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Fast and Slow in the Supramonte

Rob Howard / 15.04.2011

After a hurried breakfast of coffee, cake and fruit, and the usual last minute strapping and repacking, the teams bustled outside for the start of the race, which was now set at 06.00. It was still dark as they set off with a cheer but the forecast bad weather had not arrived. Instead of the expected rain and low cloud, there was a starry sky, and though it was chilly the race opened with a steep climb, straight up the ridge on the opposite side of the road to the hotel, so everyone was soon warm enough.

It was a brutal start, taking teams as much as 30 minutes to reach the crest and they quickly spread out. At the back were the British team ‘Ales by Mail’, who said their alarm had not gone off after they missed the start!

The opening trek was rough underfoot, but the compensation was that teams were on the ridge to see the dawn. However they dropped down to one of the many 4x4 tracks that criss-cross the mountains as soon as they could and this lead them to the second CP of the day. All of the CP’s are marked with distinctive Sardinian flag and those which are unmanned have a time sheet attached, which teams fill in on arrival. They also have to write down a unique code printed on the time sheet. (The code at the second CP was the name of a famous Sardinian song.)

The first to arrive at CP2 were the Polish pairing, Lurbel Adventure (Maciek Marcjanek and Michal Kielbasinski), closely followed by Team Buff (Gabriel Maldonado and Juan Carlos Serrano). As they approached a small herd of Mouflon (wild mountain sheep), leapt across in front of them and during the opening trek there were plenty of animals to see, mostly semi wild pigs, sheep, goats, donkeys and horses. The noise from their bells and the many insects in the scrub was the only sound to be heard in the wild landscape the teams were passing through.

Doubling back down the same track the teams now made their way to the first rope stage at the head of the Gorropu Gorge. (They had to carry their ropes gear for the whole stage, and were recommended to carry at least 2 litres of water each, so packs were heavy.) The Poles were first to arrive, but lost time finding the top of the ropes (there was no one to direct them) so Buff were first to go down. The stage began with a descent down a narrow canyon that lead out into an overhanging basin with a small murky pool at the bottom. (At the briefing we were told this is the only place in the world a species of salamander has been found.)

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