Nokia Wins 3rd Day, Overall Top Three Unchanged at MSOQ

Mild Seven Outdoor Quest Enters 3rd Day

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Overcoming two consecutive days' second placing and with a consistent pace, defending champions Team Nokia of Finland won the third day of Mild Seven Outdoor Quest Saturday in Lijiang.

This was the first stage victory for Nokia in this year's event. The Finns covered the eight events with a total distance of some 80 kilometers in a time of five hours 41 minutes and nine seconds. This began to slim the once invincible lead by Team Down Under, composed of athletes from several countries.

Team Down Under finished second in 5:45:40 and Team Mountain Designs were third in 5:59:31. The three squads remain as the top three in overall rankings.

Local Crowd's favorites Team Mild Seven I finished sixth on Saturday.

"Today was a good day, very pretty and very fast," said Nokia captain Petri Forsman. "The trail running and mountain biking were very well for us."

Race experts noticed that Dow Under's lead of about 34 minutes over Nokia should be owed much to the fact that Nokia experienced mechanical problems during a mountain bike stage on Friday. "That thirty minutes could evaporate very quickly," said Down Under's John Jacoby.

Course designer Ian Adamson was obviously happy when he was told that the course has won good remarks from the racers and others involved in the annual race. Saturday's course included a steep 70-meter cliff, a valley with white-water currents and a zigzag river for kayaking, which were all very demanding and challenging.

"I'd spent a lot of time before finding such a place and I'm glad you are happy with the course," he said.

"The currents during the kayaking was great fun. It was interesting paddling in such a narrow little space," said Jacoby.

It was during the mountain bike section that Nokia passed Down Under, who led throughout the four previous events of the day. The Finns continued to push the pace, hoping to gain as much time as possible, probably for paving way for them to successfully defend their title.

"We call them the Terminators," Jacoby said of Nokia. "They never give up. Every time we think we've broken them they keep coming back," he added.

Members of Nokia didn't spend much time after crossing the finish line at Lijiang's Black Dragon Pool. They changed their clothes and headed back to their hotel to have a good sleep. "It will be hard tomorrow. We will all race very fast," said Forsman.

Sunday, the fourth and final day of the annual event inaugurated in 1997, will see actions in 22 kilometers of trail running, 53km of mountain biking, 17km of kayaking and 1km of adventure skills. The day''s course covers a distance of 93km.