News for Thursday, Jul 15

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20:44

Zero to hero and AMI Explore having dinner togheter

Zero to hero reached GZ4 at cut off, so they had to bike the rest way back to Piteå. They are now at TA9, having dinner. AMI Explore, the Dutch team who has withdrawn from the competition, are also there with them. Since they were out of the competition, they have been following the American team as supporters.

Zero to hero will be placed after all teams that have taken the whole route, but will get a rank.

18:55

Big navigation mistake of Robinzonada

Robinzonada from Lithuania fights hard as the last team on 9th place and are now out on the long trekking section. The GPS tracker however tells us that they have some problems with the navigation. Going to CP11, they have chosen a very different way compared to the other teams. This forced them to go down a very steep hillside. On top of that they missed the control.

They are now on their way to straighten up their mistake and continue their race.

16:21

Sport Nature VLG chasing Karsu

Sport Nature VLG from France have now also finished the mountin bike leg and are out paddling. They are just 4 kilometers behind Karsu, so everything points on that this could be a really exciting last legs for these two teams.

The teams fight for the fifth place. Remains to be seen if Karsu can keep out the last kilometers.

12:28

Karsu.fi gained time at the mountinbike section

The Finnish team Karsu.fi did a really good mountinbike leg, when they did the 192 kilometers on eight hours.

- We put some effort into it. We did a really slow trekking section, we must have lost like 10 hours, because we have one team member injured and it's hard to speed up, says one of the team members from Karsu.

Now they just have the kayak section left.

- I guess we are "normal" at padling compared to the others. It will probably take about 12-14 hours.

Karsu during the mountineering section at Lofoten

10:58

Well deserved nap after a swim in the river

Statkraft is now on their very last section before they enter the finish in Piteå.

When Statkraft early in the morning came to the rapid at Banforsen they ran in to some problems. First Arvid Björkroth went down the first, smaller, rapid and seemed to make it throguh, but in the last part he went around and ended up in the water. He started to float in the stream towards the bigger rapid and he swam in to the shore and went up on dry land.

Meanwhile, his team mates, who saw what has happend, went back and took the safe route on land.

Arvid, who ended up on the wrong side of the river, walked downstream and until he was on the safe side of the big rapid.

- Is he laying down to sleep? said Pernilla Lagergren who was on the other side of the river.
And yes, there he was laying down on a rock taking a nap - or so it seemed anyhow. Arvid took the oppurtunity to rest while he was waiting for his teammates to bring their kayaks downstream as well.

Pernilla said that they had been sleeping at TA9 for a couple of hours before they started the last kayak section down towards the finish line.
- The nearest team behind us had just started the mountainbike ride so we had plenty of time and could sleep a while.

Pernilla seemed alert and took the oppurtonity to have something to eat while she was waiting for her team mates to bring their kayaks down to the shore line.

How has your race been?
- It´s been good.

Are you all right, have had any injuries?
- Just som problems with the feets, but Arvid have some problems. The last 24 hours the other guys have been carrying his back pack.

What do you think about the race as a whole, so far?
- It´s been beautiful, but hard. One hasn't been abel to fully enjoy the scenery because it's been so tough, said Pernilla Lagergren and continued to get ready for the last stage down towards the finsh line.

08:15

FJS third line to pass the finish line

FJS reduced the distance to Sweco more and more along the last sections. Out from TA8 it differed six hours - after TA9 only four. The team was brave during the last kayak section and paddled through the rapids (where it wasn't mandatory to portage).

They came in to the center of Piteå, only beaten with 53 minutes.

- We raced on in the speed we had planned from the beginning. When we heard that we were only about 45 minutes after Sweco, we started toeing and held a high speed. We wanted to catch up so we could see, but when we didn't do so we slowed down a bit, says team captain Daniel Hansson.

Congratulations to FJS on third place!

08:09

Sweco Karlstad second

Sweco Karlstad arrived at finish line 06.25 on a second place. They were chased hard by FJS and after Sweco flipped under the paddling section in the white water and broke one of the kayaks, they had to fight even harder to keep distance. with many stop on the way to emtpy the kayaks on water they manage to cross the finish and get the silver medal.

The sleepmonsters also struck the team a bit when entering Piteå and when the team member in the broken kayak finally could run for a while along the shore. The three others were pulling his broken kayak in
the water. After the guy on land had passed a fence and came back to the shore he asked his paddling team mates; "have you seen three people in kayaks, dragging anouther kayak?" The sleepmonsters was on his shoulder...

Congratulations to Sweco at second place! For a long time, they were struggeling at thrid place but as we remember, they managed to pass FJS during the canoe-night with harsh weather.

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