Explore Sweden Monster - Atlantic to Baltic
Day 2; Silva Gerber Unchallenged in the Lead
Malin Andersson / 13.07.2010
After a day of tough mountaineering and a long mountain bike leg team Silva Gerber have increased their lead in Explore Sweden Monster. The lead teams are still running enormously fast – a lot faster than race director Mikael Lindnord expected.“I’m usually good at predicting the time teams will take, but this year two teams are going much faster than I had expected. It’s obvious that they have taken another step up – if you look at the average speed you can see that they are racing faster than in previous years. It’s great to see that the sport is developing,�says Mikael.
The mountaineering by the little Norwegian village Svolvaer was one of the crucial parts of the race and took the first teams eleven hours to complete. They had to pass “Djevelsportalen�, “The Devil’s Portal�, at one point and the name pretty much speaks for itself.
In the next mountin bike section the teams also had a practical issue to cope with. They had to catch the ferry between Lødingen and Bognes that went every other hour. The top teams Silva Gerber and FJS both came just in and on the ferry they got their first rest since the start yesterday morning.
“FJS looked really tired and slept for an hour on the ferry and then another hour when the ferry landed�, said Lindnord who happened to take the same ferry as the second team.
Some hours after FJS came the Swedish teams Sweco Karlstad and Statkraft and a few hours after them come Kompar Xstream from theCzech Republic and Sport Nature VLG from France.
One remarkable and fun episode of today’s race was when the Finnish team Karsu.fi took the opportunity for some badly needed sleep – a five minute powernap on the floor of a Shell petrol station! Then they were fit to race again!
The Monster continues at high speed and soon the teams will enter Sweden. You can see more pictures at www.exploresweden.seSee All Event Posts
