X-adventure Raid Series

An Alpine X-adventure for Saab Salomon

Tim Lloyd / 14.07.2002

The race organisers promised the second round of the 2002 X-Adventure Raid Series would be the toughest ever. It lived up to it’s billing, including white-water swimming on the infamous Isere River (venue for the 2002 world white-water canoeing championships) and scaling 3500 metre glacial peaks. It wasn’t just the hardest though, it was the most competitive too and one of the best ever races.

For most of Team Saab Salomon it was to be a new experience. Jim Davies, Nicky Davies and Marc Laithwaite had not raced in an International Salomon X-Adventure race for a few years. “The race format is very different now to the last time I raced one of these� said Marc “it will take us a while to get into the swing of it and suss it out�. Fourth team member Ben Bardsley had recently returned from the first race in the 2002 series in Sweden so it was a bit more familiar with the format.

Despite their relative inexperience, the team set off at a blinding pace, setting the fastest time on the first stage, a four hour mountain run in atrocious conditions. At the first transition point Nicky waited nervously for the men on the hill. “On these races, only three of the four in the team race at any one time, however, all but three legs have to be a mixed team of three; this means I only get to miss three stages in total. t makes for an interesting and very tactical race - but the waiting at transition is very difficult�.

The second stage was a four hour mountain bike, and with the conditions worsening the race was becoming more difficult. The French team Intersport had a storming ride and opened a lead on the rest of the field, but behind them it was very close, with Team Saab Salomon still in second place, however they were about to enter a series of stages that was certain to drop them down the rankings. At transition 2 we caught up with Marc. “We’ve got a lot of white-water and inline skating coming up, I think this will be the worst section of the race for us.� It was.

On the white-water canoeing they stayed right up with the leaders, but on the skates the team again showed they have a lot of work to do to reach the level of the other top teams. Jim summed up their feelings at the end of the stage. “We just dropped 12 minutes and we can’t afford this with the race being so close�. Their performance on the white-water swim (Hydrospeed) made them feel a bit better, with Jim, Nic and Marc setting the second fastest time on the stage.