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Day Two: Leading Horses to Water
Sunday, April 16, 2000

Unpredictable as the weather may be, the second day of racing here at the Elf Authentic Adventure is - surprisingly - anything but surprising. If that makes no sense, consider the fact that, until the most recent checkpoint, the gap between the leading teams hadn't change one minute for over a day.

----> Teams Spie Pharmanex and FujiFilm are locked in a battle for first, but until this morning's CP7, the gap between the two teams was exactly 22 minutes. With minimum travel times imposed on teams while they trot, walk, post and canter their ways across the low Brazilian plains, the only way to improve your team's position is for the competition to slip up. Teams could not take any less than four-and-a-half hours to travel from CP4 to CP6 — all in the name of horse safety. This meant teams arriving early to CP6 were forced to sit outside the checkpoint and wait until the mandated 4.5 hours had passed. Once the 4.5 hours passed, teams checked in for their two-hour rest period, hoping not to get caught in the 11.5-hour dark zone enforcement.

Early this morning, Team FujiFilm (99), the experienced French team, caught up with the International Spie Pharmanex crew and were in a dead heat out of CP7 — one day from the end of the horse leg. How FujiFilm caught the leaders we don't know, but we suspect problems with one of their horses...we are confident that Cathy Sassin will tell us the next time we see her. However those 22 minutes were erased by FujiFilm, eight teams are now within two hours of each other and headed for the terminal horse station where they'll be able to go full speed once again.

Heavy rains have forced organizers to re-route the course at CP7, where a swollen river makes it impossible for teams to cross on horseback. The teams will now head 7km northeast to the village of Paula Pessoa, then work their way to the HQ, where teams originally were scheduled to drop off their horses and pick up trekking gear. As it is, however, the swollen rivers will force teams to dismount early (on the river's edge), where they'll swim across while their horses are transported back to HQ.

The field at this point stretches back to CP6 where the last teams, including American team Loch Harris Cold Water, brought up the rear early this morning - 36 hours behind the leading teams.

Seven of the 30 teams are from Brazil, earning the loudest cheers when they ride, walk or paddle through a village. France, home of Gerard Fusil's organizing company GFC, has nine teams here, while the USA has three or four teams competing, depending on how you count. (In Elf, unlike Eco-Challenge, teams are not required to register under a specific country.)

After today, the teams will ride across marshy, wet lowlands and head for the hills on foot, gaining a 1,000 feet of elevation in preparation for a rock climb and rappel on Tuesday and Wednesday. The course will continue in the mountains and then transition to mountain bikes for a 147-kilometer leg toward the coast and the impending sand dunes.

At this point everyone is carefully pacing themselves, wary of the extreme 100-plus temperatures and scorching sun. When it isn't sunny, the clouds roll in and the barometer drops — bringing lightning and thunderstorms that pack a wallop. It is this dynamic Brazilian nature, combined with the curious and friendly locals, which makes this race special.

—Elf Authentic Adventure Correspondent

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