January 26--Battle for the lead is underway
By James Bowyer

By the end of the second day the Raid had already conquered a team and claimed another victim. Germany's only team, Equipe Extrem Sign, dropped out. Members complained of fever and blisters from wearing new shoes. The team walked only two days in the field, angering their sponsors and disappointing a German film crew that had come to the Raid especially to cover the team.

In another incident, the French team Defi-Formes-Fila lost a member to dehydration. Sophie Marulier from the all-woman team was traveling during much of the day without water and as a result suffered from dehydration during the night. The rest of the team now is officially out of the running.

The rest of the teams had a relatively easy day on the meandering Senqu River. Although some teams lost valuable time after capsizing, most of them made good time on the 40-mile stretch.

The main challenge came from a severe downpour that caught most of the Raiders on open water. The heavy rain fell for more than an hour before subsiding.

The French team Ertips was first to finish the river section in just under 10 hours. They were chased by Interpoint/Hewlett-Packard, which trailed them by seven minutes. Team Endeavor broke the deadlock of French frontrunners, arriving just over an hour after the leaders. Credit Immobilier de France, the first day's leader, lost seven places in the rafting section.

Five teams were left in the open water after the 6 p.m. curfew. They were assigned times ranging from three minutes to a few hours. An Austrian team lost a valuable hour after organizers discovered they were in possession of a cellular phone. The team pleaded that the cell phone was for communication with the media, but the organizers had outlawed all but the most simple technology.

Both Ertips and Infopoint reached the checkpoint by the 6 p.m. horse-riding curfew. The leaders rode out without the luxury of spending the night. The rest of the teams streamed in during the night, surrounded by support crews offering hot food, medical attention, and much soft talk and massages.

There are only seven hours separating the first 10 positions, so it's still anybody's race.

Quotes for the day

"In a race like this, anything can happen." --an assistant to an international team currently placed sixth.

"I'll be fine." --a Raider who only got onto a horse two weeks before the race began. He now faces a two-and-a-half-day ride.

"You have to tell the truth, even though it's very difficult sometimes." --Raid founder Gerard Fusil, talking about his life as a journalist.

James Bowyer is a freelance journalist living in Cape Town, South Africa.