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The final stage

Louize Hill/Filomena Gomes/Togumi / 09.12.2007

Today's stage took the race from the waters of the Tagus River, back across the mountains and finished on the coast in Estoril. The last teams finished the paddling section late in the night. This section cost the Czech team, Alpine Pro/Nutrend/Merida (23) their lead, they set off one hour before the other Czech team, Tilak/OpavaNet/Merida (22), but lost their maps in the river, and arrived two hours after Tilak.

Following the paddling section there was another long trekking section. This section was the undoing of the Finnish team, Master Unit (25), who made three orienteering mistakes, and didn't arrive in the Transition Area (AT)3 before the cut off time for the start of the mountain biking section. They decided they didn't want to be transferred, but preferred to quit.

Today a number of teams cut a fine line with the cut off times for sections. The mountain biking section closed at midday, Team TEVA-La Pinilla team arrived in Sintra only a few minutes before 12:00. The cut off time for the final paddling section was at 15:00. This meant the many teams had to take the quickest route possible on the trekking section, missing out the optional checkpoints including the one with rappel. There would have been spectacular views from this checkpoint over the Serra de Sintra mountains, the Palacio de Pena and the Moorish Castle – if it hadn't been so foggy!

The weather this week has alternated between good and bad weather, after yesterdays glorious sunshine, today was again started out overcast with drizzle. As the day progressed the clouds cleared and the sunshine was out by the time the teams got back to the water.

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