The weather is terrible. Relentless rain, headwinds. Even tough guy mike hall is finding it hard (mentally), by his own admittance.
As for female riders, Sarah Hammond is doing very well, seems strong and solid in interviews. Home country for her, which has to be an advantage. Juliana Buhring is also right up there.
Frank is still doing well.
Shame to see so many scratch so early. I think if they'd managed to ride out of the rain and into the dry their spirits would have lifted. Rain and cold is strength sapping, combined with a headwind it is a bad time to choose to stop. OTOH, geographically they were coming up on the big jump to SA, across the nullabor.