The Leaders at Meridiano

Rob Howard / 11.11.2014

The third trekking stage of the race began at San Jose de Minas and covered a distance of 45km on tracks and paths which wound across hills covered in brush and lower down in dense cloud forest. (And yes it was cloudy.)

After leaving TA4 teams faced another big climb, yet again forcing their weary legs to push them up above 3000m, but for the last time in the race.  Once the climb was over there was a steady descent down to the next transition at Meridiano and from there it is ‘almost’ all downhill to the finish – at least compared to what they’ve already done! The rest of the race takes place mostly below 1000m, though that will bring its own challenges of heat and humidity.

For today the leading teams were concentrating on completing the trek and those at the very front had the incentive of trying to make it to the first paddling stage in time to complete it in daylight on Wednesday, avoiding the forced overnight stop of a dark zone. This was made harder by the fact most of them had a 4 hour penalty to serve at Meridiano and by the continuing wet weather conditions.

First to arrive were Spain Colombia Vidaraid at 11.34. They’d pushed hard on the trek and knew that while they slept their penalty time New Zealand Seagate would pass them as they had no penalty to serve. 

We met Seagate riding down tracks lined by bamboo and palm plantations and they appeared relaxed and in good spirits, as well they might be with such a good advantage over their nearest rivals.  However, Colombia Vidaraid were not as far behind as we expected and were racing hard and looking determined to reel the kiwi team back in. The extra 4 hour sleep had done them good!

Team France Green Caffte Costa Rica/UPS Adventure/Haute Maurienne/Vanoise (to be known as Team France from here on!) were still in transition at Meridiano when we arrived, just preparing to leave after serving a penalty they bitterly disputed. They had some time to make up on Colombia Vidaraid and set off in the wrong direction at first, but quickly corrected this.

The next 159km cycle/ropes stage is predicted to take 19 hours for the leaders, and the following river paddle 7 hours. Seagate left Meridiano at 13.07 so on the predicted times would complete the paddle in daylight and avoid the dark zone stop, but for Colombia Vidaraid it could be touch and go. Team France will have to race really well and beat the predicted times to make it, but they know that is what they have to do if they want to maintain any chance of a race win, and that’s a powerful incentive. Those behind them know they will be caught in the Dark Zone for sure.

When Team France left Meridiano Ecuador Movistar were fast asleep in the transition hall, which was in the village church. They were laid out on the floor below the altar, the saints statues and a large diamond shaped stained glass window, with the remains of a large meal spread out beside them. When they woke up to get going again I spoke to Santiago Mino who said; “We are pleased to be racing for a top 5 place, that was our aim.  Not so pleased about the penalty, but I guess it was a mistake we made.”  He said the team had raced a couple of times before with Jari Kirkland and were getting on well and that the race had been close to this area in the past. Like all the Ecuadorians I’ve spoken to he was fiercely proud of his country and its beauty and delighted to have a World Championships here.

Just before Movistar left UK adidas Terrex came into transition in 5^th place, trekking strongly and sounding upbeat. “So far we have not had any serious problems with our feet or stomachs,” said Warren Bates. “Considering how long we’ve been on our feet that is good going so let’s hope it stays that way.” He continued;, “We had two plans and are on Plan B.  Plan A was if everything went amazingly, and plan B is what we expected to happen and we are bang on that, even with the penalty.”

Nick Gracie was not too concerned about the effect of the penalty. “We were never going to beat the dark zone anyway,” he said, “and it means we get 4 hours extra rest so I don’t think it will affect us that much.”  The team were looking forward to finding some food at the transition and managed to buy some. “I’ve no idea what it is,” said Gracie, “but it’s good!”  (I think it was boiled manioc.)

The team were impressed with the course and race organisation, but Bates did say he was fed up with the mud. That is not going to improve unfortunately as the weather on the third night of the race is once again very wet, with heavy rain, making the challenge for the teams even greater.

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

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