Ecomotion/Pro
Mandatory Sleep And Tides Still to Play a Part.
Alexandre Carrijo / 15.08.2013
Check point 18, transition from a muddy MTB to a long and difficult navigation trek, has divided the teams as "cut zero" was applied – the first time cut-off of the race. Because the race pace is slower than expected teams arriving after 16:30 on Tuesday had to go forward on a short course, leaving only 11 times on the full course. From those, only 4 have managed to pass throuth “cut one”, at 02:00 on Wednesday.
Teams like Nomadas Colombia, Enigma, Axa Adidas, Trek Uruguay, Harpya and Walhalla Paraguay were really frustrated about “cut zero” as they had pushed hard on the bike leg in order not to miss the 2 am cut off at CP21.There were a lot of complains about this unexpected enforcement, even though they were told the trek from 18 to 21 would be slow. Trek Uruguay lost hope and said they had no goals in the race anymore and pulled out. Others had to wait for bike boxes to arrive as managing trucks on the muddy roads has been hard for organization as for the very first time Ecomotion is in an unsupported format. Those teams got their times frozen and were given time credits.
At CP18 the time difference from Columbia Vidaraid to the second place BMS Team was about five hours. Seagate was 7h 29m behind BMS, QuasarLontra Kailash, and Vaucluse Aventures Lafuma from France were just 30 minutes behind Seagate.
After the long trek to CP26, the transition from trekking to MTB, time lapses among times were: Vidaraid 5h 23m over BMS, Seagate 2h 41m behind BMS and 27 minutes in front of Quasar. By this time only these four teams were in full course.
At CP34, the transition from MTB to trek/cave/ascending, BMS had managed to take one hour off the leaders and maintain the same difference to Seagate, who increased the gap to Quasar to a total of 42 minutes. They almost got to see each other at TA - Seagate left 3 minutes before their arrival.
Times for transitions are important to count as it shows team spirits at the time. Seagate are usually the fastest team in TA's spending an average of 30 minutes on CP18, CP26 and CP34. Columbia is taking a little more time and usually about the same as the BMS times. However, at CP26 the Spanish took 1h 25M while BMS went through in 38 minutes. At CP34 all of them took around 40 minutes.
Columbia left CP34 at 14:45 with a lead of 4h 35M over BMS after 75 hours on the race. Seagate left at 21:57, 2h 43M behind BMS and 42 minutes in front of Quasar.
Because teams have already gone through a certain number of mandatory sleeps (total amount 6 hours for Columbia and QuasarLontra, and 8 hrs for BMS and Seagate, as were slower in the prologue) these time gaps don't equate to the real distance between the teams. It looks like BMS and Seagate have taken many more hours sleep than Columbia and QuasarLontra.
At the moment, Thursday 08:00 local time, the first three teams are on the first third of a 49km kayak section and QuasarLontra is still way behind on the trekking. Low tide was about about 03:00 and is swelling up to 09:55, meaming Columbia, BMS and Seagate have had to paddle against the tide. However, the last half of this section will be faster for them as tide direction will change soon. This will also help Quasar if they manage to reach the river as soon as possible.
After the kayak leg teams will face a 131 km MTB and only at the end of it will they reach the last CP's (43 or 44) to stop for the rest of their mandatory sleep times. After that the race goes into a final 54km of paddling with choices about paddling in the channel or on the sea towards finish line.
Ecomotion has almost reached a full four days of racing and there's a lot still to come. With so many options and long legs involved the leader board can see some changes before the end. All four teams still on full course can find their way to victory.
SleepMonsters
