Adventure Racing World Championship 2006
Steady Progress on Day 3
Rob Howard / 18.08.2006
They were aiming for Gear Zone 3 at the end of the trek, which was in lofty position high above a deep valley and surrounded by cliffs and waterfalls, but the checkpoint and medical staff had not been able to see more than 10m all day and had no idea of their surroundings. “It’s great to see the views at last,� said Andrew Savage, who had been marshalling there since the early hours. He is one of many international volunteers and his sister Lisa is racing on the Port Nelson team from New Zealand.
“This is a great way to come and see parts of the world you would never get to otherwise,� he said, as Swedish team Hercules closed up their bike boxes. “There have been teams coming through all the time so the race is not too stretched, though we might be here until 9am tomorrow for the final team. So we’ve been busy and it’s great to watch the teams. Some of the leaders looked much more shattered than the later teams, Team Finland and FJS in particular.�
Nearby there were 6 medical staff in bright red jackets, but they hadn’t been busy as all the teams passed through quickly with no problems. All the TA’s have medics and paramedics, often with ambulances on standby, but luckily they’ve been underemployed up to now. They all had their cameras out taking pictures of the scenery before some of them moved on elsewhere.
The cloud had affected some of the teams earlier in the day too, and Buff Coolmax had a nightmare time trying to find CP18. They spent over 4 hours wandering in the mist, before they finally located it and slipped right down the leaderboard.
SleepMonsters
