HUAIRASINCHI
Huairasinchi – The First 24 Hours of a Unique Race in the High Andes
Rob Howard / 07.12.2020
The 2020 Huairasinchi is unique in the long history of the race. How could it be otherwise in these strange and difficult times?
The race normally makes every effort for teams to engage with indigenous peoples, it is part of their race philosophy, but that couldn’t happen this year. So yesterday’s start was set high in the rolling plains of volcano country below the snow cone of Cotopaxi, and the shortened and simplified course is a traverse of a landscape empty of people.
It was a beautiful start location at the Hacienda El Porvenir, in the region known as ‘Tierra Del Volcan’, which is full of natural parks and biosphere reserves. Cotopaxi stood proud above the ranch where the teams prepared to race and conditions were chilly in the exposed, open, terrain at 3600m. (Teams had been acclimatising for a race to be held between 3000 and 4300m, and one which features a lot of climbing.)
The start was very different to a normal Huairasinchi too, as Nati Greene, of Proyecto Aventura, explained; “The energy of the start of the race was different and beautiful. To avoid contact and clusters, racers started at 7am sharp and left the start line with masks, one minute apart, which allowed a personalized team presentation and a cheer before they left; it was a different and exciting way of starting a unique Huairasinchi 2020.”
Stage one took teams on a circuit of the extinct volcano Sincholahua (4887). There were 3 checkpoints over 4300m on the trek and some difficult, rocky terrain. Teams were warned to take care on a ravine crossing by CP6, and not to go above 4380m for their own safety between CP6 and 7 due to loose rock. (The translation of the route card said not to ‘throw rocks at other teams’.)
There was also an abseil on a cliff above the Rio Pita towards the end of the stage, and care had to be taken with loose rock here as well. After the abseil teams headed back to the transition at the start/finish area to set off on the first bike stage.
From the start the ‘Fedeme Orienteering Team’ set off at speed, taking a strong lead on the climb and through the high checkpoints, but they were gradually caught and passed on the descent by the ‘Movistar’ and ‘Life Adventure Imptek’ teams. The Brazilian team ‘RainForest’ took the wrong ridge to descend, but it was a mistake they could recover from without climbing back up as they hit the Rio Pita and could follow it back to the ropes. (They’d covered two sides of a triangle instead of one.)
The first ride was 52km, taking teams South, past the lower, eastern slopes of Cotopaxi to the only other transition in the race at Hacienda El Tambo. (Teams were instructed to stay on the tracks and trails here as they are in a National Park.) ‘Movistar Terra Aventura’ moved into the lead on this section, with the ‘Movistar’ and ‘Life Adventure’ teams chasing.
In the pack of teams behind them the ‘Impluso Rundubike’ team was doing well in 4th, but everything went wrong in the morning of day 2 for them. At a point where other teams had struggled with the route a little they got lost, turned around, and then stopped for a long time. So much so they dropped to 14th place.
The transition at TA2 is on the slopes of the Quilindana Volcano (4788) and the route for the second trek of the race is on the lower slopes of this, but with a first checkpoint (CP13) across the Rio Tambo valley and accessed by a very steep climb. It’s a CP that puts a lot of height gain into the stage, and was also the last on the route book the teams had. They were not given the second part of the route until reaching CP14.
TA2 at Hacienda El Tambo is also at 3600m, and it’s both a protected woodland area (there is not much in the landscape there) and part of a Condor Biosphere Reserve programme. Teams accessed their gear boxes there, and these were smaller than usual. Lars Bukkehave of the ‘Qualificar Beatfitness’ team said, “The TA boxes are super small with a strict weight limit, making us cut all the nice-to-have stuff. But we are ready to suffer.”
El Tambo also serves as TA3, as the second trek is another loop, but there is little prospect of any of the lead teams sleeping there in such a short race, and they will be pushing to the finish line without stopping. They are already well ahead of the fastest expected time of 50 hours.
Nati Greene said. “The race organizers prepared the route for very adverse weather conditions. The weather forecast for this week was very worrying with rain and fog, but as always in the Ecuadorian mountains (and in 2020), nothing is predictable and the racers had a very pleasant surprise.
“Day one was a sunny and beautiful day in the Ecuadorian Andes, with amazing and clear views of the Sincholagua and Cotopaxi volcanoes, and teams are flying. The Adventure teams are doing the best planned race times, however, the Expedition teams are 6-7h ahead of their expected times. This means that most probably we will have the first Adventure teams arriving at dawn on Monday, December 7th, and Expedition teams around midnight the same day. But who knows, everything can still happen, especially during the night, and yep, it is after all 2020, nothing can be planned!”
Approaching 24 hours into the race the leaders are ‘Movistar Terra Aventura’, who are about to arrive back at Tambo and start the last stage of the race.
They have a 40 minute lead over ‘Life Adventure Imptek’, with ‘Movistar’ and ‘Ideal Alambrec’ a little further back. So, it’s still all to play for on the final ride, which is 132km with a huge 4000m of ascent. (The slower teams have to beat the only race cut-off before leaving on the final stage, leaving Tambo before 15.00 on Tues. Dec. 8th.)
