On the Road To and From Oyacachi

Rob Howard / 10.11.2014

The trek to TA3 at Oyacachi has proved to be tough, tougher than the first trek at high altitude at the start of the race.  We left Oyacachi at 14.00 by which time 29 teams had checked in – so there were another 20 still struggling to reach there and many of these spent at least part of a second night out on the trek ... a second night in the rain too.

The climb up alongside the river was on a path, but a jungle path, and a steep one, a continuously steep one, and one awash with water and mud from the heavy rains and including some roped bridge crossings. Several racers I spoke to said it was one of the toughest treks they had ever done. Sanne Elidsbo Hansen of Denmark who is racing with Ecuador Terra Aventura Fybeca-Discover just said, “That was terrible.”

Rebecca Law who is racing with Ecuador Finalin said; “That was my worst night trekking ever, the hardest I’ve ever done. I was hypothermic for a while as it was so wet and cold!”  (Rebecca raced in ARWC Costa Rica last year, which had some tough treks in it.)  She normally races with Bivouac Colts of New Zealand but joined the Ecuadorian team at a month’s notice and said all was going OK, but “they are pretty slow in transition.”  At the time she was standing with her bike waiting to get going. Her Bivouac Colts team mate Dayne McNight was not far behind, racing with Ecuador Guambras; Biosil-Powerade.

The harsh reality for those teams bringing up the rear of the field and still struggling to get to Oyacachi even now is that they are unlikely to make the first race cut-off, nicely called a ‘closed door’ by Huairasinchi, which is at 17.00 on Tuesday (tomorrow) at the end of the following mountain bike stage.

It is looking like this door could close on a number of teams as the leaders took over 16 hours for the 144 km ride. Race Planner Rodolfo Peralta said, “This is a very hard ride. There are lots of roads and tracks, so navigation is hard, especially at night.” The route took teams back up to 3800m and then on a long descent down into more populated areas. They were passing small farmsteads with wandering cattle, sheep, chickens and pigs, and then richly tilled fields of black soil and were soon in small towns and making their way across country on a route of continuous ups and downs.

At one point they had to cross the Pan American Highway, the same road teams had used on the way to the start last year in Costa Rica. They also stopped at CP10 to photograph themselves on the equator – a dream checkpoint for navigators and map lovers.

Their destination at the end of the ride was TA4 at San Jose de Minas where they begin the third trekking stage of the race.  It is possible each new trek stage will be harder than the last. This one is 45km and begins with a huge climb, taking teams back up above 3000m again.  The leaders are expected to take 12 hours on this stage. And then the final trek will be in the Amazon and teams have been warned it is harder than all the others!

You can follow the race live at http://live.huairasinchi.com/index.cfm

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