arrive in Marseilles tonight having travelled 1100 from Paris, where
they started ten days ago with Horse Riding.
The final stage included another leg of horse riding, mountain biking
and Kayaking, however when teams arrived at the sea a force 4 wind was
blowing onshore and as some of the teams had only sit on top kayaks
the Organisation decided to postpone the section until tomorrow, when
they would move the start nearer to Marseilles and restarting.
The Ride and Run on local Camargue horses, saw teams starting at one
minute intervals in reverse order. There was little need to trot as
the teams had plenty of time to complete the section. The horses
tended to group naturally together, so this was a relaxing non
competitive stage. Only one team MARINE NATIONALE - LATTITUDE 55
appeared to have a problem when the changed over, as their mount
wanted to catch up with the others without waiting to be mounted. All
the teams exceeded the minimum two hour time limited so had to wait at
the end of the leg before they could enter transition.
The next leg was ride a run using mountain Bikes, and here its was
noticeable that teams who had competed previously in The Oman Bike and
Run Adventure. Had an advantage, so it was no surprise to see MARINE
NATIONALE - LATTITUDE 55 who are unclassified leading the teams onto
the beach, WILSA SPORT HELLY HANSEN posted the fastest time and HELLY
HANSEN UK were seen to be running at race pace despite the heat. They
consumed between 10-12 liters of water during the six hours they were
racing.
Tonight the racers will camp on a beach with their support crews
before setting off in the early hours of the morning for a short 30K
paddle to the finish at a Beach to the East of Marseilles.
A Number of teams were given penalties in stage 5 for leaving the
canyon by an unauthorisd road and werr spotted by the GeoPointer
tracking system, on of the teams caught were HELLY HANSEN UK and they
have dropped to sixth posisition in the ranking
Barring accidents the lead in the three classes is not likely to
change during the final leg. WILSA SPORT HELLY HANSEN will be crowned
winners tomorrow night by The Mayor of Marseilles at the prize giving
in the town hall.