Ecomotion/Pro
Choices and Challenges Between Checkpoints 3 and 14
Alexandre Carrijo / 13.08.2013
Ecomotion in Bahia’s “Costa do Cacau” region is revealing a beautiful and tough course. Starting in Itacaré and going south past beaches called the Brazilian Hawaii, which at this time of the year are a surfer paradise. And these small beaches covered with massive palm trees and lot of rocks hosted an excruciating coasteering section to start the race, one that would soon cause delays and sore bodies.
First 5 times to arrive at CP 3 at end of beach trek and during daylight were Seagate, Columbia Vidaraid and Terra de Gigantes followed by BMS Multisport and AXA Adidas. Only Seagate took the expected path which was to go along the shore all the way until the lookout point just before reaching CP3.
Columbia took a road just after a river mouth and arrived from an unexpected direction. They were followed by the other teams, all of them trying to avoid being between a rock and a hard place. That’s because the tide was coming up and giving less and less space to athletes. One of them were the BMS Team who passed fast in front of the square that hosted the check point with English racer Nick Gracie towing Gui Pahl and kiwi Seamus Meikle towing Camila Nicolau. Good international work in practice!
These teams passed CP3 but didn’t sign in. First they went down to collect the mandatory crossing point (PPO, in portuguese) and then back tracked to the CP in order to check in. Back tracking again, teams set off to CP past the PPO.
That happened until team Enigma, comprised of three Brazilians and American racer Paul Romero who asked the CP if they could sign in before they go get the PPO, avoiding lose time. They were allowed to do that and they overtook other teams such as Brazilians Quasar Lontra and Competition Aroeira, and French team Vaucluse. It wasn’t prohibited by the rules so it was allowed! On the other hand the organization is enforcing time penalties for what is written in the race book. Race Director Zé Pupo is being keen to play by the book.
Next came a difficult night navigation trek to check point 6. Many teams had problems finding it, and had to sleep on the very first night to wait for day light to reach next CP on the lagoon. By now the Coasteering was taking its toll on the athletes legs and after a 3 km swim positions changed. Columbia Vidaraid had open a 3.5 hour gap on Seagate and started to paddle in the first hours of Monday. Seagate and BMS were separated by 25 minutes from each other. Terra de Gigantes, Competition Aroeira and Soul Monsters followed.
AXA adidas had trouble finding the check point on the night trek and lost a lot of time. They arrived at PC 9, (the end of swim) had a calm transition with local food to eat, and started paddling around 5 pm. They were now over 12h behind the Spanish leaders. All teams were seen at CP 9 having a slow transition at Lagoa Encantanda, a small peaceful village where a soccer field, cows and houses lay together. Team China, for the very first time competing in an expedition race format, had a local meal and bought food and batteries before setting off at sunset.
The end of the kayak was at Ilhéus, check point 12. Teams had to collect check points in the historic city centre before coming back to the kayaks for a small paddle to the first mountain bike section. Columbia Vidaraid got back to the boats only 90 minutes in front of the New Zealanders Seagate, who took two hours off of them on the paddling.
{At CP 10 teams could chose if the would keep paddling through a system of channels to reach the city or cross a narrow stretch of sand heading to the sea paddling. Only the Spanish team kept on the channel and maybe the tide against them helped Seagate to gain time.]
Latest news from Yellowbrick trackers is that Columbia have finished the MTB leg at CP 18 while Seagate and BMS were close together half way between CP 17 to 18, Tierra de Gigantes and Quasar Lontra a bit behind them. It is important to note that both Seagate and BMS have missed a chance to opt out of two hours of mandatory sleep by not finishing high enough on the prologue and this has to be considered. The first mandatory sleep has to be taken at PC 21.
We are now just 36 hours into the race from an expected 100 hours for the winner and there’s much more to come.
SleepMonsters
