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Dark Horse (USA) out of competition

Jacqueline Windh / 18.03.2007

Dark Horse left Cerro de las Vueltas on foot just after midnight. Some time towards the end of the following afternoon we got a call – they were back at Cerro de las Vueltas, and requesting road transport to their bikes. They were really keen to make sure that they got to the rafting section – the highlight of this race.

We have little information about what happened to them. Pongo’s team Sarapiquí had left two hours after them, and had made it to the next TA hours earlier. We suspect that it was navigation issues – Pongo told me that in the early part of the section they were supposed to walk down a highway for 1 km, then cut off and follow a line of hydroelectric towers. But he said that right before that hydro line there was a different line of towers that didn’t have any cable. Pongo said that his team almost followed the wrong line, and he wondered if that perhaps is what had happened to Dark Horse.

We are all sad that they are out of the official ranking, but the fact that they want to continue at least means that they are in good condition – will update you all when I know more.

(End-of-race update from Dark Horse: they had gone down the correct power line, but could not find the trail. Trying to head in the right direction down-river, they ended up belaying down some cliffs but still getting cliffed-out near the bottom. Low on food after the problems in locating previous wayboxes, they made the tough but wise direction to head back to where they had come from).

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