>>See latest pictures from day 3<<

Mittivakkat Glacier Ahead!

10 seconds before start, Martin Gjødvad of PharmaNord yells out to the race director: ”Do we go left or right?” “Right.” “Glad you asked,” says Neal Radford of Feed the Machine, “I would have gone left…”

Today, the teams have to do a relay biking race and then trek on land and glacier to the basecamp where we all stay overnight until tomorrow and the final looooooong expedition stage. Today’s stage is about 45 kilometers.

The French are not as loud as usual at the starting line. Instead Pierre-Etienne and Guillaume opt for a good luck hug at the starting line. Andrew Davies is not biking the first relay round and from the sideline he’s cheering not on his teammates, but his new best friends, the French: “Allez, allez!” he yells at the top of his lungs.

Gentleman Agreement
At the race briefing this morning, Race Director Hans Christian Florian makes a gentleman agreement with all the teams: “Last year there was so much competition between some of the teams and afterwards they were sorry that they could not enjoy the view from C6, the summit on the glacier. So let’s make an agreement: Everybody stays at least 10 minutes at C6 to enloy the view.” Andrew Davies applauds this like a madman. He was on one of the teams that rushed through last year.

Crash
Per Rasmussen of Team Neriusaaq/Thomas Kristensen is not looking too well. His hand is bandaged and he has scratches in his face. Yesterday, he took one hell of a crash, falling over the steer on his bike. “It’s not as bad as it looks, though,” he smiles. 

Miss the concert? Never!
“It’s going to be a long day,” says Arctic Ladies’ Pitsi Ottosen, who at 23 is the youngest girl in the race. The youngest racer of all is Peter Nûko of Team Neriusaaq/Thomas Kristensen, whos a year younger. More worrisome to some of the other Arctic Ladies is the idea that they might miss the concert with the wonderful Icelandic singer Hera at basecamp tonight. This is a worry that is equally shared with the Icelandic team. “We are a bit beaten today,” says Erlendur Birgisson of Team Intersport Iceland. “But I really don’t want to miss Hera’s concert!” Typical for an Icelander: they always know how to enjoy life.

Hera is huge in their native Iceland, having already recorded five albums and last year played 37 concerts in two months in Iceland alone. She has also warmed up for acts like Nick Cave and Joe Cocker.

Feed the hunger
Ben and Jim of Eastgreenland.com is giving advice to the American Feed the Machine. Pointing at the map, they say stuff like “This might be a safe bet. There’ll be no 50 feet steep walls down to the glacier” and “you could also try this route…” “Great, now we have absolutely no idea what to do,” laments Christian Burke. “The race is much longer today, so we have to pack extra provisions,” Christian continues. B.Lo is not feeling well. She’s been nauseous all morning but, thankfully, at the starting line she says she feels better.

“All the people here are really fast,” Christian says and continues: “We have a lot of apprehension on our team because of the terrain. We have to stop and go and stop and go. I kinda enly it, but it takes four to make it all work.” Meanwhile, Neal is gathering provisions, making sure they bring enough food and the right food. Hopefully, the beauty of today’s stage will cheer them all up.

The toughest team building in the world!
Pihl A/S is here not so much as a conventional adventure racing team but more as a team building team. And what team building! Without annoying instructors along the road, they themselves have to find their way along the route. For the past two days they have opted for the entire route but for today, the race directors and Pihl have made a shorter route. Instead of doing the relay race and going to all checkpoints, the Pihl team will bike to Checkpoint 1, leave the bikes behind and then trek to C5 at beginning of the glacier. If they are the first team to arrive, they have to wait at C5 for another team to cross the glacier so they can follow in their footsteps. Safety first. From C5 they go to C6 and then to basecamp (you can see the map by following the link at the top of this news briefing).

Kasper Knudsen, the reserve on the Pihl team is thrilled at the starting point: “Today, I get to go along. I’m so excited and can’t wait to go. Of course I’ve been running around with the camera crews for the past days but to actually start out in the race feels so good.” Good luck to Kasper and the rest. Among the official, everybody is so impressed of the Pihl team. They have not been training that much and are in a race with some of the top racers from the world elite – seen from that perspective, this is the most impressive team building ever.

These are the results of the relay race:

Eastgreenland.com                           1:23:12

Les Moulineaux                                1:26:12

PharmaNord                                     1:35:28

Neriusaaq/Thomas Kristensen             1:39:55

Intersport Iceland                            1:44:14

Feed the Machine                             1:58:35

Arctic Ladies                                   2:16:27

Pihl A/S                                          Team Pihl is not doing the relay race today

These times are unofficial

Right now, most officials are at basecamp or are heading there. This means we will not be able to give you thorough updates until tomorrow afternoon. We’ll try to call in the results of the day via satellite telephone so we can update the times tonight. But come back Tuesday afternoon for more pictures and race news.

Lasse Lindkvist Hansen of Team Pihl looks like a happy camper

Frank Zeller and Karin Moe Bojsen of Team Pihl are on their way to the big trek

Fun in the sun. Not al the dogs follow the race closely

Anna McCormack and Pia Nielsen of Arctic Ladies race together

Erwinator pictures:

Update Race Day 3             

We’ve just returned from the fjord and will write some more text tonight. All racers are doing well, although Race Day 3 was harder than usually which meant that most team arrived pretty late to the base camp. But if you are a friend or a family member of anyone racing, rest assured that they are ok. Pierre-Etienne of les Moulineaux has hurt a toe but is feeling much better and is still in the official race.

These times are unofficial