The Andes to the Amazon in One Day

Anne-Marie Dunhill / 10.11.2014

As anyone who has studied the race profile (and that would pretty much be all of you) can tell you, this last sixty-seven kilometer mountain biking section from the hot springs in Jamanco to transition two in El Chaco was all down hill.  Rapidly descending over 1,000 m was a welcomes relief from the high altitudes of the first section.  Unsurprisingly the altitude on this first section caused even strong teams such as Swedish Armed Forces Adventure Team (SAFAT) to make navigational blunders.

The section took place mainly on the road that wound down through the mountain and teams had to share it with cars, buses and semi-tankers transporting gas; according to our guide Esteban Garces this is Ecuador’s primary export and a large pipeline ran adjacent to the road that the teams took for most of the way to reach TA 2.  

The transition in El Chaco was located in the town center in what looked to be a sports complex with outdoor football fields, playing grounds for children and a gymnasium. Families from El Chaco stood outside the barriers of the transition silently observing what was going on. Racers, focusing on their transition, had no qualms stripping off their mountain biking gear and changing into their clothes for the next section and I couldn’t help but wonder what the observers from El Chaco made of these temporarily nude foreigners in their outdoor town sports center.

One of team France Green Caffte Costa Rica-UPS Adventure-Haute Maurienne/Vanoise’s sponsors was at this transition as he is following their race and making short films. Marco from Green Caffte Costa Rica provided all of the raw, dehydrated vegan foods that this team is racing on. Jacky Boisset and Myriam Guillot-Boisset feel that this is their “secret weapon” and Marco and his lovely girlfriend explained their fabrication process; it was a fascinating crash course in nutrition and maintaining healthy gut bacteria.

The weather has gone in one day from dry and windy on the moors to sticky and humid far down below in the rain forest. Lead teams transitioned earlier then the estimated times when the skies were clear but teams further back in the pack will be reaching this transition in a tropical deluge as the skies have just opened up at three a.m. as I write.

The race organizers provided a lavish (by adventure racing standards) buffet of pasta, vegetables, quinoa soup, nuts, banana bread and hot and cold drinks.  Teams took time to eat and rinse their bikes in the fountain before re-packing their bike boxes.  The racers were wise to take full advantage of this transition because that now dreaded word, altitude, makes a comeback in the third section.  

Racers will be (or are already) trekking and doing rope work on a forty-four kilometers section ending in Oyacachi. They will be climbing from approximately 1,700m in altitude to 3,200m as they near latitude zero, the Equator. 

You can follow the race live at http://live.huairasinchi.com/

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