The AR World Championships - Costa Rica
Tecnu battling it out for the podium with 4 other teams in the hunt
Earring Doug Judson / 09.12.2013
The dark zone bottlenecked teams and Seagate withdrawal has created a frenzy at the front of the teams battling for 3rd place. Addidas Terrex and Tecnu Extreme have been back and forth for days now, and by tonight we will have the final podium spot realized.
BMS, Quasalontra, and Merrell Adventure Addicts are all within 1.5 hours of that 3rd and final podium spot. Tecnu was running down the road towards the transition area with Karen Lundgren on tow. You could tell she was tired, but very focused. When I asked them how they were doing they said all systems were a go. They said they had lost their pack on the kayak leg, and wasted an hour having to go back and get it.
Tecnu's Kyle Peter said they had heard Seagate dropped, and that they were excited to go for the podium. They said they made the decision to sleep last night for an hour to bank it for reserves today so they didn't make any sleep deprived errors on navigation. Tecnu came into TA-11 10 minutes behind Addidas Terrex sharing 3rd place. Tecnu seemed a lot more relaxed in transition and took time eating, double-checking each other, and recovering.
When Tecnu left the transition area Addidas was already 24 minutes down the road. Tecnu seemed relaxed to run their own race versus chasing them down, and see where it ended up. I just checked the tracker and Tecnu is now in 3rd place having caught and passed Addidas who is on their trail. They are almost halfway through the bike, and it should be a sprint to the finish for these two teams who are not as of yet letting the three other teams back into the mix. Tecnu seems very determined to not relinquish that spot.
We will know later on tonight, but its white knuckle time. After 8 hard days of racing it will come down to a sprint finish for these two very experienced teams. It will be interesting to see who wants it more, and who makes a mistake trying to get to the finish line first.
SleepMonsters
