TRANSMAROCAINE 2012 - 7th edition

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Day 3

Anne-Marie Dunhill / 16.03.2011

The weather forecasted for yesterday arrived 24 hours late and today the racers started at 08:30 in light snow. There are three sections of todays stage, MTB orientation, trail orientation and once again MTB orientation. Racers took off up a steep mountain pass, the equivalent of a class 1 on the Tour de France, imagine the Galibier in the snow and you have an idea of what the racers faced today. Wet, slushy show which meant that the tires quickly lost their grip, Stephane Agnoli in the lead team joked that he forgot his snow chains.

At the top of the pass Bouabid Lamnouar of the OCP Challenge said that he had never seen snow in his home country (he lives in Casablanca). One of the members of another OCP Challenge team made it to the top of the pass without gloves and quietly asked if it would be possible to lend him a pair.

Racers veered to the right at the top of the pass onto a single track for the orienteering part of the section. The further back the team the more slippery the track and several of them quickly dismounted. The five trucks ferrying the baggage and bikes are struggling to make it over the pass as their tires are worn down.

After the MTB section there was orienteering for a total of 3:30 hours on a magnificent plateau. (Well, rumor and Google Earth hint that it’s a magnificent plateau but today it was covered in low lying fog!) Each CP missed was worth a 1 hour penalty. Discussion in the bivouac centered around the CP 2 as the lead team felt that it wasn’t properly placed as it was next to a house in ruin instead of on top of it. They spent twenty minutes looking for it and only found it by sheer luck when they followed the sound of a child’s cries further down the plateau and the came across it.
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