Arctic Team Challenge
An Expedition to Finish
Søren Strunge (Photos Erwin Reinthaler) / 22.07.2004
The expedition stage turned out to be nearly all on foot. A 30 km canoe leg was cancelled. “Due to strong winds and breaking waves … it’s a shame that the racers doesn’t get to go paddling in the Sermilik fjord, because it so beautiful – but it’s a safety issue� race director Hans Christian Florian explains.
Everybody struggled out there. The weather changed drastically. Rain, clouds and fog were the issue for everyone except the top teams who reached the finish line in Tasiilaq early in the morning after 20 hours of racing.
A third of the way into the expedition stage the status for the two teams at the top of the leaderboard, Saab Salomon and Tscherning, was, as they started out – neck and neck. The two teams were changenating the lead. �Saab Salomon attacked, but failed – right after Tscherning established a counterattack but didn’t succeed either� race photographer Erwin Reinthaler recounted after he’d been following the teams between two checkpoints. Saab Salomon said they couldn’t force the tempo any more and needed Tscherning to break down to be able to pull away.
Later on Tscherning pulled away and ended up winning the stage by 21 minutes in 19:52:25. Tscherning has won all the stages. With a total of 35 hours 42 minutes and 8 seconds of racing they are the champs of the Arctic Team Challenge 2004.
In 36:34:40 the mixed team of Saab Salomon finished second. They had a good expedition stage, only a few minor orienteering mistakes but they just weren’t quite strong enough to beat the all male team Tscherning.
In third place Inu:IT A/S at 42:20:37. They were not able to catch the leaders on the rough stage. The last 8 hours were especially rough to Inu:IT A/S because they had no food – they had lost a bag of foodstuffs when one of them fell into a crevasse.
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