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Thrills,spills and surprises

Anne-Marie Dunhill / 27.04.2010

The race started at 10:00 a.m Saturday morning under bright blue skies. Teams lined up at the starting arch on the beach and the usual mad dash ensued for the kayaks. A few teams had difficulty catching the wave that would take them out to sea and several Spanish swear words were heard as they tried to right their kayaks. The paddling was to take the teams from La Pineda to Salou.

The assistants road book estimated 45 minutes for this section so Genevieve (my co-assistant) and I sped off to the next transition area. Luckily the road book was impeccable and we reached the transition in time because it was a fast section. Buff was first out of the water (43:43) followed by my team Qualixpert(44:30) and by the end of the second kayak section we were ahead by a second; seeing the team that one is assisting ahead of the pack is an exhilarating feeling so early in the game!

On the beach of Cambrils the teams peeled off their wet-suits and did a quick transition to mountain bikes, peddling in-land. Driving through the tiny Spanish stone villages our support van got caught behind a semi winding its way through a village and causing a massive traffic jam;we were nervous wrecks as the lead teams were racing faster then the estimated times.

We made it to Alforja with little time to spare and the boys barreled in to make the transition to the trekking and rollerblading section. Buff and Qualixpert were in the lead at this point, having each finished the section in 1:35 and spirits were high.

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