Seven teams still remain in the 2011 Wenger Patagonian Expedition Race, with AdidasTERREX/Prunesco from the UK still holding the lead in what is one of the most extreme and wild races ever undertaken in Chile’s Patagonian region.
This morning, the British racers, who yesterday appeared to be battling mental fatigue, were the first team to check in at PC10, Mirador Fiordos. It took the team almost two days to complete the 67 kilometre trekking leg from PC. After pushing hard in the first stages of the race, the team appears to have slowed its pace with racer Fi Spotswood reportably suffering some feet problems.
AdidasTERREX/Prunesco arrived at PC10 at 10.12am and were encouraged to continue trekking to PC11, with other teams not too far behind.
In news just in from the field, the team checked in to PC11 at 15.41, covering the 10km from PC10 in roughly 5 hours.
GearJunkie.com (US), Vaucluse Adventure Evasions (France) and Ad Natura – Karibu (Croatia) were sighted earlier this morning by a WPER photographer located at a beach in the north-east section of the fjord between PC9 and PC10. Japanese racers, East Wind were believed to be not too far behind the Croatian team.
Teams Perdido en el Turbal (US, UK) and RoadRunners (Denmark) have not been sighted since the evening of Friday 11 February when they passed through PC9.
No further reports are available on the location of these teams in time for this update.
The trekking leg between PC9 and PC10 was expected to be one of the most challenging sections of this year’s Patagonian Expedition Race, described as the world’s ‘last wild race’. It was the first section in a massive 191 kilometre trek – the longest single treeking stage in the history of Patagonian Expedition Race.
Race Director, Stjepan Pavicic said yesterday that there were several opportunities for teams to consider short cut routes and at best, racers were estimated to take between two and a half to three days to complete this final trekking leg which ends at PC13.
For more information about the route between PC9 and PC10, read comments from Stjepan Pavicic here.
Ad Natura – Karibu team-mates Elvir Sulic and Stiven Vunic, from Croatia, share some food during a break on the 2011 Wenger Patagonian Expedition Race. (Valentino Saldivar, Chile)
