Primal Quest
Bridgedale Ireland 5th – The Chase Is On
10.07.2002
Bridgedale Ireland are moving up the leaderboard of the World’s Richest Adventure Race every day but now they’ve reached the giddy heights of 5th place in Primal Quest the tables are turned and they will have to race just to keep their position.
They are among the best expedition racing teams in the world, hardly anyone of significance is missing, and today their position improved when one of the teams ahead, the World Champions Nokia Adventure, were pulled from the race. (Mikka Hirvinen was evacuated with symptoms typical of pulmonary edema brought on by poor acclimatisation to altitude - impaired breathing due to liquid in the lungs and a very low blood oxygen level.) But unless another top team drops out they can’t realistically climb any higher up the rankings, and now have a pack of chasing teams nipping at their heels.
This is the result of the dark zone enforced on the kayaking stage. Only the 4 teams ahead of them got to CP19 by 4.30pm and set off on the kayaking stage. Anyone arriving after that, had to stop and wait until 6am next morning so the race was effectively split. The lead teams were away and clear in their own race and the rest regrouped. Bridgedale Ireland were the first to arrive after the dark zone was applied, at 7.32pm, and while they will be glad of the chance to grab 8 hours sleep, they are now under pressure. When they restarted and they set off down a series of canyons in 2 man inflatable kayaks they had 11 other teams setting off less than an hour behind them. All of them are now chasing the Irish team and are after their 5th place spot. (The unranked Team EcoInternet/Golite including Pete James are with this chasing pack too.)
For the Anglo/US team ‘Kinetic Energy’ the chase is on as well but their challenge is to beat the cut off times so they can stay in the race. Having reached the first CP in last place they too have improved every day, and on the 3rd day of racing are up to 40th place, still trying to complete the epic second stage, a 123 mile mtb ride. The cut off’s have been announced and they must finish the ride, reaching CP 13 by midday or they are out of the race. They went through CP11 at 9am and have only 11 miles to go reach CP13 and beat the cut off …..
At the front of the race the New Zealand team SoBe/Smartwool are setting an amazing pace, chased by the even more amazing Team Montrail who have already served an 8 hour penalty! Behind them are Golite and the Spanish team Red Bull. (Full information and leaderboard positions are on the race web site.)
SleepMonsters
