2008 Primal Quest Expedition Adventure Race
A New Day of Racing Heats Up The Primal Quest Field
Craig Stein / 26.06.2008
Day 3 recap from PQ contributing writer Craig Stein
Wednesday June 25, 2008 - Emigrant Montana
By Craig Stein
A new dawn met sleepy racers this morning at Check Point 12 on the Yellowstone River. The top three teams made this transition area during the early morning hours only to find that the sea kayak section on the Yellowstone to Big Timber, Montana had been cancelled. The river is flowing at 9.5 ft. which qualifies it as being in moderate flood stage. Fully grown cottonwood tree trunks are freely floating down the river colliding with bridges, creating unsafe conditions for race teams to enter the cold, brown, boiling waters. Local rafting companies have cancelled all float trips.
Team Nike was first into the boating transition area this morning at 2:15 AM. Mike Kloser looking very energetic said, "We feel pretty good but we need to sleep for a while!" He certainly did not seem to mind that the paddling had been eliminated. Within minutes Team Nike had been fed and was off to their sleeping bags for an early rise and departure at 6:02 AM.
Second place team, Merrell/Zanfel Adventure arrived at 5:10 AM and slept for about three and a half hours. TeamPeakAdventure.com who arrived at 5:45 AM and checked out to the bike section at 9:03 AM was in great looking shape and set out to catch the two front runners.
Team Nike, who are world champion mountain bikers, made the 75 mile long paved bike section to check point 15 around mid morning. They then turned their bikes towards the Crazy Mountains and another brutal trekking segment.
Team Merrell/Zanfel Adventure and TeamPeakAventure.com road the section within miles of each other and arrived at the check point with Merrell in first and Peak Adventure in a very close second.
Unfortunately, TeamPeakAdventure.com's support crew had not beaten their team to the check point therefore they had to wait for required gear before proceeding. After mandatory gear checks the teams got back on their bikes, hit the gravel road and were soon at the entrance to the Crazy Mountains at Big Timber Canyon.
Controversy arose this afternoon as team Merrell/Zanfel Adventure questioned wether they should be required to carry snowshoes into the next trek when Nike did not. Final word from HQ was that they must take the snowshoes or face certain penalties. Team Nike's fate for not carrying snowshoes is still unknown. When asked about the decision, Robyn Benincasa of team Merrell/Zanfel Adventure replied, "I told Mikey (Mike Kloser) that if they won again we were going to have a rumble afterward to see who was really the toughest."
Photo 1 by Aaron Swisher, Photo 2 by Craig Stein
SleepMonsters
