Huairasinchi - The 2014 Adventure Racing World Championships

A Game Changing Penalty

Anne-Marie Dunhill / 11.11.2014

Transition four in San Jose de Minas could only be described as passionate. The race direction had taken their decision concerning the penalty for teams that had not followed the rules in the road book trekking along the river in Oyacahi. The TA was on top of the hill in the city behind the church. A street vendor was selling rice, spicy chicken, potatoes and fried bananas.

A heavy fog rolled in as we waited for the first teams and the place was full of people waiting: families, media, volunteers, organizers and village people.  Those waiting knew that the penalty would be announced here and everyone knew that it was a game changer and likely a moment to go down in the annals of adventure racing.

Team France rode into the transition first and the spectators went wild. Media was jockeying for position with cameramen and photographers tripping over each other. The race volunteer in charge of filtering entrance to the area where the teams were got over excited and starting pushing and shouting a cameraman; it was chaos.

The organizers did a mandatory gear check and then a member of the jury informed them of the penalty. Mimi went behind the building where the race boxes were located and began to change out of her biking gear while Sylvain and Jacky went to have the penalty explained to them. This was the first point since the start of the race that they were going to take some sleep and it was impossible not to feel bad for them as they were informed that they had a four hour penalty to sit out at the next transition.

Voices were raised and listening in on their conversation in French it was clear that they were very unhappy as they tried to explain why they had taken the route that they had. Jacky asked what the point was, was it safety first, as they felt that the route they had taken was a safer option. Sylvain then sat down to write an appeal in English, as the race rules stipulate.

All but three teams will have to sit out the penalty at TA5. Here the YB trackers were worth their weight in gold as the three member jury was able to clearly see the route choices that each team had made. Silva was one of these three teams, which makes their withdrawal so early in the game that much sadder. New Zealand-Seagate and Poland-Team Polska AR who will not be serving the penalty.

It was fascinating to watch the reactions of the other lead teams when the race informed them of the penalty. Whereas team France Green Cafte Costa Rica-UPS Adventure-Haut Maurienne/Vanoise had been very vocal in expressing their feelings on the mater, team USA-Tecnu was philosophical. They took the information on board, and without missing a beat immediately started deciding whether or not they would take some sleep at TA4 as originally planned or try to push on to TA5 and use the four hour penalty for sleep. Mari Chandler insisted that Rob Preston needed to sleep here and he did appear to be suffering the most from sleep depravation with vacant eyes and a very pale face that could not be attributed to liberal use of sunblock.

While taking apart and packing up her bike, Jari Kirkland of team Ecuador-Movistar remarked to her teammate that she was relieved that it was a penalty for the actions of the whole team, saying “I thought was something like all of us not having our sleeping bags and then I woulda been really pissed.”

The French remained “really pissed” after their brief sleep. As Mimi passed by on her way to drop off her bike box she muttered to me in French, “You know what, this is my last race. I’ve fed up and have had it.” When I asked her if it was because of the penalty she said that the penalty had nothing to do with it, she was fed up because “racing is always the same.” The always smiling, bubbly Mimi had clearly lost her joie de vivre.

Lead teams have now left San Jose de Minas for a very steep 45km trek; they gain over 1,300 m in altitude and looking at the race profile ones only reaction is “ouch”!

The first time cut-off is today at 17:00 here in San Jose de Minas and teams whose goal is the finish the full course will be pushing hard to make it. Those who miss it will be “shunted” by car much further along the race route and will miss several interesting sections so the pressure is mounting. The weather will once again play a dominant role as storms are rolling in and there is a low-lying fog. 

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