Salomon/Eco-Internet�s Ian Adamson said, �Both the other teams are coming. They�re bunched up right behind us.� Robyn Benincasa, her thunderous leg and arm muscles rippling as she hurried into PC 25, urged the men of her team on. �Let�s go guys,� she said, quickly jumping into her climbing harness by pulling it over her lycra shorts. Though early in the morning, the village was already electric with excitement, kids squealing and cheering. Looking up at the caves, cycling expert Mike Kloser asked Benincasa whether he should put his Goretex� SealSkin socks on, to protect him from the bat guano in the dank caves. Said Benincasa curtly, �No. You won�t die before the end of the race.�

Adamson and Ike Wilson strapped gloves on, clipped into their harnesses, and off they all jogged down the steep main road of the village, which curves sharply downward, then leads to a series of steps heading up to the mouth of the caves. Once inside, the racers will deal with climbs up vertical rattan ladders, a 150-foot jumar up fixed ropes, a tyrolean traverse across a gorge, and then the longest rappel in Eco-Challenge history, a 600+-foot thrill-ride to the base of the caves.

As Salomon/Eco-Internet sprinted down the hill, Kloser was looking over his shoulder. �Here they come,� he said.

Sure enough, looking lean and lithe in their yellow leggings and tops, Spie arrived only minutes later on a dead run. They signed in and out of the PC in seconds, and were hoofing off after the leaders, Karim Benamrouche running along with his son and wife, who have come along to Borneo to cheer for their team. In a heart-warming family display, the boy Joey asked his dad to race, and they mock-raced for a few yards before Karim begged off, letting Joey win. Said Benamrouche�s wife, Christine, �It is very exciting, this contest. I am so proud.�

The Madai Caves are a geological marvel, huge white limestone walls from the outside, the face of the wall streaked black as if smeared by mascara. Inside, the temperature drops and it goes black, the eerie chirping and screeching of thousands of bats overhead. After a few hundred yards, the central tunnel turns hard left, then opens into a massive dome, a huge green and dripping amphitheater where the racers came to four fixed ropes they have to ascend by jumaring. As they scaled like modern superheroes, Robyn Benincasa leading the way, Spie stood at the bottom of the ropes, waiting.

Only one team is allowed on the ropes at a time, and Salomon/Eco-Internet was there first. Hundreds of swifts, swallow-like birds, flitted around, and the local villagers remarked that they wished they had ropes and the jumar technique so they could better harvest the swift nests, which are a culinary delicacy in China and a significant source of revenue for the people of the village.

Team AussieSpirit.com, also running, arrived at PC 25 shortly after Spie had gone, and by the time the tenacious Aussie�s had checked out, only 13 minutes separated the top three teams, which makes them essentially tied. Now it is a matter of who can endure the most pain for the longest, who can go to the finish without sleep, and who will make a mistake. Asked yesterday about the final push on the water, Ian Adamson of Salomon Eco-Internet was realistic. �If we are running into a headwind, and it�s a paddling race, I give us the advantage,� he said. �But if there is a tailwind and the Aussie�s can use their spinnaker, they have a huge edge.� He didn�t mention where Spie fit into the equation, but they are experienced and tough, expert in both sailing and paddling.

It appears that the door has been shut on racing legend John Howard and Fairydown Fleet CookieTime, perhaps suggesting a changing of the guard. He and his team have had a phenomenal decade.

There is speculation of a finish as early as 10 a.m. tomorrow morning. Through PC 25, it�s a three horse race, and the most tightly contested Eco-Challenge in history. A fitting finish for a World Championships, with 10 of the top 12 teams from different countries. Mark Burnett�s recipe has worked, making this installment of Eco-Challenge a thrilling and grueling war of desire to the finish. It�s hard to conceive just how fast the lead teams are moving under the circumstances of what they�ve encountered, and the condition their bodies must be in.