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Tuesday - Teams In and Out

Rob Howard / 15.11.2005

As dusk fell on Tuesday evening the first cut-off was reached, and teams still out on the trek across the Lyell Range knew they would miss the rafting stage and could only continue unranked. (Though they will be credited with a finish position.)

To do so however they face the prospect of continuing with another long trek of up to 24 hours across the Brunner Range, and that will take exceptional endurance and mental strength. They can sleep in comfort at Lyell camp ground tonight, but know there is another dark zone and cut-off still to come, and that they will need to increase their pace to stand any chance of making them. Some may choose to withdraw rather than continue in the morning.

The teams who missed the cut-off were as follows;

30 – ATP
6 – QuasarLontra
13 – Hardtale.com
5 – Salomon – OpavaNet Czech
16 – Subaru Canada
34 – Sportzhub.com

Fourteen teams withdrew on Tuesday, almost all on the Lyell Range trek. Some were making too little progress to stand any chance of finishing, and others had difficulty locating checkpoints. Those who did pull out had long treks back out to the Lyell Camp Ground.

Two surprise withdrawals were last year’s winners, Team Kathmandu and Buff Nike ACG who had left TA5 in a top 10 position but subsequently pulled out due to injury.

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