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Francis ahead of Molnar

A chilly monday mourning made the runners start off the stage in the early hours. The best ones needed about 90 minutes to turn off the main road that leads to Adelaide and head off towards Flinders Ranges. This was their first major run uphill and the narrow weindy road was quite refreshing to the runners having run all those long kilometers through Nullarbor.

Anatolij Kruglikov was the first one up, followed by Andrei Derxen with a four minute deficit. The others chose a slower pace. Dusan Mravlje ran a little more carefully due to his injury from yesterday's fall. Mick Francis cought up with him and together they kept each other company till the end of the stage. Mihaly was left back on the way up, and when he lost sight of his competitors on the way down towards Wilmington, he knew that he was loosing a lot of time. For a while he ran along with Georgs Jermolajevs, but at the ''drink stop'' he decided to wait up for Bobby Brown and together they ran the last 15 kilometers of the stage. Francis was anxiously waiting for them at the finish line, but was relieved when they showed up having beaten Molnar for over 40 minutes. The Australian is now fifth overall and has a 17 minute advantage over the Hungarian.

George Audley surprised everyone again today, especially himself, having run most of the stage along with Paul Avery, and decreasing his deficit to the Germans stage by stage. If he keeps up the running he could catch up with quite a few of them, and a little competition is always healthy, even among the competitors in the back positions.

Melrose is a small town and the runners quickly found their way to a much needed rest

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