At 4:30 am today and after a few words from the Race Director, Stjepan Pavicic, the PATAGONIA EXPEDITION RACE 2004 was given its symbolic start leaving from the main square in Punta Arenas, the southernmost continental city in the world.
The racers were escorted by police cars, vehicles from the organization, a great quantity of general public coaxing on the racers, and also a variety of media covering the sporting event, until they reached the quayside to take the ferry and so cross the Magellan Straits to Porvenir. The two-hour trip was calm due to the lack of wind. But not all the participants were so calm, the majority were able to rest, concentrate their minds and stretch their muscles preparing for the 520 km awaiting them.
At 7:30 am, upon finishing the Magellan Strait's crossing, the ferry doors were dropped announcing the official start of the PATAGONIA EXPEDITION RACE 2004, all the teams cycled off on their mountain bikes along the coastal road, a close and compact group on their way to the first check point in Baquedano Cordon in Tierra del Fuego.
84 km of gravel road awaited the racers on their mountain bikes, at a height of 500 m taking them up and down but both the beginning and the end of the section would be at sea level.
The Patagonian steppe landscape is very dry and very little vegetation. Following history they went through the Río del Oro, the river was where the 1878 Gold Rush took place, but unfortunately all the hard work and investment never paid off and so the expensive settlement was abandoned. The natives from the area were the worst to suffer, almost being totally exterminated by the white man invasion. |
At what would be named the PATAGONIA EXPEDITION RACE'S first historical Check Point (PC), the first team to register is Adventure Bosi Colombia. The PC is after the 500m ascent compared to the start on the coast of the Magellan straits
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