The Race so far
- wayneleek
- Jul 26
- 2 min read
Our "eye in the sky" analyst Pete Dobos takes a look at how the first section went and a look ahead.
The First 10-ish hours
With the sun about to dip below the horizon, most of the teams are spread along the length of the paddling leg. At the front the racing has been fast and very tight, with the expected pre-race favourites vying for the lead.The only real separation on the trek was going to happen between the start and CP2, as the rest of that leg was going to be trail run into the paddling TA. The top 7 or so teams took 3 of the routes I had highlighted prior to the race, with #22 Team Canada Adventure taking the shortest route, team #3 Attack from above taking the southern most route around the bottom of the lake, the rest going south but then island hopping due East to pick up CP1.The racers from out West, #8 Expedition Canada lead into the first checkpoint, but it was close: 12 minutes covered the first 7 teams.
The leg from CP1 to CP2 again offered 3 different route options, and again it was a good mix between the leaders. Through CP2 team #3 Attack From Above had taken a slim lead, with still just 13 minutes covering the lead 7.From here it would be a trail running race followed by a race to transition as fast as possible into the canoes. Team #4 Bend Racing/4 Hour Fuel had opened up a 10 minute gap as they headed out onto the water/ The top 5 pre-race favourites had started to separate from the rest of the pack, and now we had 30 minutes covering the top 5.
Being in identical boats means that it would be very hard to close or open gaps over the next several hours of paddling. Look for team #22 Team Canada Adventure to make up some ground (water?) as they have two of the strongest paddlers in the field in their boats.This race course is very back-loaded with the navigational challenges, and the first real chance for teams to make up or lose significant time will be coming up as the navigate the trails of the Walden Bike Park tonight.
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