in the area behind Tasiilaq. In order to keep some suspense, all the teams that ranked with an even number yesterday go one way over the tops, and those that ranked with an uneven number go the other way. That way it gets more difficult for close competitors to get an idea of how the other teams are doing. Isn’t that smart?
The two corporate teams will do shorter routes. Pihl A/S is doing three rounds of biking and two tops, whereas EEA Corporate will do one or two rounds of biking and one mountain top.
The race started off fine. Nansen B Team had problems with their bikes at race start but the rest of the racers are well under way.
The official scores and ranks from Day 1 are:
RANK TEAM
1 Maniitsoq 225 03.38.15
2 Neriusaaq 03.47.24
3 Explorer 04.02.13
4 Intersport Iceland 04.05.25
5 Feed the Machine 04.16.45
6 Les Couleurs de l’Aventure 04.24.59
7 Finisterreuk 04.33.56
8 AMI: MacPac & Icebreaker04.34.11
9 A Team 04.38.32
10 ISI – Salomon 04.55.32
11 EEA 05.02.10
12 The Northern Lights 05.16.33
13 Aurora 05.49.51
14 Nansen B Team 06.02.39
Out of rank Pihl A/s Corporate 05.23.19
Out of rank EEA Corporate 08.57.32
Please note a change from the unofficial times of yesterday: The A Team was given a time reduction of ten minutes as they were capsized by the waves from one of the security boats during the first canoe stage. This does not affect their ranking so far.
UPDATE AT 6 PM
Not surprisingly, second Race Day turned out to be an extreme challenge to some of the teams. The mountain bike race is really tough. One round is tough and five are almost unbearable to many racers.
These are the unofficial times of the bike race:
TEAM
ISI – Salomon 03.01.05
Neriusaaq 03.11.23
Maniitsoq 225 03:22:02
Feed the Machine 03.29.40
Explorer 03.35.49
AMI: MacPac & Icebreaker 03.37.10
Intersport Iceland 03.50.49
Les Couleurs de l’Aventure 03.51.20
Finisterreuk 04.08.49
EEA 04.17.20
The Northern Lights 04.19.36
A Team 05.06.20
Aurora 05.08.36
Out of rank - Nansen B Team
05.40.07
Outside race – 3 rounds Pihl A/s Corporate 02.24.48
Outside race – 2 rounds EEA Corporate
02.39.00
We had an unusual situation when two of the team members of the Nansen B Team were not willing to wait for the other two team members. As Siku Extreme Arctic Challenge is a team effort where the team has to go together, Nansen B Team is now racing out of rank.
UPDATE SUNDAY NIGHT AT 10 PM
We’ve already posted the times for the mountain bike stage for today. These are the OFFOCIAL times for today’s race, accumulated time plus rank.
TEAM/TODAY’S TIME
Neriusaaq 07:55:59
Maniitsoq 225 08:26:34
ISI Salomon 07:45:14
Explorer 09:08:54
Intersport Iceland 09:31:50
Les Couleurs de l’Aventure 09:48:16
AMI: MacPac & Icebreaker 09:55:46
Feed the Machine 10:22:55
The Northern Lights 10:52:26
Finisterreuk 11:03:39
EEA 12:29:30
A Team: 13:41:31
Aurora: 14:12:56
Out of rank:
Nansen B Team came in at 02:00:00
Outside race – Pihl Corporate 09:10:26
Outside race – EEA Corporate 08:17:36
RANK/TEAM/ACCUMULATED TIME
1. Neriusaaq 11:43:23
2. Maniitsoq 225 12:04:49
3. ISI Salomon 12:40:46
4. Explorer 13:11:07
5. Intersport Iceland 13:37:15
6. Les Couleurs de l’Aventure 14:13:15
7. AMI: MacPac & Icebreaker 14:29:57
8. Feed the Machine 14:39:40
9. Finisterreuk 15:37:35
10. The Northern Lights 16:08:59
11. EEA 17:31:40
12: A Team 18:20:03
13: Aurora 20:02:47
Out of rank
Nansen B Team 23:02:39
Outside race – Pihl Corporate 14:33:45
Outside race – EEA Corporate 17:15:08
Neriusaaq took the lead
‘It was a hard day for us, but doing good made up for it,’ smiles team captain Jørn Holbech. ‘Now we are just looking forward to going back to the school to eat and relax.’ You’d think as a headmaster he would get enough of the school, but apparently not.
Their day went well with no problems and what obstacles that may have occurred, they overcame them by sticking together as a team. If they had problems when they met other teams, they just smiled and acted like they had it all under control. After crossing the finish line, there was only one way for them: Home to get some food and then sleep. But they, too, feel totally ready for the big race tomorrow.
Running in sand
For Team Maniitsoq 225, things didn’t go as well as they wanted it to today, because they picked a wrong route with a lot of sand. They also had to stop for 5 minutes because team captain Aqqalu Skifte fell of his bike and hurt himself. The team as a whole weren’t strong in the biking. As Aqqalu says: ‘What’s done is done. There’s nothing to do but to look forward. As a team we worked well together, despite the wrong route that we chose. We’re ready for tomorrow!’
First to cross the line
ISI Salomon was the first team to cross the finish line. It’s also been a good day for them. They had some falling off the mountain bike, but other than that, nada.
Yesterday, ISI Salomon did a navigastional blunder that lost them 1½ hours. ‘With today’s result, we are glad to be able to prove our worth, and it really helps for the spirit at the race tomorrow! Now that we were the first to finish, the race is on for real!’ team captain Henrik Møller promises: ‘The other teams can expect a lot of competition and we plan to win!’ Give it a go!
BrennÃvin. No, really!
One of the hills in Tasiilaq is a killer. Actually, most hills in Tasiilaq are killers but one in particular can make even a grown man cry. Unless, of course, you’re Icelanders and on a team with two great girls. Going up that hill we spotted Erlandur and Pétur, each pulling two bikes and singing at the top of their lungs what sounded like a drinking ditty from Iceland. The word ‘brennÃvin’ was mentioned every 5 words! All four live up to their reputation of joy spreaders…
Equally joyful are the Dutch team with that funny name, AMI: MacPac & Icebreaker. Meeting them at breakfast this morning, they were all laughs and smiles and, surprisingly, meeting them at dinner tonight, they were still all laughs and smiles. They are really satisfied with the way things are going. They were happy about their rank at 8 and today, they even moved up a notch. To keep up spirits, they too like to break into song as if they were starring in Sound of Music. Of course, coming from a pancake flat country where half of it actually lies below water level, now would be the time to play the von Trapps. But apart from singing and enjoying themselves, they feel confident with their navigational skills which they have worked really hard on. Yesterday, they spent two hours at Polhelm while the timer was off, just enjoying the view. ‘It’s a great view that we’ll probably only get once in a lifetime,’ says Femke Mooij. ‘And when we came down to the beach at the bottom of the hill, the flies kept us motivated to get off the beach,’ laughs Winfried. Oh, and they’re not two married couples. They lied to our faces about that! So much for the Abba team dream.
Ça plane pour nous
For most teams, including the French, things are actually going quite well. Feed the Machine are really happy to have Egon on their team. Jodi of Explorer is so happy that she finally get to exercise again. A Team had been joking about taking a swim on their way to Polhelm. Little did they know that they’d do that several times. They can even laugh at being hit by the waves from a Danish naval vessel: ‘Who’d have thought that the Danish navy would capsize the British army. So much for being allied.’
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