Southern Traverse
Sunny day for tired racers
Claire Hathaway / 19.11.2002
However, at the rate Seagate.com and Sportzhub.com are going, it seems they’ve had their minds on serious business, not sight-seeing. They are making major headway at this stage.
Earlier in the day race director Geoff Hunt said so far the Southern Traverse 2002 has seen the lowest number of early withdrawals with only one team having to pull out due to injury.
However, he said there was still time for things to change. “They will soon be facing the toughest leg of the race, anything can happen in the Richmond Ranges.�
The two leading teams are approaching checkpoint 25, the first checkpoint in the grueling 48km mountain trek. Lythogoe, Star and Garter/High Country, Kathmandu, and Southern Flyers are chasing the leaders and are approaching transition area 7 at Butchers Flat, the beginning of the mountain trek. The mountain trek takes the teams over the Richmond Ranges, the leading teams are estimated to take 19hrs to complete this stage. It will be tough, especially at this stage of the game.
Today the middle pack were going well, mainatining a steady pace. At the back of the field SPOR and Team Queenstown Night and Day are still on their bikes approaching transition area three at Duncan Bay.
Endorphin Junkies from Singapore were driven from transition area two to transition area five where they will carry on the race, but not as competitors.
It looks like the leading teams will paddle into Blenheim at about mid-day tomorrow. They will be paddling 73km from the Wairau River to the Opawa River into and up the Taylor River.
SleepMonsters
