Raid in France - Alps to Sea 2009

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A Day in the Life of Support Crew

Anne-Marie Dunhill / 04.06.2009

The assistants paddled the kayaks for an hour up the breathtaking Gorge de Verdon to deliver them to their teams. Afterwards they ferried all of the support crew gear up a mile and a half track to Chateauneuf les Moustiers.

At the end of the track the human pack mules were greeted by a breathtaking vista and an old stone village tumbling into ruin.This plateau was our home for 12 hours as the jury decided that the mountain biking stage was so difficult that the assistants were allowed to carry out an impromptu assistance. The teams were delighted as they rode in to find food, hot drinks and relieved assistants waiting for them.

Cateye Outdoor Experience decided to sleep for two hours before continuing on to the canyoning section. Sarah, one of the race doctors, worked on their feet as they slept. All of the assistants were caught out and had to scrape the bottom of the barrel to feed their crew.

The assistants spent the night under the stars waiting for their team to come in. I was awakened at 5:30 this morning by Jean Marc Marion barreling into camp bellowing "Anne-Marie"! As two other assistants share my first name there were lots of heads quickly popping out of various tents!

My team, Raid Nature 46 Lethiguel Sofermi Qualixpert was looking really strong. They had decided early in the race on a sensible race strategy which included sleeping often throughout the various stages. They rapidly proceeded to inhale all of the food and drink on offer before setting off in their wetsuits for the canyoning stage which was to be followed by kayak and trek.

Amazingly, despite their focus on the race, lack of food and sleep, the team was still able to enjoy the beautiful scenery as they rolled into 14th checkpoint

They were awed by the scenery they had seen but Christophe Dominguez said that he thought that this edition was considerably more difficult then in 2007.

For now, the assistants are off to assistance point number two were they will see their teams for a minimum of three hours. Can't wait!See All Event Posts