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Chasing Les Arcs

Rob Howard / 13.09.2005

The leaders continue to pull away from the rest of field, which on day 4 is now spread out over a huge distance. The teams at the back, Costa Daurade-La Pineda Platja and Salomon Asia Pacific will soon be 24 hours behind the leaders and are still on the long trek into Chamonix. However, they will be able to complete the course if they meet the cut-off times, as the race allows teams to finish up to 48 hours after the leaders. And they will see some of the best scenery on the route this morning too, as it is a sunny day with little cloud cover.

At the front of the race the 4 leading teams completed the bike ride out of Chamonix in the hours of daylight last night, gaining on those behind them, and trekked overnight to reach the start of the following canoe stage, where they slept. (Checkpoint 38 was removed from the trekking stage, though it’s not clear why.) Les Arcs Quechua were quickest on both stages and arrived at the dark zone at the canoe start at 00.40 on Tuesday. Salomon Suisse came in next at 01.30, followed by Aigle Seybelles ESF at 2.26 and Nike ACG/Balance Bar at 2.27.

The French team have been quickest on almost all sections except canoeing, made no mistakes and their strategy for managing rest and sleep has been superb. They have stopped each night, rather than travel slower in the hours of darkness, and kept the chasing teams under pressure. When the dark zone opened again at 7am this morning they had 3 hours 52 minutes remaining to take, so they can stop for one more night and push onto the finish.

The US and Swiss teams set off with them, not wanting to lose touch, but they now have more sleep to take before the finish. (Nike ACG/Balance Bar have 5 hours 43 minutes, and Salomon Suisse 5 hours 55 minutes). So effectively Les Arcs Quechua have a lead of almost 2 hours.

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