Untamed New England Expedition: Maine Highlands
Peak Performance continued to hold the lead on the Abenaki Lost World
Press Release / 20.06.2014
Day 2 of Untamed New England Adventure Race, sponsored by Plum Creek, brought lots of excitement. Peak Performance continued to hold the lead on the Abenaki Lost World trek throughout the day, maintaining about a three hour lead on Teams Sweco Adventure, Columbia Vidaraid, Team France and Raidlight who were chasing close behind. The satellite tracking, provided by Pinnacle Tracking, shows teams making very different decisions through Leg 3 such as whether or not to packraft and how to approach the mountaintops. In the early hours of the morning, however, it appeared that all the lead teams chose to stay overnight on the mountain which will make for an exciting morning at TA3.
In other team news, Grit N Gears faced its own set of challenges. Making a strategic decision to sleep on Big Kineo Island Wednesday night, they faced strong winds early Thursday morning, missing Lily Bay completely and finding themselves instead in the Town of Greenville. They were re-routed and are continuing the race unofficially.
Cops 4 a Cause hopped on their bikes at TA1 and decided to pedal all the way to Greenville for a cup of coffee at C.M. Brown’s. After some rejuvenating caffeine they got themselves back on course. Cheerful and methodical, they are navigating very well despite being at the rear of the pack.
Several teams faced bike breakdowns. Greg Voelkel of Team Rev 3 broke a derailleur right after CP 13 and had to travel single speed all the way to CP18 at Gorman Chairback Lodge. Volunteer Mike Sarnowski, co-owner of MadAthlete, a Gold Sponsor of UNE14, came to the rescue and lent the team his bike. As luck would have it, Team No Boundaries also experienced bike problems with a broken rear brake. When the team arrived at CP18, Mike came to the rescue yet again – borrowing the brake from Team Rev 3’s defunct bike. Now that’s teamwork! Other bike news – on the way to TA2 Columbia Vidaraid’s navigator took a bad fall off his bike and was shaken up, but all indications are that he has recovered except for the tell-tale bruises and gashes.
Eight teams did not make the 7:00PM cutoff at Gorman Chairback Lodge, and have been rerouted to the Alternate Course 1, along with the four teams racing unofficially. These teams will bike to TA3 at Mudbrook Camp.
Weather conditions forced the race organizers to cancel Stage 1 of the 4th leg, the paddle from Mudbrook Camp at Lily Bay to Greenville. This created a logistical challenge for headquarters, as plans needed to be reconsidered. Teams finishing the trek will need to be transported to Greenville.
As of Thursday morning only three teams have officially dropped out: Finalin, Walhalla and Keeping Up With Carly.
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