Discussion: Huairasinchi 2017

next ARWS race is starting soon!

ROSTER:

USA - BendRacing/YogaSlackers
Jason Magness
Melissa Coombes
Daniel Staudigel
Stephen Thompson

FRA - Agde Raid Aventure
Paul Galode
Jerome Gleyze
Christine Cornez
Antony Diaz

CZE - Fenix Multisport
Pavel Paloncy
TBD
TBD
TBD

USA - Mountain Race Company/MainNerve
Shane Hagerman
Peter Jolles
Rachel Furman
Chris Von Ins

ECU - Team Fairis Uniandes
Bernardo Vintimilla
Galo Tamayo Teran
Jorge Brito
Yeimy Cadena

ECU - Movistar Ecuador
Martin Saenz
Patricio Vergara
Nick Gracie
TBD

COL - Saferbo Seti Colombia
Jorge Mario Rodríguez
Laura Ordoñez
Juan Acevedo
Daniel Gómez

COL - Seti 1 Colombia
Ricardo Velez
Lina Vargas
Edgar Ocampo
Juan Aristizabal

ECU - Papacara
Juan Araujo
julian portilla
María Araújo
Luis Neumann

Terra Aventura - Finalin
Joaquin Lopez
Gonzalo Espinosa
Felipe Munchmeyer
Victoria Calisto

ECU - Ideal Alambrec
Pedro Jurado
Xavier Chiriboga
Santiago Davila
Laura Rossi

COL - Skyrunners - Xpedition
German Gonzalez
Claudia Rubiano
Andres Cubides
Javier Baez

GBR - Afterwork Athletes
Shawn Duffy
Joe Selby
Kim Selby
Daniel Galarza

ECU - Yuma-Fedeme Adventure Team
Marco Davila
Pablo Cobos
Rafaela Achig
Jorge Cofre

ECU - Life Adventure Team
Francisco Pinto
Juan Calisto
Victoria Calero
Gonzalo Calisto

ARG - San Juan Aventura 1
Urtzi Iglesias
Mirtha Lucia Realpe Palacios
Martin Durval Osores
Juan Gallerano

ECU - Cats Adventure Team
Pablo Romero
Alejandro Zabala
Luis Calisto

ECU - Cayman AT
Francisco Campos
María Saltos
Ismael Escandon
Mateo Ponce

ECU - Guambras Bluecard
Daniela Leon
Maria Vallejo
Karina Neumann
Margarita Endara

ECU - Ñongo Ñongo
Pedro Egues
Alex Caamaño
Dani Costa
Edison Rivera

ECU - Ñaupak Pastaza South Adventure Team
Miriam Tinitana
Raul Rivadeneira
Wilvert Carvajal
Oscar Rivera

ECU - Texticom Anima Invita Cicloide
Philippe Cazar
Juanita García
Ricardo Gonzalez
Juan Rovayo

ECU - Quest Adventure Team
María Chiriboga
Gabriel Montero
Pepe Carrion
Felipe Borja

Race website and tracking
https://www.proyectoaventura.com/site/6/section/20...

Race overview - leg disciplines, distances, time estimates etc.
https://www.proyectoaventura.com/uploads/content/2...

Bad weather! Half the teams are out (one is still racing unranked) after the first 24-ish hrs.

Terra Aventura is currently in the lead. Looking at U.S. teams, the Yogaslackers are 6th and Mountain Race Company is the unranked team.

GAH! Hope all is going okay for Shane, Rachel and team Mainnerve/Mountain Race Co.

Day 1 Sleepmonsters article: http://www.sleepmonsters.com/v2_races.php?article_...
Day 1 photos: https://www.proyectoaventura.com/site/6/section/30...

Day 2 Sleepmonsters article: http://www.sleepmonsters.com/v2_races.php?article_...
Day 2 photos: https://www.proyectoaventura.com/site/6/section/30...

Shane posted on FB that the team is unranked because he got altitude sickness and had to pull out. The rest of the gang is continuing. Keep it up, rocky33!

Trackers will apparently not be working near the cancelled trek (Piñan area) and the lead two seem to have already stopped updating, so it might a dark period for tracking the leaders.

Great race report by surprised Huairasinchi winners, the young Ecuadorean team Terra Aventura - Finalin. They say they will participate in Xtrail China in "tourism/traveling" mode since they are still recovering from a hard race.
http://www.sleepmonsters.com/v2_races.php?article_...

And another good one from Pavel Paloncy of the third-placed team, Fenix Multisport:
http://ar2.palonc.org/2017/05/30/czech-machine-rac...

Love his photos! He mentions an important issue arising from this race that we haven't discussed on AP:

"One sad case is connected with this particular race – first doping case in AR. A local racer, Gonzalo Calisto of Life Systems team (which took 2nd place), had been tested positive on EPO in 2015 right after finishing UTMB. He was disqualified, suspended for two years (until March 2018), but started the Huairasinchi 2017. Well, AR has not its federation established, so no procedures are set, as who has to sanction this (ARWS, race organizers?).

So I raised a question what ARWS was going to do with this. I got a great support and it seemed that things got moving. Well, not really. Gonzalo and the team were disqualified, ranking updated (French team took 2nd place, we got third and so on), but that’s it. Otherwise, nothing has changed. So we will raise another round of questions. We cannot be satisfied with this, it is just a matter of time until something similar happens again and in fact we would be back where we had been. No sport is spared, sooner or later it had to happen, now it is up to all of us to face this and keep the sport clean."

I'm not sure what other changes Pavel feels are necessary. The relevant ARWS rules are the following:

"9. BANNED SUBSTANCES (ARWS)
The use by competitors of banned substances as specified in the World Anti-Doping Code, The 2014 prohibited List, is prohibited. [RED]/ [DQ]
...
11.4. Positions announced at prize giving are subject to the results of banned substance tests and any further findings brought to the attention of the Organizers."

The rules seem fine so maybe Pavel feels they need to be implemented differently. If the situation had been brought to the attention of organizers before the race, the racer in question would not have participated, which would have been better. Maybe Pavel is suggesting that organizers should be responsible for checking racer names against a WADA list? Or maybe he's advocating for drug tests for top AR finishers?

Not sure what Pavel is thinking, Bash, but given the fact that there's now a proven case of a drug cheat in the sport, I think both of those suggestions should be on the table. Would love to hear a larger discussion on this issue, especially the opinions of racers on top teams (unlike myself :)

From my tenure on the "inside" with ARWS, paying for drug testing -- even random tests for the top few teams -- is something few events have an appetite for. Hard to make the case for ROI to them, but if it undermines the integrity of events it will have to be given more consideration.

This article about the Western States Endurance Run provides a glimpse of what would be involved in drug testing. Amongst other things, testing only at competitions is considered to be inadequate so a truly effective program would involve surprise testing of athletes around the world. In a sport where the referees still have to pay for their own flights to events, AR will need to start small.
http://trailrunnermag.com/people/news/western-stat...