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Day five

Anne-Marie Dunhill / 13.11.2009

After the excitement of the cut-off at 9 pm yesterday, teams scattered during the night. They could sleep if they wanted to but only if they were more than 100 metres away from the CP. They also had to carry all the equipment they already had when leaving the AP.

The organisation has confirmed this morning that 39 teams have checked out ahead of the cut-off.

Teams have had to go on windy roads in the mountains without light and with trucks overtaking them. Emma Rocca from Buff was in a very good mood and said she was expecting her husband's arrival with her twins the following day and that this was motivating.

Teams that have not taken all CPs arrived first and a big bottleneck was formed. Nike, Orion and Lundhags arrived around midnight and Lundhags was the only team to be able to checkout quickly. The two other teams had to sleep before they could go through. George Christison from Nike woke up freezing cold. Nike seems to be very scattered with the long transitions in this race and not well organised. Yet, they are still leading the race.

Today Buff decided to cut two CPs on the 160km mountain bike section. Teams were refining their strategy for the mountain bike section, the longest section of the race.

According to several navigators, there is a possibility to cut 70km by staying on off-map roads. Today Alexandre Guedes da Silva, the race director, is convinced that all CPs can be taken but delays in relation to the forecasts still lengthen. Samuel Hubert from Ertips said this morning that it would not be possible. When their team was asking questions about other teams, Audrey Ehanno, their female team member, asked them to concentrate on their own race. She is right because Alexandre Guedes da Silva said that the real race actually starts now and it is time to plug one's brain again.

Marvao Castle was at the end of the first section of stage 4. This old relic of the Templars provided beautiful scenery for the teams. In order to obtain all CPs in that section teams had to validate a hidden beacon through the Traitor's gate. Unfortunately one team has gone without validating this section. Absolue Raid have left early this morning and they were in much better shape than yesterday after having spent a good night and forgotten yesterday's mistakes.

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