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 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, 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!
Comments
Nice speculation ... all sounding highly feasible! :o)
Hopefully the team can keep ahead of the rest.
It's a pretty tight field for this far through a race but still plenty of course to be covered and time for things to get even more interesting - or confusing!
As you say ... GO ORION!
:o)
Lynne