Raid in France - The Adventure Race World Championships 2012
The Leaders Through AT14
Rob Howard & Anne-Marie Dunhill / 19.09.2012
The race leaders are approaching the finish line, but the challenges are not over yet and there is still a close contest for the podium places.
Seagate passed through AT14 this morning, about to start the last big trek of the race, and still holding a commanding lead. They left the checkpoint in a high mountain basin at 11.15, and it wasn’t until 16.37 that the second placed team followed them. The leaders looked in good spirits and barring major mistakes or accidents they will be racing ‘downhill’ to the finish through the night and all being well are expected to cross the line in the early hours of the morning.
Team Thule Adventure have held onto second place and have not given up hope of retaining their World Title, though they know it’s a slim hope. Team captain Martin Flinta was clearly having a lot of discomfort from his feet at the transition. When the team arrived he was pedalling with his feet on top of his bike shoes, and he subsequently ripped out the lining of his training shoes and cut them open so he could get his feet in. To make matters worse teams are not allowed to use trekking poles in the National Park, so he had to leave his behind as he hobbled onto the last trek of the race.
Raid Quechua arrived at 17.23, just 4 minutes ahead of Team Silva, but it was the Swedish team who left the transition first, this despite Bjorn Rydvall and Robert Lindberg suffering from bad stomachs, though this might have been a consequence of them stopping for ice creams in Saint-Martin Vésubie before riding steeply uphill to the transition!
This town had a checkpoint under the balcony of the mayor’s office, and Raidlight Canoe Evasion stopped here for a long rest, laid out and wrapped up in bivvy bags and plastic sheeting on the Mayor’s doorstep! This team had pushed hard in the middle of the race and briefly took second place, but have now fallen back.
The next team through was also French, Vibram Lafuma, and they took rested up in town and called into one of the towns top restaurants to see if they could buy a sandwich! They had passed adidas TERREX during the day and this means there are now 3 French teams in the top 6 going into the final day of the race.
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