Well, it’s Thursday morning and there is still a distance for race leaders Buff Thermocool (lead by the amazing Emma Roca) to go. They’re on the final paddle, a river section, heading towards Salamanca, where they’ll have only a 4km urban orienteering stage. Blackwater is chasing, but it doesn’t look like there is enough race left for them to catch Buff Thermocool.
As for our teams… it seems like Merrell got into some ‘difficulty’ yesterday afternoon and night. Their pace on the skating section slowed to a crawl and they would have spent the night in the cold, high mountains. Cyanosis was off their skates around 20h00 last night; it looks like Merrell has only just finished this section (09h00-ish, Thurs).
This note came through from the event after midnight “”Team 15 – Cyanosis is in TA16-TA19 at the moment.The team has been sleeping for 1 hour. I’ve been talking to Ryno about how they are and how they feel about the race: “Everything is perfect” he said. They are enjoying the race very much because “The land is really beautiful”. Ryno had a big smile and thank everyone for the messages…””
Cyanosis are on bikes again and making swift progress. It looks like they have gained a good number of places since midnight (our time).
Swazi Extreme’s Darron Raw was on the online tracking in the wee hours of this morning. His comments were:
“It’s a bit frustrating trying to work out which checkpoints they need to visit and which not. Just seen Cyanosis skip out CP57. Mistake or tactical ? But Merrell appear in trouble – stationary on the big hike section still on high ground – it must be freezing.
Aaah – Cyanosis are circling around back to CP57 – good! And Merrell are moving again – although if I’m following the plot it means they will be short-coursed when they reach T19 as they’ve slipped 24hrs behind the leaders now. Pity – because the final part of the event is a massive paddle which would have been an advantage for Merrell. They will still paddle… but only to achieve short-course finish.
Merrell must be in trouble – their forward speed has slowed to a crawl as they descend the mountain. Come on guys!
Yes, the repercussion for Merrell from this bad stage is that they will be short-coursed. There’s a 24hr ‘rule’ that is applied to teams who end up 24hrs or more behind the leaders by a certain point.
Pieter Mulder, Nicholas’ dad, had a great comment to me yesterday – he’s spot-on about the mini-race between Cyanosis and Merrell that has happened throughout the event – until now.
The interesting aspect of this race is of course how close the two SA teams are to one another and it seems that they are engaged in their own private contest. Whatever the outcome and the dominance of the ‘Spanish home team’, the SA AR community should be proud of the fact that their teams are in there and holding up the flag.
Here here!
So, the tracking as of this morning looks as follows:
The field…
Buff Thermocool (#5), Blackwater (#2), Cyanosis (#15) and Merrell (#13) …
I’m out most of the day with FEAT happening so if you’re watching the tracking and Bimbache FB page, please post comments to this post with updates on what is happening. Ta.
looks like cyanosis have 5 or 6 teams in their sights and they are catching up slowly. with a good nights paddle they may change their placing significantly -not taking into account skipped controls of course…
Ronald is right, Cyanosis look to have skipped about 5 CP’s, presumably in an effort to get on the water before the dark zone tonight. They seem to be progressing nicely on the MB section and despite the picture on the Mimbache website and barring any accidents, they haven’t gone to the dogs. Merrell will be pedalling rather than paddling in the dark tonight by the looks of it, keep it up guys, both SA teams can be proud of their performances.
The classification does not reflect reality as the rankings are not taking into account skipped controls or other penalties.
I am pleased to see that geriatric I am not the only one who has problems with the bonus and penalty procedure and it would be nice for future organisers to consider the old straightforward modus operandi, alternatively find a more efficient way for the outside world to almost instantaneously grasp the positions and time diffrences between the teams.
Regrettably, it looks as if Buff Thermocool have the race sewn up but hat off to top Kiwi orienteer Chris and his Blackwater Team mates for a great performance.
Ahhh… indeed, they skipped that little skating loop.
There was something I read a few days ago about teams being able to skip CPs and even sections – they get time penalties. That’s why it will be interesting to see final postitions after all the calculations. Rob, from Sleep Monsters, has commented about this but said he didn’t get how it would work in the end.
Looks like Cyanosis have skipped one loop – I wonder what the implications are? Maybe they are trying to reach the river paddle before the dark zone.