Land Rover G4 Challenge
Points Taken
01.05.2006
The most intensely competitive day of the event so far followed a-far from an ideal night’s sleep - after disturbances from a lost and lonely heifer wandering around the tents, mooing a high decibel 5am alarm call.
She wasn’t the only one having problems with navigation. Italy’s Marco Martinuzzi and Turkey’s Tolga Senefe struggled to reach their first competition - ironically it was orienteering – and at one point ended up in thick, sloppy mud as orange as their Range Rover, with a tailback of media and support vehicles.
But other teams had more luck combining their GPS with 22-year-old Lao maps and prominent landmarks. By camp, most had managed to complete five competitions, including the spectacular final compulsory event - a combination of running, zip wiring across the generous expanse of the Nam Lik River, swimming and finally kayaking in front of hundreds of mesmerised locals.
‘We were last to leave camp with our Strategy Pit ranking,’ said Spain’s Gabriel Maldonado. ‘Then we did the mountain bike orienteering, where we ran through paddy fields carrying our bikes, which was crazy - it took one and a quarter hours. But we still had time to easily complete five competitions.’
A sharp contrast to the relatively small number attempted on Stage One, the extra activity meant a major change of focus for the teams. ‘With less strategy needed to get around, there was more pressure on the actual event,’ said Japan’s Takashi Sugiyama. ‘It meant you had to go flat out.’
SleepMonsters
