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Confusion

The runners as well as the organisers don't have much luck these days with the competition in Adelaide, the capital city of South Australia. After yesterday's convoyed arrival into Adelaide, they were hoping that they could at least leave Adelaide in the early morning hours without any complications, but that wasn't to be. Narrow roads and many traffic lights unabled the competition to run smoothly, so the runners ran the first 30 kilometers in a group and without time measurement. The slow pace didn't suit the leading competitors and they told the organisers to do something about it.

At 10:30, the group arrived in a small tourist town of Hanhdorf, where they agreed to hold a three o'clock meeting and settle the problems. Hanhhdorf was inhabited by German settlers in the mid 20.century. The town is ful of German restaurants with traditional specialties and music. The five German runners and their escorting crew felt like they were at home, while the rest of the runners decided to hide from the heat in their hotel rooms. Sunny weather was realy inviting and many people decided to visit the hills of Adelaide. Consequently the narrow, tourning roads were filled with vehicles which moved with the speed of a snail.

The director of the competition, Bernie Farmer, stressed once again the importance of the runners' safety, and asked them to be patient until tomorrow, when the caravan is far enough from Adelaide. Despite all the problems, they decided to carry out a 10 km long stage to make up for some of the lost kilometers. Tomorrow, they plan to run a normal stage, which will be 66 km long, with the finish in Tailem Bend.

We were witness to an interesting stage in which the two leading Russians weren't saving any energy. Kruglikov did away with Derxen and the rest of the runners, running with an unbelievable pace. He is obviously determined not to give away any of the stage victories that remain until the end of the competition. Paul Every ran outstandingly well today and managed to finish the stage in third place for the first time in this competition, the rest of the runners finished in their usual positions. Kobus' and Schieke's deficit on this stage was 26 minutes and 20 seconds which is aproximately the same as a three and a half hour deficit on 67 km long stages. These few days with little competition have had an influence on the pshychological prepearness and concentration of the leading competators. This is not the case for the Germans in the back positions. These kind of stages are in their favour, since their main goal is to reach Canberra, no matter what the deficit will be.

Results (time was measured only for the last 10 km)

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