AR World Championship 2005
A Close Race Through Reefton
16.11.2005
Cross Sportswear and Halti passed over the swing bridge close to 13.00, locked in a Swedish battle for second place. Once again Nike Balance Bar had made good progress in daylight and were only 25 minutes behind them, so they could catch them before the stage is over. Lundhags Adventure were only 5 minutes behind them and another 5 minutes later Port Nelson could be heard cheering in the woods on the far side of the bridge – happy to be riding rather than pushing, if only for a short while.
The team were in good spirits, laughing and joking as they stopped to oil their chains on the side of the highway. “It’s been really close racing,� said Tony Bateup, “we’ve seen the other teams often and it’s great to be in contention!�
“There was some tricky route choice early on, but not much lately. We’ve all been going the same way on this last section.�
His team mate Keith Riley said, “I’m alive again! I’ve had really bad sleepmonsters the last hour but seem to be coming out of it now.�
Next through were Merrell Wigwam Adventure lead by Mark Collins who has a photo of his family pinned on his map board in front of him. He was looking dazed, talking quietly and still had his headlamp on though it had been light for more than 7 hours – he’ll need it again on tonight’s trekking stage. Neil Jones was having problems with his bike too. He had no brakes and had to keep stopping to tighten a loose crank.
Next in were Sierra International, enjoying coasting down the zig-zags on the far side of the river and they were followed by Golite Timberland. Anna Keeling said she was feeling awful, and Billy Mattison shook his head when told the team were still 9th, but Aaron Prince looked strong as he lead the team through.
All these teams will be finishing the ride in daylight today and setting off on the next trek, with the aim of starting the paddling stage that follows as near to the 06.00 as possible. It’s a 45km paddle down the Buller River which is expected to take 6-7 hours … and there is a 14.30 cut off at TA9 at the end of it. Unless there is rule adjustment teams not making that cut-off will be stopped from continuing.
SleepMonsters
