Cloud Forest Expedition
Cloud Forest Tests Wills and Lungs
By Robert Goodier - As published in The Tico Times / 07.06.2005
Twenty minutes ahead of the nearest riders, Ligia Madrigal unclipped her shoe from the pedal and fished her contour map out of its plastic casing. She was lost. None of the contestants had seen her for hours – not a smidgen of her red spandex on the forested horizon, not even a streamer of dust from her Trek’s knobby tires. She was outriding men and women alike; only the flash-popping paparazzi kept pace – in their 4x4s. Now, though, she had taken a wrong turn and was lost in the remote highlands of Monteverde, in the Tilarán Mountains of north-central Costa Rica. The mistake, and two more like it, cost her the race: orienteering was the Achilles’ heel of this riding, running and rappelling warhorse.
In the end, slow and steady won the race, when Rodney Jiménez was the first to roll through the finish line 12 hours and 50 minutes after the race began. He plodded kilometers behind the others until the last leg of the race, when the three leaders were lost on the peaks of Cerro Pelado. Jiménez backtracked, checked his points of reference and forged on, this time on the right track. He was followed by Max Soto in second place, who had never before competed in such a race.
From the wee morning hours to the hot afternoon finish, it was an epic tramp over river and woods, fought with sweat and smiles among nine athletes.
Euforia, a family operation by Andrés Vargas and Susan Mora, emerged from the planning phase this year as a response to an adventure-racing void in Costa Rica.See All Event Posts
