Keen Adventure Race - Alps to the Ocean
Stage 2/3: It was a very late night for some of the teams.
Jacqueline Windh / 09.04.2008
As we suspected it would be, last night was a very late night for some of the teams. This was brought into perspective for some of the faster teams as they drove back up the hill, from the Finish in Mt Beauty back up to Falls Creek. I caught a ride up with AtenahMerrell’s Ian, Nora and support crew Genevieve. Ian and Nora thought that they had had a long day of racing – and groaned out loud as we passed two teams riding the highway beside Bogong at 6pm, yet to do the ropes/orienteering and still with a monstrous bike ride ahead of them.
Most teams made it to the finish yesterday. About ten did not make the 6pm ropes cut-off, and a couple did not make the recommended 10pm mountain biking cut-off so rode from Bogong to Mt Beauty on the road. (Those who did do the second mountain biking section before dark wondered how later teams would manage both the uphills and downhills, all very technical, by headlight).
The second-last team to make it to the finish was Hong Kong’s KARMA!, arriving in at 11pm, and last ones in were WA’s honeymooning couple Kusai’s Still King, arriving at a minute after midnight.
The long stage 3 started an hour and a half ago, with an orienteering paddle/run exercise on the lake. From here they will hike back up to the Bogong Plains (and it is another gorgeous day to do that – check out photo galleries from yesterday that I am currently loading up, on the left of this screen), then transition to mountain bike, then a river paddle. From there they head out to a long 9+ hour trek that will take them overnight.
Five teams did not start this morning:
Parks Victoria (withdrawn due to broken leg yesterday)
Mountain Designs (Rob is sick, probably from over-exertion)
Safari
Warrnabool (“out of our depth�)
Something to do with Goats (bike problems)
Team Rapido, that DNF’d yesterday’s route, is back on course this morning.
SleepMonsters
