Kiwi teams solidified their respective holds on first and second in the final mornings trekking and ropes stage. Richard Usher's Qasr Al Sarab and Stu's ADCO NZ showed their class finishing the section together more than 10 minutes clear of the chasing teams.
Stu sent me a message from the transition after the trek on the summit of Jabel Hafeet "Finished the mountain run in good time, put a few more minutes on Vibram Sport2000. Worked our butts off though! Now just have to survive the ride to town. Having ice creams at the rest stop while waiting for the rest of the teams to come in, then we restart onto the bikes at 11am"
That restart had to be put back to 11:30am as some teams took longer than expected on the trek leg, including Saloman Crested Butte who lost a place when they made a navigational error in the dark.
Teams have just completed the bike ride down from the summit into the centre of town, not without incident though! Stu and his team will have been thanking their lucky stars they have extended their lead over 3rd place after it coming down to within a few minutes yesteday - they got a puncture on the final ride! Stu said they "managed to get it fixed quickly, and caught up to the main bunch right at the end of the stage after working verry hard, again! Now just a 3km run to go, will be easy for once...we hope!"
Teams will be looking forward to the end of this epic race, and no doubt there will be some serious (and very well deserved!) celebrations in the Kiwi camps at prizegiving tonight!!
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