Elf Authentic Adventure
April 14-29, 2000
Pharmanex-Spie Begins to Crush Field
Heads into mountain bikes Wednesday night
By Ari Cheren
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A member of team 03, GN Resound Tchibouela of France, negotiates the water above CP14's waterfall.
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After passing the FujiFilm team last night somewhere between CP12 and 13, Pharmanex-Spie showed why they're the best team on this course. While the five other teams were glad to be clear of the rock climb and secure with their front-running status, Pharmanex-Spie decided this wasn't enough. They wanted to put a nail in the competition's coffin, and decided
that a 110% effort was needed to get clear of the field. And so the team, after playing nice during the horses before running themselves back to the front of the race, decided to skip the sleep and charge into the night and awaiting mountaintop rappel of CP14. Overlooking a lush green valley from a sheer cliff, the 100-meter descent delivered Pharmanex-Spie
just where they wanted to be – back in the front.
They arrived at CP14 five full hours ahead of their new chasers, Team Paul Vatine in second while FujiFilm played catch up on the long hiking section that leads to CP19. After a rappel down the waterfall into the Ubajara natural area, they spent the day trekking through the technical woods, hoping to make HQ3's mountain bike transition by the end of
Wednesday. As of presstime we were waiting at HQ3 for their arrival, but one thing is sure, they are now running on all cylinders. The six lead teams, who yesterday were separated by one hour, are now six hours apart. Meanwhile more teams that spent the night at CP12 headed for the waterfall, but were rerouted down the side of the mountain due to high
water levels in the feeder creek on Wednesday afternoon.
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The race also claimed its first casualties in the form of two team captains leaving the race. David Ogden of Team Compaq dropped out of his team's race with bad feet, his team allowed to continue along without him in an unranked status. Jean-Etienne Beaune of the French team Accor – Reussir Ensemble also pulled out of the race due to lingering
heat exhaustion, as his teammates continue also in the Discovery route, unclassified. Tonight Pharmanex-Spie should arrive at their mountain bikes, ready to ride for nearly 200 km, while behind them rages another race entirely, the race to finish.
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