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Nike Second and Golite Make Their Move

Rob Howard / 18.11.2005

Nike Balance Bar may have lost their World title to Balance Vector, but they’ve used all their experience and skill to take second place. Their strategy of taking more sleep than their rivals in transitions has helped them move quicker over the ground, and overnight on the trek though the Paparoa range they pulled away from Sierra International and overtook Port Nelson to move into second place.

Sierra were still only 5 minutes down on them at the first of trekking checkpoints after a steep climb through the bush, but subsequently fell back, as did Port Nelson who slipped from 2nd to 6th on the last night of the race. The climb at the start of the trek proved too much for UK team Aberdeen Asset Management, who turned round and withdrew from the race. “It was just near vertical bush,� said Chris Near, “and we knew there was no way we could complete the course so we stopped there.�

Of those who did continue it was US/Kiwi team Golite Timberland who made the best progress, moving up into 3rd position. After making the rope crossing Aaron Prince said, “We had a difficult decision to make between routes on 2 ridges ... and we chose the right one and gained a couple of hours. Otherwise we’d have been racing with some of the Swedish teams to the finish which would have been really hard.�

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