7 Cerros Medellin Adventure Race
SOLE (USA) makes up a LOT of time
Jacqueline Windh / 14.10.2006
Our press van arrived at the top of the hill to the Santa Elena lookout, with spectacular views eastward and down, way down, to the city. "Have any teams passed yet?" we asked some volunteers.
"Just five: Finland, France, a Colombian team, USA and Spain" they told us.
"No way," I thought, "They must be mixed up, SOLE was way back. There is no way that they could have moved so far ahead." But it was true, they had!
SOLE, who had been slipping towards mid-pack due to some navigational errors, had powered up the hill. (I'll try to find altitude info, but for now suffice it to say that in many countries this "hill" would be called a mountain, probably somewhere close to 1 km elevation gain). "We passed, like, six teams on the way up that hill," says Captain Paul Romero.
From the lookout, teams had to rappel down a 40m drop, with a bit of an overhang, into lush forest, then go sideways along the slope and climb back up to the PC, before heading out for the final run back down the hill and back to Plaza Alpujarra, right downtown.
While we were there, BOSI (COL) arrived, making up for time lost to navigational errors below in the city, followed by 3 STEP IT, Iiro Kakko's team from Finland. Both teams must have passed a fair few others on the ascent.
While there, we could see and hear thunderclouds forming across the valley, and soon we could see areas of dense rainfall. The overcast moved over us. At first it was a welcome relief from the heat, but as the lightning flashes approached and the thunderclaps got suddenly louder, we realized that we were going to get dumped on. 3 STEP IT were just coming back up from the ropes segment, and HALTI were just ready to head out on it as the rain started to fall. The boys from HALTI were looking tired – feeling the effects of the altitude Frida explained. (Their arrival to MedellÃn had been delayed by 48 hours, making for a grueling journey as well as little acclimatization time here).
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