Explore Sweden Monster - Atlantic to Baltic
A Swift Start
Kaj Glännestrand / 11.07.2010
It was hard to believe that the teams had 815 km in front of them when the start gun went at 10.00 on Saturday morning in Lofoten. Not surprisingly it was the elite teams, among them Silva and FJS, who sat the pace. In the pouring rain and under a gray cover of clouds, the teams began with a short initial mountain bike stage, only 7 km long, and the teams where together for that, but the following trekking and coasteering stage soon stretched them out.
When the time came to enter the swim across Kjerkfjorden there was a big gap between the first and last team.
First into the water was Silva, followed by Polarpuls and FJS. Between the three there was only a few minutes. The last team, AMI Explorer, went into water two hours after Silva. Just in front of them where Zero to Hero. The Americans had to fight hard in the water because they had rather weak flotation devices in the form of leaky air mattresses that constantly needed more air.
The leading teams were all fitted with sturdy mattress and therefore they also had better speed over the fjord.
The first four teams came in to CP1 with only 20 minutes separation and this stayed the same at TA1 and TA2.
By then the teams were split into four groups. In the first were four teams and FJS and Silva shared the lead, with Polarpuls and Sweco Karlstad close behind.
Only about one hour behind them was a trio; Karsu.fi, Statkraft and Lafuma Vibram. The trio was followed by five teams, Mountain Loghome, Xtreme Compass, Sports Nature, Solomon Logistics and Robinzonada.
In the last group there were just two teams - AMI Explore and Zero to Hero.
Given the fast pace by TA2 the teams were over four hours ahead of the estimated time. It remains to be seen if they have pushed themselves too hard and will have to pay for it later on, or if they judged their strengths accurately and can continue to keep up the pace. A lot of things can still happen, the monster has just begun!See All Event Posts
