Adventure Racing World Championship 2006
So Close, So Close ...
Rob Howard / 22.08.2006
Just a few kilometres along the road on a section of works where the tarmac had been dug up, Ingrid Stengard crashed. She has been having problems staying awake, and the marshal at the final transition commented that perhaps the team were going too hard for her to keep up. “You could see she was not responding properly when anyone spoke to her. It took so long for her to understand anything and react.�
As she was at the back none of the team saw the crash but it seems most likely she fell asleep on the bike or could not control it well enough on the rough surface of the roadworks. Whatever the reason the crash was the end of the race for the team as she was too badly injured to continue. The team used their Mimas tracker and pressed the ‘push to talk’ button to call for help, and Race Director Mikael Nordstrom came out with the race ambulance.
Stengard was shaken and possibly concussed, with a swollen lip and abrasion injuries to her arm, but it was difficult for the race medics to assess her properly and she was taken off to hospital in Tarnaby for treatment. Her three shocked team mates sat in the sun by the road side with Nordstrom, hardly able to comprehend what had happened.
After 6 days of racing and so close to the finish, the race was over for Team Kustjagarna Adventure Racing.
SleepMonsters
