XPD Australia
Blackheart.com.au Win XPD
Geoff Hunt (AR World Series Director) / 25.05.2010
Team Blackheart.com.au strolled into the Rydges hotel looking for the finish line of XPD 2010, which in the tradition of the race is a couch (or in this case some deck chairs). As they walked round the pool they were greeted by a round of applause from 30 people waiting to cheer them in, including some media cameras, race staff and a couple of teams. (In fact there were more Kiwis than Australian here to meet them). They took their seats on the finish at 20.55.A bottle of champagne is produced and sprayed around and now the team is sitting in the chairs chatting to the locals and other teams. They seem glad to finish but are not looking too tired and estimate about 11 and half hours sleep got hem through the race. Of this about 5 was on the first nights dark zone at the river put -in, The team stopped this morning in the jungle to change socks and Kim Willock managed a extra 7 mins according to the boys.
I asked Rob what sentence would best describe their race and his first answer was "'to beat Orion�, adding “without them pulling out". I guess that one will have to wait till another day.
His second comment was "that this course was fitting for a World Championship race"
Rob speaks to Craig Bycroft (Race Director) next, and says, “We went out expecting a 4 day race and it took over 6 and a half!� Craig responded; "Sorry about that!"
The next team McCain Adventure Addicts are expected in three or four hours time.
It also appears that Merrell/Akali may be having some navigational problems as they appear a kilometre off the wrong side of the ridge – which puts them in ‘tiger county’. The race book specifically makes reference to the importance of staying on the tops and says if they stray into tiger country they will find it hard to get out again.See All Event Posts
