January 27, 2013 (Pucón, Argentina) – Saturday Jan. 26, was the final day of The Transandes Challenge. It began at 9:45a.m. at the start/finish line in front of Pucóns City Hall. This last stage was reduced by the Transandes organization to just 33 kilometers due to the arduous climb of the route. Participants had to grind over a thousand meters before reaching the Ski Center of Villarrica Volcano. From here they headed down through technical trails to the start/finish line located below in Pucon.
The stage winner, and a native of Pucón, Saul Novoa. Saul was able to celebrate his first stage win in The Transandes Challenge today in front of his own people. The winner of the overall standings was Chilean Javier Püschel, who finished today’s stage in third place. In second place and in the same position of the overall class was the Portuguese rider Joao Marinho.
In teams, the Canadians Matthew Hadley and Benoit Simard (Team Nativo) have achieved victory in their class beating the duo Nicolás Prudencio (Chile) and Juan García (Aregnetina). There was no discussion in the Mixed Team category, Mary McConneloug and Michael Broderick from the U.S. dominated each stage of the competition, beating the Chilean team of Elisa Garcia and Claus Plaut. In the Single Open Women the american Rebecca Rusch has repeatedly shown her strength beating the Spanish rider Mercé Petit.
Thus it is finished, another episode of The Transandes Challenge. Six exhausting days where competitors from 27 different countries, have had to endure 420 kilometers and 10,000 meters of accumulated elevation gain through the most spectacular trails and landscapes of the Southern Andes Mountains in Chilean Patagonia.
The sixth Transandes Challenge will take place between January 20th and January 25th of 2014. Forgetting the pain and remembering only the good times, riders will again come to Patagonia to complete this epic Transandes mountainbike race.