The AR World Championships - Costa Rica
North, Central and South Americans Teams after 70 hours
Alex Carrijo / 05.12.2013
Wednesday midnight at TA04 ( second kayak leg end ) got quiet after the buzz of the twelve first teams to reach and leave this area. Daylight was still going when leaders Thule, Seagate and Silva passed here. After dark, many teams arrived and have spent over an hour to get prepared to next section of over 100k mountain bike. Some of them have slept there or just after left transition.
On to the bikes, Brazil's BMS was twelve team to arrive still at night at "the superman" zipline, mentioned as the longest in the world. It was also the first to have some time neutralized as the harness were not returned yet from others teams usage. Before them, have already passed Tecnu and Bones from USA. Also the Brazilians of Quasar Lontra. Four teams out of 12 from the Americas.
Once daylight was back, Selva from Brazil, Aerodiva from Costa Rica, Antioquia from Colombia ( all three with some neutralized time for the reason), Banano and La Ruta both from Costa Rica were the ones to arrive to performs the zip line. Unfortunately, an accident has happened to an athlete of La Ruta as his left foot hit a tree and caused an immediate swelling. He is as good as possible but had to retire from the race, said captain Chris Lesko. The rest of the team decided keep going once their teammate was under organization care.
After that, teams arriving at this CP had two options. Wait for repairs on the zip line with freezed time or keep going under a two hours penalty. Argentinian Rios y Canoas, Ecuador Explorer, Opavanet from Czech Republic and Toyota Adventure were waiting for a bit but finally decided to go as fixing involved brunch cutting and could take much time to happen. By that time, Thursday morning and 70h onto race time, teams from the Americas summed up a total of 12 from the very first 24 teams.
Aerodiva is a team which teammates come from an wild region in Costa Rica and have been performing very well since the mangrove kayak leg. In this section they manage to gain lead among local teams, what is for sure an informal title each race have. Favorites Toyota and Jeep are behind not only Aerodiva but also Banano Maco, which is comprised with Argentinean navigator Fernando Aparo and Veronica Bravo from Chile.
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