Estoril Portugal XPD Race 08
The Concertina Race
Rob Howard / 02.12.2008
It did close up the spread of teams and stopped any teams being benighted out in the Sado Estuary. Even so, two who had already set off were benighted. The team from Croatia and Bike Point Jenna of Germany were caught by the retreating tide and mud and had to overnight in the estuary. One rang in to let the organisers know and said they were building a fire on the shore, but it is not clear which of the two teams it was. Both are now likely to miss the cut off at Assistance Area 2 at Vendas Novas, and be directed to the short course.
The leaders and those who had cut some checkpoints on the paddle to get in by nightfall now faced a tough night time trek in the dark through an area of deep sand dunes, with no navigational markers to guide them. Nicolas Mulder of South African team Cyanosis said, “It was desperate. We were going so slowly, not even a kilometre in 15 minutes and the navigation was really hard. I was very tired as I’d not slept and kept bumping into things so we had 3 short powernaps in the night. I thought we’d lost many places.� In fact they had moved up the race field, so everyone else was having a harder time then they were!
Stopping for too long in the open wasn’t an option either as it was the coldest night so far. By early morning there was a heavy frost on the ground and the mud puddles were coated in ice. (Something which our Portuguese driver found so amazing he stopped to look at it!) Before dawn it was several degrees below zero, but at least the sky was clear of rain clouds and a fine day followed. Only one, however, rain is forecast to return by tomorrow.
First to leave the next transition to mountain bikes were the Team Accelerate from theUK, but it seems there was only one team in the race who have completed all the checkpoints up to Vendas Novas (mandatory and optional) and this was Team Finland. Buff Coolmax had missed one optional CP and also stopped on the mountain biking when they found a chalet and some beds to sleep in. They took the opportunity and slept for a couple of hours. Benjamiin Medina said the owner found them all asleep and left them, then gave them a big bill when they woke up!
SleepMonsters
