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Shuteye for Seagate as Kiwis Build Lead

John-Michael Flynn (Images by Mark Watson) / 30.04.2005

By the time the Kiwi raiders crossed the finish line of this evening’s 74 kilometre mountain bike stage in the coastal hamlet of Denmark, a sizeable, though by no means commanding lead of close to seven minutes had been established over their nearest rivals, Britain’s Saab Salomon.

On a course which today provided few challenges in terms of navigation and technical difficulty during individual disciplines, the real enemy proved to be the sheer pace of the race, which claimed numerous victims, as it surely will do again tomorrow.

Seagate finished the day’s 94 kilometre mountain bike leg, 14 kilometre canoe, 18 kilometre run and final 74 kilometre mountain bike leg, in an overall time of 10 hours, eleven minutes and 49 seconds. The kiwis now close to seven minutes ahead of the British challengers Saab Salomon (10:18:43) and 10 minutes in front of Aussie rivals AROC/Mountain Designs (10:21:59), who appear to be getting stronger as the race progresses.

How It Unfolded – The Afternoon Run & Ride Stages.

Chatting with SleepMonsters at the end of the third running stage, Seagate’s Richard Ussher was still bouncing around, despite the fatigue seemingly setting in among rival teams.

“The run leg was pretty good, we were a little bit unsure at the start we got shuffled back through the teams, but that was good because we had lots of teams to chase,� Ussher said.

“I think we managed to catch up maybe a minute on Saab Salomon, so that was really good because they were always regarded as good runners.�

Seagate had done more than catch up on Saab Salomon, they had in fact taken the race lead during stage three by a handy four minutes.

Unfortunately though, there were logical and painful reasons for why Seagate had made short work of running down the slick Saab’s.

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