Team SOLE

Team SOLE inlines the streets of Medellin

The beautiful and very modern city of Medellin captured the hearts of adventure racers as we biked, ran, in-line skated, rapelled and orienteering our way through the city and its surrounding mountain peaks.

Day 1 of the 3 day stage race began with a mass start on in-line skates. Team SOLE (Karen, Paul, Cyril Jay-Rayon and newcomer Eric Bowker) can skate with the best of them, but we're no real match for the Swedes and Finn's who are apparently born with in-line skates or x-country skate skiis already attached. We held our own though and survived the skate loop despite the 10 block section that escaped the road closure where we found ourselves dodging cars, buses, mopeds and bicycles and trying to stay upright.

Team SOLE and Inter Sport return from the bush to the city streets

From there we headed out on bicycles into the chaos of vehicles all vying for a piece of the road. We found ourselves together with a police motorcycle escort who helped us through a number of intersections and also helped us into our first big mistake as we tried to read and interpret the city maps making our way to the hills. We found ourselves too high on the hillside and we had to backtrack down to the checkpoint against the traffic of all the teams who had already found the point. We made it to the checkpoint in a disappointing 15th place, turned around and began our quest to return to the top of the field.

Karen, Eric and Cyril on the Metro (mid-race)

By the end of the bike we had passed a number of teams but we still had difficulty in the city streets and eventually we found ourselves together with a local teams who knew the route without so much as looking at the map. We rode with them to the outskirts of town where the real work began as we climbed the first of the BIG mountains surrounding the city. By the top we had passed several teams and had the 3rd and 4th place French and Spanish teams in sight. We made quick work of the rappel at the top and charged down the steep hill with the French having left the Spanish at the top. The rain began to come down in buckets making the hillside extremely slippery and difficult. We were happy to arrive on the pavement and head to the finish line. We arrived in 4th place, not bad considering we were all the way back to 15th earlier in the day.

A rare shot of Paul at the end of the tow line

Day 2 began again with an in-line skate section. On this loop we gained some time on most of the field as we made some good navigation choices to keep us on course. We headed out on the bikes in 2nd place, drafting the local team who once again knew the way. Now for some technical biking on some muddy, steep singletrack. We quickly took the lead until Eric got a flat, but we fixed it quickly and regained our placing leaving the technical section in first place. From here we headed to an orienteering course that would take us up and down and up and down and up and down this little mountain. We ran together with the Finns, but the locals gained nearly 20 minutes on us and we left just behind the Finns and the local Colombian team. We pushed hard and finished the day.

Karen tried out the brakes on the gravity cars

Day 3 began on these Columbian soap box derby cars. Coasting downhill, the brakes a couple of pieces of old tire nailed to the front and back that you pressed to the ground to slow down. Ready-GO and the teams scrambled to find a car to race down a pretty crazy, wet and turny, steep downhill road. We scrambled here and there and soon found ourselves at the start without a car. The organizers had miscounted and were one short. We waited several minutes while they grabbed an extra from the truck. We hopped on the car - Karen steering in the front, Eric just behind and Cyril and Paul standing in the back (the counterweight for the sharp turns to come). We hopped in and Karen's previously unknown F1 skills shined as we soon had made up the 3-4 minutes we lost at the start. We soon were the first international team to the finish line. A little frightening, but fun. Off to run and we were in the lead pack. Paul continued to struggle with back spasms, but pushed hard. We linked ourselves together with towlines and managed to nearly stay with the lead teams. A huge ascent on the bike and we found ourselves catching the leaders. Now a quick bushwhack down to the checkpoint and a downhill bike to the finish. But the rain changed that and instead of hiking back to our bikes we were informed we'd have a 15 k run to the finish instead (on pavement.) ugh... The beautiful downhill planned for our bikes was now a big downhill run. We made it, pressing for each second to shorten our combined time. We even passed a couple of teams. 3rd place was ours - after such a tough race it was well earned.