Garmin Trans Portugal
Storms and a Crash Shorten the Day
Agnelo Quelhas / 10.05.2010
From Albernoa the athletes rode across the Alentejo plains of Castro Verde and Ourique to the dam of Monte da Rocha, where they began to have some difficulties. The initial part of the stage was done along deep Alentejo, where social and economic progress are still a future perspective, and where it is common to see people travelling in vehicles pulled by animals and where agriculture seems to be much less developed then in the north.
The stage rode slowly partly because of the strong south wind that blew all day long. From the beginning of the afternoon there was also some heavy and unstoppable rain. Many of the athletes were taken by surprise and forced to wear appropriate gear in order to avoid the discomfort of peddling in wet clothes. Despite the effort it was not enough to fight the heavy rain that fell stronger as the day went on turning in to a storm that led the athletes to arrive sopping wet from head to toe at the end of the stage in Monchique.
And the day’s unfortunate events were only beginning. Between CP-8B and CP-8C Belgian athlete Lindsey Haak , that rode most of stage isolated in front of the race had a serious fall, leaving her injured and without consciousness for a moment. Lindsey was evacuated to Odemira Medical Center and then transferred to a central Hospital in Lisbon where she still remains. Until now there is no news about her condition. However, the first medical observation performed at the location of the accident revealed no serious injuries with some bruises and a possible fracture of the facial bone. The first person to arrive near Lindsey were South-Africa born Greg Anderson, followed by Luís Leão Pinto, who despite the poor mobile phone signal, immediately contacted the organization and gave medical assistance to Lindsey possible.
As the athletes rode the cold and even some hypothermia cases arose, aggravating the already bad day. The rain turned in to storm and made the race even more difficult for everyone, leading the organization to neutralize the stage from CP-8B, considering the classifications of the athletes from that point on and recalculating handicaps, since the stage was shortened from 137 Km to 66 Km.
At the end of the day, Greg Anderson was the leader, separated from Marco Almeida, Luís Leão Pinto and Tiago Silva by 9 minutes. Ffth was Stijn Fonk with a difference of 10 seconds from this trio.
Tomorrow the Transportugal GARMIN will ride its last stage of the 2010 edition. In Algarve territory, since today, this last stage will take the athletes to the sea shore where the sight of the sea after Carrapateira will give them an opportunity to breathe deep and remember all the amazing experiences lived in the last eight days. Pain, satisfaction, anger, courage, determination, companionship, friendship and so many other emotions were part of this long and hard race across unknown Portugal.
There will be 99 Km and 2028 m off climbs until praia do Martinhal and the end of Transportugal GARMIN 2010
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