A Very Tough First Day at Huairasinchi 2011
Natalia Greene / 06.03.2011
The weather was definitely the team's adversary during the first day of Huairasinchi 2011. All teams left Pintag at 6h30am and had a nice biking up the mountain, however, since they were all together and the first teams took a wrong road, most ended up following the first teams in this biking leg and it took much longer than expected!<br><br>They then started a very long trek over the highlands that reached 4300 meters twice and in dealing with the altitude, rain, fog and cold, all teams again took much longer than expected. Some teams got lost or were struck by the cold, especially from the adventure category, so they opened their radio and were picked up by their support crew to be taken to the general camp and continue the race out of the ranking.<br />
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The leading elite team up to CP5, team Adidas Evil Eye Ecuador reached CP7 missing the previous CP. They had the option to return and mark it, or to continue the race, but they were too exhausted and cold and decided to abandon the race.<br />
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Now, leading the race is team 6, Thule Adventure Team, who left CP8, Cosanga at 3h40am tired but in very good shape. Following them closely in second place is team 1, Equipo Ecuador, who left Cosanga around 6am. Still in the race, and following the two leading teams in the following order are teams 11 Team Skandia Adventure (3rd place); team 8, FJS (4rd place) and 9 Buff – Thermocool (5th place), with lots of energy to continue. The girl in team 4, Absolu Raid Rodez had altitude sickness and was too cold to continue, so this team left the race early on Sunday morning and are now resting in Quito.<br />
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The organization has taken an important decision to adapt to the problems caused by the bad weather, there will not be any cut-offs to allow the other elite teams arriving from the trekking to remain in the race and complete it. This means that the cut-offs planned for CP8 Cosanga at 11am is no longer in effect, neither is the one at CP11 Guacamayos, planned for 7pm. This will extend the race but will allow all remaining elite teams to complete the course.<br />
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Day 2 for adventure teams will start on Sunday at 9am since this day's start was delayed to allow the adventure teams to rest.
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