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Certainly not plain sailing away from the coast

Lysanne de Graaf / 24.08.2007

Most XPD teams spent the night cycling the 105 km Leg 5 to Sonoma (CP 16 / 17), near Collinsville. Lead teams reached this transition area around midnight Thursday and were out on the rogaine / orienteering Leg 6 for a good part of the night. This leg on foot involved obtaining 11 out of a possible 13 checkpoints in testing terrain through rocky landscape. While race organisers had predicted the fastest teams would take about 6 hours, the lead teams took 10 - 12 hours for Leg 6, so no team should underestimate this navigation leg.



As team 56 Mexican Stingers Carboshotz headed out on the Leg 7 cycle at around midday Friday, they looked very comfortable and had settled back in to a steady pace. While obviously happy to be in the lead, they pointed out that ‘they were just doing their own thing.’ Team 2 Orionhealth.com followed about an hour later having been able to repair a broken derailleur, which plagued them during the Leg 5 cycle. Team 20 Adrenalin Adventure Terrax returned from orienteering mid-afternoon.



Tales from teams as they cycled into Sonoma described difficult navigation, particularly during the cold night and flat tyre tally almost a competition in itself. Tales of 4 flats within 300 m for one team, usurped by another team with 5 at once, but these were little bother compared with the team who had the record of 14 just for the one leg.

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