It proved to be a rough night for the race favorites and early leaders Buff Thermocool. Sometime during the night, one of the team members broke a collarbone. How the accident occurred is still a mystery but we will follow up on this as more information becomes available.

The injury is a huge development for this race. Not only is it a miserably unfortunate race-ender for Buff, but a race opener for the other lead teams, especially Ecuador Chevrolet. Made of up three Ecuadorians and one Canadian the team was a favorite but had a sizeable gap behind Buff late in day one. Day two however started out differently. Ecuador Chevrolet blasted into checkpoint twelve on bike around 9:30 AM. Looking confidnet as they rappeled from a flimsy bridge into rushing water the team emerged to cheering race volunteers, locals, and journalists. Once the team crammed energy food down and put their bike gear back on, they were off again for another bike section along a narrow dirt pathway.

The rappel at checkpoint 12

The next team to come through checkpoint twelve was over three hours behind the new leaders. Also near the front of the pack are Safety Smartwear (Columbian) and Bosi (Columbian/Argentine). It is reported that both the other Canadian teams (Untamed New England and Milton Basement Racers) still have good positioning, but are at least 5-6 hours behind the leaders at this point. As we know from last nights tragic ending for Buff, anything can happen after dark, and especially in tough terrain like this.

Tomorrow it is expected that the lead teams will finish early at the same lake they checked in at three days earlier. Teams were looking miserably tired in the scorching sun of the lower valleys today. The higher elevation bike and trekking sections tonight may prove to be a nice respite from the blazing heat in this “not-so-rainy” rainy season.

The Canadian member of Ecuador Chevrolet Carena Dean was happy with their new lead