|
|
|
Saturday, May 6, 2000 The suspense lasted until the end of the night, until the last kilometer preceding the finish line. An incredible series of developments punctuated the final sprint leading to a podium contradicting most predictions. The conclusion of this 10th Raid Gauloises was an unpredictable night for the leading teams. Team Salomon/Land Rover, up until then the leaders of the pack, discovered, to their disappointment, that their assistance crew did not make it in time to CP39 to deliver the bikes. This checkpoint marks the beginning of the final mountain biking section (138km), where the support teams were supposed to meet their athletes with mountain bikes. The team, led by John Howard, soon found a solution to their quandary by departing on borrowed, local bicycles.
The assistance crew of Salomon/Land Rover made a reclamation to the jury, arguing that it was impossible, according to them, to make the trip from HQ3 to CP39 (HQ4) in time to meet their team. However, they retracted their complaint when they saw that the assistance crew of Ertips/Salomon (38) had not encountered any problem arriving punctually. Hard-fought Victory At the start of the final trekking section (four kilometers to Jamakpur), Intersport was only three minutes behind Nokia, having made a remarkable recovery. The competition was fierce. The two leading teams covered the four final kilometers in only 17 minutes, a true performance considering their accumulated fatigue and the weight of their equipment. The Finnish team Nokia Adventure arrived at the finish 1st at 6:47am, followed by Intersport three minutes later, and by Ertips 30 minutes later. Salomon/Land Rover arrived at 7:52am, after having witnessed, within a few hours, the disappearance of their hopes for a second consecutive victory. Provided by Raid Gauloises
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||