After our report from day five went out late Tuesday, many things shifted and changed in the top line-up as the race completed another day of intense competition. Spain's Buff AXN made an amazing surge during a difficult trek to overtake the lead, putting four hours on pursuers GoLite early Wednesday morning as the teams headed for the ocean and the final legs of the race.

As of Wednesday night, Buff AXN had checked into CP11, which is where they picked up their ocean kayaks to begin over 40 kilometers of paddling, the furthest out to sea the Eco-Challenge has ever gone. GoLite was trying to close the gap, but had only checked out of CP9 as of 3:38.

With the top nine teams spread out between the mountain bike pick-up and the ocean, it still seems to be anyone's race, especially considering the weather could turn on the lead teams. This morning Spain took a very strong lead, and the Aussies (Air Pacific) are coming back - and they are powerful on the ocean.

The island of Viti Levu in Fiji is dynamic, weather-wise, with storms and rain on the western side of the island while it's hot and dry on the eastern side, which is near the finishline. Thus, many of the chasing teams found themselves in adverse weather today, and the fixed-rope climb of CP6 was actually shut down temporarily at 6pm Wednesday due to excessive water flow.

The conditions forced several teams off the course, as we saw Canadians Schick Xtreme 3 and Advair, resting their feet at CP8's medical tent. Both teams had pulled out in the morning, but before the day ended 11 more teams quit at CP5. They had learned that they faced a nearly impossible task of getting to CP6 before the cut-off Thursday, and chose instead to abandon.

The race is therefore down to 51 ranked teams from an original 82, and teams from 28th to 50th place are all between CPs 5 & 6. Once teams make it through the difficult trek to CP8, they still have to draw their own mountain bike route map from one posted at the CP, then ride to a trek and more ropes. It will be days therefore before many teams reach CP11 at Saweni Beach, and head out to sea for the home stretch. Organizers are now expecting the winning team to arrive just before dawn on the 18th.

—Ari Cheren, MountainZone.com Correspondent