Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

Wow - almost a week w/o internet... much to catch up on . Ruben just  
dropped me off at a shopping center in the city (beautiful city!) -  
there's a Starbucks here with WiFi so I'll work for a few hours. He's  
taking Burn (Bakar Aman) to the hospital to check on Zul (Zulkifli  
Saari) who is still in ICU - a fall with his stallion on loop 2 left  
him with a fractured wrist and fractured skull. He's out of danger  
for now - some swelling but no brain hemorrhage, he's very lucky in  
this respect. But he'll have to stay in the hospital for at least 2  
weeks. Burn volunteered to stay in Chile with Zul until he can  
return, and he'll stay at Ruben's house outside of the city.  He  
speaks NO Spanish. He woke up early this morning (the rest of us -  
Santiago and Hernan from Argentina, Ruben - slept till late in the  
morning - the first good night's sleep since the race).  Burn wanted  
to wash some clothes, there was no laundry soap so he went on a  
walkabout while the rest of us slept, to look for a shop where he  
could buy soap. He found a little store, but it took quite a while to  
communicate to the senorita that he wanted laundry soap. Oh the  
trials and tribulations of being a foreigner!

Quick report on the race - the 160km was pretty tough, everybody said  
it was one of the easier courses in Chile, more good footing and sort  
of flat trail - but still a very tough ride when the goal is to  
finish in 13:20 or less. I have never been a fan of the FEI CoC  
(Certificate of Capability) which requires riders to finish in 13:20  
or less, and because of this stupid requirement the riders have to  
ride by the clock, not by the terrain, or the weather, or all of the  
things that make our sport interesting. So the constant pressure to  
ride fast took it's toll on the Malaysian riders. Only 2 of them (out  
of 8 starters) finished - Data Kamarrudin (Awang) finished 2nd,  
chasing the winner to the finish line, and Burn finished 7th - last -  
but missed the CoC by about 10 minutes. So his ride didn't count  
towards the Malaysia WEC qualification. so ridiculous!! The others  
fell out at different points in the ride. Norlaily made it to the  
148km point on her feisty little white mare, but at that point the  
mare was lame. Raja Adub ('little Mahmood') pulled at the 2nd  
vetcheck, the first elimination ever for his horse - he was  
disappointed... but also very tired, so maybe it wasn't totally so  
bad to stop. It was a tough course - and the first 40km's were done  
in the dark. A 3AM start  -  there was a lead car and a car behind -  
the riders stayed in between the two vehicles. Very dark, cold and  
very foggy, hilly terrain, tough riding. Ramly and Izri and Shamsudin  
also fell out during the day, disappointed.

so that's it in a nutshell for the Malaysians - I'll have lots more  
story to tell, and millions of photos to post, but for now I'm going  
to catch up on my email and listen to Joni Mitchell singing 'wish I  
had a river...' and have an espresso doble!

more later -

Steph



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