Bimbache Extrem - Castilla y Leon
Surviving to the Finish
Rob Howard / 07.10.2010
As the leaders paddled ever closer to Salamanca and the finish line, the teams behind them were playing catch-up, taking short-cuts, gritting their teeth and simply surviving this brutal and confusing course. After seeing Buff Thermocool and Blackwater set off on the long final paddle, we headed back along the previous cycling section looking for teams and found the Brazilian’s Costa Nostra, French team Raid Nature 46 and at CP68 the South African team Cyanosis. This team had completed the whole course up to the final trek/ropes/skate, but then felt they had miscalculated the effect of the dark zone on their chances of finishing before the course closure and decided to miss that stage. It was a hard choice for them to make.
“We thought we were in 12th place and will now be ranked nowhere,� one said, “we are not too happy with that! I thought this was going to be an A to B style course not have all these loops and options all over the place. After the fiasco in Portugal last year we were told it would be a straight line course but now we really have no idea of who we are racing.� It was a comment echoed by several other racers we’ve spoken to, as without knowing who has cut which parts of the course and what penalties and credits are applied no one is really sure of the rankings as the race comes to a close.
“Sometime later we visited the start of the final paddling stage, which was busy with teams, some having taken short cuts, and others who had raced the full course. Team Outdry, who we are sure are racing in 4th were there, a full 9 hours behind the race leaders. Jackie Boisset, who had been struggling, seemed stronger but he was said to have been almost comatose and unable to speak earlier in the day. It seems the 2 kiwi racers in the team have been the stronger and have been encouraging and pushing their French team mates to complete the course. Not that Jake Roberts has much recollection of this. His comment on the shore was, “This whole race seems like a dream. I don’t know where I’ve been and what I’ve done!�
His team will sleep the night on the riverside before finishing tomorrow, but the French team Quechua will not make the finish line. Having raced the almost the full course to that point and with only the paddle and final city run to complete they decided to pull out. The girl in the team was injured after a bike fall and her team mates were demoralised. “We didn’t come here to finish 12th or 13t�, said Rudy Guoy, “and will be back next year.� (Where they would have finished is open to question however, and maybe they were in the top 10.) Guoy said he had made many navigational mistakes, which is rare for him and he felt the team was not fully recovered from their race in Costa Rica a month ago.
With news of many more teams dropping out today, often after long periods of cycling due to skipping stages, it will be interesting to see how many teams do complete the full course. Antonio de la Rosas pre-race estimate of 15 now seems likely to be on the high side.
The winners will arrive in Salamanca this evening and Blackwater too should finish the paddle before the dark zone is applied. Many more teams will then spend the night camped out on the riverside and the final bunch will set off from the dam at first light aiming to paddle to the finish before the course closure at 18.00 tomorrow.See All Event Posts
