It’s now 01h40 and McCain are still trekking – in the dark again. Good news is that they’re on what looks like easier terrain and they should be at CP17, the end of the hike, within the next hour or two. Merrell has slipped ahead of them. Orion and Blackheart reached the CP about seven hours ago. They seems to have slept for an hour or two and now both teams are blitzing on bikes.
On the ‘XPD Saturday small” video clip on the event website you’ll hear Tatum on a voice over – and one of the guys, maybe Tweet? You also get to see some clips of them on Friday’s paddle stage. They were looking good. I hope they’re still looking as good!
A media release, posted on SleepMonsters, describes this trekking stage as:
This is a trekking challenge of a lifetime – a big map, no roads and endless possibilities. This is real outback savannah country, with a wicked reputation for a lot of spear grass, and it doesn’t get more extraordinary than this. Expect many teams to suffer grief from the spear grass on this leg – it will be interesting to follow the fast Aussie teams who are taking the spear grass seriously and preparing thoroughly with tape, as opposed to the fast international teams who seem more relaxed in their approach to the evil seeds!
Merrell (beige) and McCain (grey). Merrell’s last track update at 00h51. McCain at 01h26.
I captured this screen shot at 02h00 their time.
The following was posted on SleepMonsters – probably early this afternoon (our time) – by Orion Adventure.
With an absence of reliable reports from the field, here is a very unreliable speculation of the teams progress in the 60km trekking stage that they are now on.
Orion arrived at the end of the kayak first and were the first team to head out on the 60km trekking stage through Chillagoe station at 3:10pm. McCain Adventure addicts were next to depart at 3:30. Merrell left sometime around there and Blackheart started their trek just after 5pm. Blackheart took a different route from the other teams passing to the north of a large hill while Orion, McCain and Merrell went to the south.
There didn’t seem to be any great advantage gained either way. Orion stopped for a sleep at about 6:30pm which was probably overdue as I don’t think that they had slept since the mid camp stop about 28 hours before. Once they got going again they were still ahead of Blackheart but struggled to find the first (and only) checkpoint on this stage. They spent an hour looking for it before Blackheart showed up. Who then found the checkpoint first is unclear however both teams then moved on together at around midnight. McCain reached the checkpoint at about that time but then stopped themselves to sleep.
A bit further back on the course Merrell/Akali were having some navigation trouble searching for the checkpoint in completely the wrong place (wild speculation here) before finally admitting defeat and deciding to sleep until daylight. Meanwhile they would be passed by City Bike Depot and www.alpineepic.co.nz.
Back at the front Orion and Blackheart soon decided to go different ways, Orion opting for a more direct path but probably hillier, while Blackheart went for the longer and flatter option.
Shortly after this (about 2am) Blackheart stopped for a couple of hours sleep. Orion carried on until around 5am when they too stopped to sleep out the last hour or so of darkness. McCain has opted for a similar route to Orion and now that it is daylight the teams should all be able to travel a bit more quickly and navigate more effectively.
Orion and Blackheart seem to be travelling at a similar pace so the outcome of this leg may came down to who has made the smartest (or luckiest) route choice. That is assuming that they don’t make any navigation mistakes and McCain is ready to capitalise on that if they do. A bit further back (about 6 hours) but still well within contention are Merrell/Akali, City Bike Depot and Alpineepic.co.nz who are at or approaching the checkpoint.
There is probably still between 7 and 10 hours left in this stage for the first teams so it is far from over and they are all trying not to think about just how much racing is still left to do after that.
It’s shaping up to be an epic race indeed – Go Orion!
[ED. There is now news the first teams have arrived at the end of the trek and they are still almost side by side! Orion arrived first with Blackheart arriving 5 minutes later. Could be a sprint finish.]