---

Macpac Move into the Lead after a day of Mishaps for Thule

Team Thule Adventure / 28.04.2010

It was a rough day for us in this last stage. All started well with a fast run where we got away again with Macpac, and Smartwool not far back. On the bikes and we got a small gap on the first climb but it was back and forth between Macpac and us for the whole ride.

A big downhill brought us to the kayak stage and after enduring a barrage of Chinese from a police boat trying to point us in the wrong direction we set off trying to gap Macpac, with Smartwool still close behind. We slowly increased the gap to Smartwool. but after 2 hours of trying to shake Macpac it was time to reassess and we ended up swapping turns on the front.

Elina and I had either a boat with a slow leak or had somehow punctured the bottom pontoon and gradually the effort required to hang onto the wash increased to the point where we were pretty much at max for the last 2 ½ hours. The boats were extraordinarily slow and it was probably a blessing it was dark so we couldn’t see just how slowly we were going. The reservoir was also filled with fish farms that required a fair amount of navigation to avoid hitting them!

Finally reaching the rest point it was a shock to hear Karl’s MTB shoes had somehow been lost overboard and not retrieved meaning we had to make some hasty plans to get us through the following section on the bikes. Six hours later after a few hours sleep and plenty of food we were off in the first rays of light for 42km with 700m of climbing.

It was slightly ironic that given the problems I’ve endured in the last few years with ripping off derailleur’s or sustaining other bike damage requiring odd methods to make it to the finish that now my bike was running beautifully I ended up giving up my MTB shoes to Karl and going in runners to try and maximise our pace. 42 km in runners wasn’t much fun but we kept Macpac within sight much to both our teams surprise I think and put further time on the chasers.

The last section was a grovel up yet more steps to a great abseil and back down to the finish. So going into the final day Macpac leads by just over 3 minutes on Thule Adventure and then there is a good gap to Smartwool.

The last day is 42 km on the MTB, 24 km running, 9km rafting and an adventure skill to finish.

See All Stories On This Race