Last Year's Winners Take Sixth
Team Turk in Last Place
Bahia Lopez, Bariloche, Argentina — Dec. 7, 1999

	Team GreenTravel.com Tigers

Rick Corcoran, Team GreenTravel.com Tigers, talks about the race and the team's standing.
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The local people of Bariloche have in many ways shaped the flavor of this year's Eco-Challenge. The huge welcome given to Team Condor when they arrived in third place was repeated again last night at 3:00am when Team Argentina crossed the finish line to a huge cheering crowd.

Team Captain Sebastian Tagle commented how extreme the navigation was in this race. Between PC25 and PC26, team member Florencia Gorchs severely cut her finger and the team nearly radioed for help, but Florencia's wouldn't let them.

"Stories are doing the rounds of PC16 that Team Turk are very much in cruise mode, sleeping for up to 10 hours per night..."

Team Vail (USA), last year's winners of the event, crossed the finish line at 8:05pm. Vail overcame a mediocre paddling leg at the race start to patiently chip away at the field, finally finishing in sixth place, just behind team Halti (Finland). Team Vail arrived in Bariloche over one month before the race to familiarize themselves with the terrain. They described the course "as the best we've ever done."

Team Foster's Australia was next to cross the line in seventh place at 10:05pm. The team spent most of the race dueling with fellow Australians, Team Aussie. At one point, they were evening sharing a tent and food on the course.

The tenth team in, and third American team, was Team Yahoo (USA). Team Yahoo was passed on the water during the final kayak leg by the world champion kayakers, the Aussies. At the finish, Nora Tobin from Yahoo was overheard saying to the Aussies, "Would you guys give us paddling lessons?"

The top-10 teams have now crossed the finish line, but there is still a long list of teams with a long way to go. The next cutoff point is back at PC16 with a deadline of 10am on the 9th of December. Race crews here are confident that three of these teams Black Rhino (South Africa), Team Energizer Aconcagua (Argentina) and Team Uruguay will pass through tonight leaving last place Team Turk way back between PC12 and PC13.

Stories are doing the rounds of PC16 that Team Turk is very much in cruise mode, sleeping for up to 10 hours per night and in serious threat of being cut out of the race.

	Mystery Racer

Here at PC16, we caught up with USA's Team GreenTravel.com Tigers who have had a bummer of a race up to this point. Captain Rick Corcoran was struck down by a flu virus for 36 hours on day two. During this time they were passed by every team on the course but are now looking in great shape, enjoying the course as they head off to the summit of Mount Tronador.

Elsewhere on course we have heard rumors of a mystery competitor racing to catch even the last teams...(see photo).

— Chris Vile, MountainZone.com Correspondent