Ecomotion Pro (Brazil)
SOLE victory in Brazil
Karen and Paul/Team SOLE / 25.11.2006
Travel to Brazil went well. Tom from Calgary, and Aurelio from Madrid. We flew with most of our support team and bike mechanics from Nevada (Colin, Tyler, and Lindsay). Cesar and Carlos from Brazil, and we are a force of 9 ready to do battle against 59 teams, including nearly every top team in the world. This is a very important event.
We were rewarded with two days to acclimatize at the beach side Sheraton, which included hanging out at the world famous Ipanema Beach of Rio. This was not rough living. But the stark contrast of expedition racing in the rain forest and rivers of Brazil was never far from our minds. Our focus was where it needed to be.
The race began in the small town of Resende with a short (double kayak) paddle downriver at night. It was quite a sight as nearly 60 teams (120 kayaks) took off running to launch boats in the river. We quickly got into a groove and found ourselves toward the front of the floating lights bobbing downriver. A short and unimportant 1 hour start.
Section #2 was some fast paced, out-of-the- saddle bike racing. We led the field on a 60km mud fest. We\'d mentally prepared for a massive 75km mountain trek.
Section #3 was the most massive of the race. It took us to over 2800 metres (8000 feet for the Yanks). They warned us about the cold, but it\'s Brazil, how cold could it be? Well, it got brutal. Paul\'s hands went completely numb. It took him one minute to unscrew a carabiner every time. No fun. A 19 hour nonstop run, a few navigation problems, and we were one hour behind the leaders - peanuts when you\'re racing for four days.
Next up was a pitch dark paddle in a watery labyrinth. We nailed it, still an hour off the lead. The first place Spanish team had the daylight to work with, we essentially had blindfolds on.
We next opted for an early and conservative sleep decision and the twenty minute sleep before a monstrous night bike section served us very well. We gained tremendously thereafter. Conditions were nothing short of knarly. Our drive trains were trashed, and terrain was brutal. Karen\'s fork had blown, so she was without front suspension. We still made great time.
Our first of two mandatory two-hour sleep zones put us at a small ranch home in the middle of a driving rain storm. Ten dollars got us floor space for a one hour sleep and a huge plate of rice, beans and eggs. We were RECHARGED and closing in on the leaders (Team Abarth of Spain, led by a guy we regard as the strongest in the world, Fran). Sleep deprivation and mistakes from this point forward were absolutely critical.
We next rolled into a blistering 22-mile steep, mountainous run that took us to the scariest section of the race - a night time whitewater kayak section. Class 2 and 3 is normally not enough to weird us out.... except when it\'s at night. Departing with our Kiwi competitors Merrell, they quickly out paced us due to their smart headlamp situation. We had very little light and it killed us at night. Poor light combined with Tom and Aurelio\'s boat partially failing and deflating, we had issues. We lost about thirty minutes and had some VERY high stress scenarios. All ended okay and at the end we opted for a 2nd unofficial and conservative sleep decision, another 20 minutes before we a big bike to the ocean coast.
Once again our sleep strategy proved itself well, we caught the leaders. Arriving on the coast with the leaders still in transition, preparing for the the big ocean expedition where we\'d go 36 hours without support.
SleepMonsters
