Day two had the same elements as day one, a sea kayak, swim, trail run and mountain bike, and a canyon, but it was much harder and much hillier than day one. To begin the day the teams had a one hour drive northwards to the town of Piana, which would be the focus for the day’s activities, so it was a dawn start to get packed up and move out of the flooded campsite.

 

The town is situated high above a series of steep canyons and cliffs, and from below looks to be perched precariously on the edge of a sheer drop. It is a warren of narrow streets set off the main road with a large Canpanola on the church in the middle of town, and the race finish/transition was set up beside this.  The start was a further 30 minute drive along stunning cliff top roads, and the teams were headed for another beach kayaking start, and would paddle back towards Piana below the cliffs, on a part of the coast which is a UNESCO World Heritage site.

 

They began at 09.00 on a bright, sunny morning with a perfectly calm sea – the perfect conditions to enjoy a paddle the like of which many of the teams would not have experienced before.  They were below cliffs all the way, passing around the small mountain at the head of Capo Rosso, which like all headlands is marked by a watch tower.  The route took them between small islands and rock outcrops, past large caves, and into another secluded beach at Ficaghola, which is below Piana.

 

Unfortunately that meant an uphill only trail run to the transition in the town, a very, very steep one!  Lafuma had lead onto the beach but Quechua caught them on the climb and both teams arrived together in Piana.  Again the transition was timed out, so they could recover themselves as they prepared for the big canyoning stage which came next. 

 

This lead teams down to the sea again, with the canyon starting just a couple of kilometres from Piana and immediately taking teams into a 25m abseil alongside a waterfall – it was to be the first of 9 in a canyon which took the quickest teams 3 hours to negotiate ... and would take the slower teams much, much longer.  Yves Bilodeau of Quechua said, “We were surprised how hard it was, we were going at a good pace and it took us a full 3 hours to get down, it just kept going and going.”

 

This was potentially significant, as although the canyoning section was not competitive, there was a 3.5 hour time limit, and any teams over this would be given penalties.  When Quechua reached the sea they rushed into the next stage, a 1km swim back to the beach were they had arrived in the kayaks earlier in the day.  They thought they had to complete the swim as well within the 3.5 hours, but this wasn’t the case, and only later did they realise they could have taken a rest before the swim.