DART-nuun News
presented by nuun

Saturday, March 2, 2007 10:57PM (Pacific Time)
From the Hotel Santa Isabella. Ensenada, Mexico, the Baja Peninsula. 74 miles south of San Diego California, on the Pacific Ocean.

Quick note: The team captains meeting has occurred and we await the media presentation at 2pm. Race director Paul Romero announced that a large winter storm is moving into Southern California and may whip some tails through the first part of the race tomorrow morning. 25mph winds from the N/NW will blow in moister and swells on the coast and we donâ??t know what it will drop on the 6 inches of snow now sitting in the high desert mountains! .

Todayâ??s moment: Race director, â??Once in the Canyons you must get out through the canyons. There is no other way out unless you are a goat or a bird.â??

Report: â??Take the kayak section more serious than you normally would!â?? That is the word from the race director. â??Be prepared to bail your kayak out on the high seas, deal with 6ft swells and 25mph winds. Know the canyoneering section is going to be long and difficult, navigation in many sections of the race will be imperative.â??

Even before teams descended on Ensenada they headed these memos sent out earlier (Read one of the earlier blog reports). The field dropped from 30 teams to 20 in the last few weeks coming up to the race. Most teams dropping were concerned with getting in over their heads in this race. The race director stated, â??many plain chickened outâ??.

Here is what we know at this point.
Race start tomorrow at 8am.
Kayak from Ensenada â?? 56K
25mph winds
Mountain Bike â?? 50K
Trek â?? 16K
Mountain Bike â?? 58K
Up to 6000ft
Trek â?? 17K
Mountain Bike â?? 28K
Up to 8000ft
Mountaineering/Canyoneering â?? 18K
Many ropes and difficult route choices. Some rappels dropping into pools of water. Be able to swim.
Auto Rally â?? 100K
Score 250K off road race was here last week and some of the cars are here for the teams to take. A driver will be provided, the team is given rally navigation directions, then at speed in excess of 70mph, they will have to quickly navigate the driver through the section. At those speeds navigation is not going to be a long debate.
Trek â?? 10K
Finish: Kayak to San Felipe â?? 14K
Corona is the sponsor of the race. Big party and beers at the finish. Rumor has it that the Corona girls are going to show up, weâ??ll see J

Total race should take the DART teams 3-4 days to complete as a top finishing team.

Coming at you with more info after our 2pm meeting. I will put up more pictures this afternoon.

From the field, preparing to chase the team, Erik Nachtrieb.

Labels: Real Time Race News