X-adventure Raid Series Grand Final
The Final Showdown in New Caledonia
Raid Organisation / 12.10.2003
The Adventure Racing World Cup has chosen the South Pacific, with its great coral reef and lagoons of crystal clear water, for a remarkable 2003 final stage. Covering an overall distance of 190km, this end of season contest will bring to the starting line the best European teams and their antipodean adversaries, in climatic conditions and over terrain totally unlike anything already encountered by the world’s adventure racing elite on the four preceding stages. After the demoralizing deluges of Scotland, the scintillating slopes of Mont Blanc, the arid valleys of Idaho and the cavernous cataracts of the Sierra de Guara in Spain, the World Cup X-adventure Raid Series will visit its 3rd continent in a year this October 18th to 19th. After Europe and America, Oceania will open its doors to the world’s most accomplished raiders, with this concluding stage of the 2003 season fought out in New Caledonia. It will be a do or die finale, held in conditions completely different from any encountered this year.
Mountains were the common feature on the four preceding stages, but the ascent on this New Caledonian stage, a land dominated by verdant plains and mangrove forests, will be much more modest. The 9 sections of this race will incorporate only just over 3,600m of climbing, with the highest point at 1,019m. Water will, in no uncertain terms, be the dominant element over this final stage, where no fewer than nine disciplines will be involved.
Grand Terre, the archipelago’s principle island, surrounded by the placid Coral Sea and vast Pacific Ocean, will offer up its extraordinary lagoon – the 2nd largest in the world in surface area – as an exceptional and compelling stamping ground. Three out of the 9 sections will take place aboard canoes. The trekking sections, though rare, will enable the 21 competing teams to explore the island’s dense vegetation, first brought to the attention of Europe by navigator and globe trotter extraordinaire Captain James Cook. These sections will however be interspersed with long rappels and canyon descents, making it possible to vary the disciplines in the Great New-Caledonian Outdoors.
This race will also hold two awesome surprises for the athletes, with a “ride and run� section - where knowing how to handle the extra member in the team (the horse) could prove decisive - and a swimming section in the warm, shallow waters of the lagoon, alongside the resident clownfish and tortoises.See All Event Posts
