Derxen surprised Kruglikov

22nd Stage - Highway stop to Highway stop 53.8 km, 27th Jan 2001

After a hard and grulling stage yesterday, today runners “enjoyed” one of the shortest stages in the competition. After all it was an easy run for most of them as there was a tail wind that helped them run smoothly from start to finish.

None of the top runners pushed themselves too hard since there will be many more stages that physical and mental strenght will come to play. The only one who was pushing themselves harder than in the other stages was Russian Andrei Derxen who lead the race from 12km when he past Georgs Jermolajevs from Latvia who had the took off faster than everyone else. The dominant leader Anatoliy Kruglikov settled for an easy run for third spot together with Slovenian Dusan Mravlje. After the halfway mark, Kruglikov started to charge Derxen who had built a two minutes lead but somehow he was not as strong as in previous days and Derxen was able to pull away from him and comfortably won the stage by three minutes.

The other top finishers were not far behind, so there is no big changes in the overall placing. The only one who suffered today was Australian Paul Every who was running slower than usual due to muscular problems with his left leg. With the big help from his crew members he managed to get to the finish line in a good mood not far behind George Audley, Markus Muller and Helmut Schieke who were running a solid and easy pace. Karl-Heinz Kobus and Stefan Schlett from Germany ran with the back markers for a while though they dropped off the pace and finished 22 minutes and four seconds behind Paul Every.

The runners are now running through great scenery close to the Southern Ocean and magnificent Bundra Cliffs just minutes from the road.

Results

1.Andrei Derxen, Russia 3.41.14
2.Anatoliy Kruglikov , Russia 3.44.26
3.Dusan Mravlje, Slovenia 4.21.17
4.Kaname Sakurai, Japan 4.22.07
5.Georgs Jermolajevs, Latvia 4.29.57
6.Wolfgang Schwerk, Germany 4.44.11
7.Mick Francis, Australia 4.55.55
8.Brian Smith, Australia 5.00.58
9.Bobby Brown, Great Britain 5.15.10
10.Mihaly Molnar, Hungary 5.31.12
11.Markus Muller, Germany 6.17.37
11.Helmut Schieke, Germany 6.17.37
11.George Audley, Australia 6.17.37
14.Paul Every, Australia 6.32.41
15.Stefan Schlett, Germany 6.54.45
15.Karl-Heinz Kobus, Germany 6.54.45

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