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Raid World Champs 2004 on 5 Continents

Rob / 28.10.2003

The results of the last X-adventure Raid in New Caledonia, and for the 2003 series, might have only just been announced, but the plans for 2004 are ready, and what plans they are. The big news is that the races will take place on 5 continents, with a new qualifying process that makes the series and final more accessible to all adventure racers around the world.

As previously announced the X-adventure Raid Series will now be qualifiers for the new Raid World Championship ® and the dates and venues for 2004 will be:

May - Morocco
June - USA
July - France/Italy
August – Australia
October – Argentina (Raid World Championship ® )

Explaining the new plans Alain Gaimard of Saga d’Aventures said; “The qualification system will allow teams, whatever the country of origin, to compete on equal terms, thanks to a clear race concept, in a format, simple and comprehensible to the media and the general public. The number of competitive teams is increasing not only in Europe and the United States but also in the Pacific and adventure racing has become a recognized sports discipline, with races held throughout the five continents. With this new concept, offering total prize winnings of 260,000 USD (the highest ever distributed in the history of adventure racing), we will, together, achieve a wider recognition of the sport as the X-adventure Raid Series and The Raid World Championship will become the reference in adventure racing.”

They are grand plans, but have not happened suddenly. For some years now Saga d’Aventures have been working towards an established format, introducing drug testing and putting races on at more destinations outside Europe. However, there has always been a European bias to the venues, and with the origins of the Raid Gauloises and X-adventure in France, the majority of teams have been from Alpine countries … until now.

Having taken the bold steep of dropping the Raid Gauloises as the X-adventure series finale and replacing it with the new Raid World Championships, the organizing team and sponsors (Saab, Salomon and Raid Gauloises Fashion) have come up with the goods. Not only are there races on 5 continents, they’ve put in place a system of guaranteed places for teams from all around the world. The qualification system allows for the best overall-ranked teams from different geographical zones to qualify at the end of the
X-adventure Raid Series according to these quotas: