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A Storm is Brewing

Jon Brooke / 28.05.2004

Last night the teams set off on an 87 k.m. bike ride through an area that has been ravaged and de-populated by the war. The teams passed by many ruined buildings, hoping to get to checkpoint 16 before 6 a.m. as they would be able to bank time (and sleep) with no penalty before then, but only the first eight teams managed it.

Adria Lada were the first getting around 4 hours sleep, followed by Osiguranje Zagreb, eVent Endure, Gatorade Finland, The North Face, Clight, Salomon Opavanat and Snow and Rock. Others had the option to push on when they arrived or sleep during race time. In the event all of the teams waiting at the checkpoint chose to push on immediately the dark zone was lifted except for team Gatorade who slept for an extra hour before leaving.

After the enforced rest the next discipline was kayaking, 19 km down river to Visovacko Jerezo lake, which has a beautiful monastery on an island in the middle, but probably the lead teams at least didn’t have time to appreciate it. First there were Adria Lada from Croatia at 8.34, with the next five teams arriving within 5 minutes of them. A little slower on the section were the all woman team of Clight from Brasil and Snow and Rock of the UK, taking around 15 minutes longer.

On the side of the lake where the kayaks landed a road winds up a steep 200 meter hill and the original course handbook said that teams should carry their kayaks to the top before proceeding on foot. In the end though this was cancelled, to the relief of many, but probably taking an hour out of the race for the teams.

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