Rocky Man Adventure Challenge
Team USA Win Rockyman for the Second Time
Alexandre Carrijo (www.vivabrasilia.com) / 13.11.2013
It was a sunny Saturday morning at Rio de Janeiro for a beautiful start of the second edition of Rockyman. After last night briefing, where some changes on the trail run were imposed turning it into a almost 100% sealed road run, athletes headed back fast to their accomodation to have as much rest they could. All camaraderie and relaxed faces among the teams and contenders of each discipline were replaced by tense faces during the briefing as everyone knew that Rockyman would be all about high performance next day.
The event provided a very cool atmosphere at Posto 10 Ipanema beach to host the start and finish line, briefing and prize giving. The first sport of the day was surfing at a spot named Arpoador which divides Copacabana and Ipanema beaches. Surfers in 4 rounds of 5 athletes had to run for 2km from the start to the beach break. They had 40 minutes to perform and get points that would be converted into time added to overall team timing. (The same had happened in the climbing day before.)
Team USA had the best surfer and no extra time added. Because they also won the climbing section, they started to build an advantage very early on, one that would increase steadily through the day. It was local Brazilian Caio Vaz who tackled both surf and stand up paddle (placed 4th) for the Americans.
The next leg was an MTB course in a steep climb after a bunch ride on the flat area beside the beaches of Ipanema and Leblon. This was mostly on paved roads for a total of 45 Km, and there was a 3km technical loop to be done three times. Bikers had to mind which tyres and strategies to use in this section.
The Brazilian Ricardo Psheidt from the Sulbrasilis Team finished 7 minutes ahead of his chasers after a surprisingly fast 2.4km on a sand horse run track. Adventure Racers Mike Kloser - USA and Ian Edmond - NZ arrived together among the first ten.
The MTB finished at Rodrigo de Freitas Lagoon, where the Stand up Paddle started. Last year’s champion Lius Carlos "Animal" Guida from Team Quasar Lontra had a hard time to beat BMSer Paulo dos Reis, a windsurf World Champion. He managed, but by only 6 seconds to win it for the second time. The total time difference between first and last on this leg was about 14 minutes. (Almost the same of the 19 minutes gap at climbing and surf.)
However, besides MTB ( 1hour ) it was on the running - both male and female - that the biggest gaps occurred after a 32 km run that peaked its climbing at the feet of the famous Christ the Redeemer Statue.
American Marshall Thompson was about to have a second win but was stopped by the youthfulness of the New Zealander Daniel Jones, who won by six minutes. At the age of 17 (in 2009) Jones broke the record for the 33km rocky trail run at the NZ Coast to Coast to help win the relay with his father Neil Jones. At the moment he is on a scholarship in America as a runner.
He had an advantage of 1 hour over the last finisher. Among the women, Stevie Kamer from USA had a very dominant performance putting 20 minutes on the second girl and placing herself 8th overall. The most amazing was seeing her look absolutely fresh on the finish line while others runners were arriving destroyed by the steepness of the course and the heat of the day. Her advantage over the last finisher was about 92 minutes.
By the end of the run at Vermelha Beach, Team USA had a great lead and only if they sank the Va'a Canoe could they lose this race. Close together were Team New Zealand and Brazilian team Nucleo Aventura. Fighting for 4th and 5th to be on the podium there were four local teams: Quasar Lontra, Ironman, Start and BMS, separated by for 20 minutes.
To conclude the race came the group legs; 12 km Va'a Canoe and 10km beach run with no time stopped for transition. BMS lead the paddle from the first buoy on a circuit of 5 laps of 2.4 km having team Sugar Loaf as company. After a quick transition teams headed to a hill to cross to Leme Beach and go through Copacabana to Ipanema to the finish line. BMS was the first team to get back being chased by Quasar Lontra. However, it was Quasar who managed to rank 4th followed by Ironman, who had a great performance on the canoe.
The final results with a total time of 10:51:07 put Team USA with an impressive gap of 40 minutes over the second placed New Zealanders to claim another victory at Rockyman. In third place Nucleo aventura repeated its top 3 finish of last year.
Certainly it was a great event and athletes, specially the internationals, are already eager to come back next year. It is important to note that even though there are group disciplines the key to winning the race is to build a team that have great specialists at running and mountain biking as these disciplines count more to the team's overall time. And if you have a terrific climber, surfer and SUP paddler, it won't be on the group stages that you are going to fail. It seems that was Captain Paul Romero's strategy to triumph. Well done!
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