TRANSMAROCAINE 2012 - 7th edition
Day 5
Anne-Marie Dunhill / 18.03.2011
What a difference a day makes! Teams bivouacked at the dam and the shivering started around 03:00 as the humidity rose and dew formed. A donkey brayed in the distance as the racers got their last precious minutes of shut eye. Today the Transmarocaine was treated to its first day of sunshine which was a treat for the soggy morale of the teams. The format at the dam was a star shaped one with a staggered start and teams taking off to three different orienteering activities; kayak, MTB and on foot. As usual, penalties applied for missed CPs. This format meant that lead teams weren’t able to follow each other and had no idea of their position in the ranking. It also gave the organization a chance to catch their breath as they have been working flat out non-stop to manage the unexpected severe weather conditions. Jean-Pierre who was responsible for tracing the race route said that they had actually had to move the entire race further West then originally planned.
The original route would have taken racers higher then 3,000m in altitude and seeing the conditions at 2,300 it would have been a catastrophe.
Teams dashed off in all different directions and there were several extremely funny moments such as when a novice team got into the kayak backwards, one popped himself into the childs seat in the middle, they turned in circles and called out to the organization, “There’s a problem today, there’s no current for us�! One of the kayak safety crew whizzed out to give them a quick lesson in kayak 101.
At the end of the section Raid 74 maintained their lead and tomorrows MTB epilogue on Ave Mohammad V in Marrakech is a mere formality. They were followed by Cap Opale in second and Decathlon Kiwi Raid in third place overall.
Cap Opale who have raced hard throughout the week to catch Raid 74 said that their race was decided on day 1 at CP 3 which they lost a lot of time looking for. At one point yesterday the two teams raced a section together.
As teams continued to cross the finish line they were greeted by the cheers of their colleagues at the nearby feed station and all gathered around the snacks to exchange their race stories. The stories mainly centered around certain CPs that had caused particular problems throughout the race, such as CP 2 on day 3.
Raid 74’s win here is made all the lore spectacular by the fact that Stephane Agnoli’s bike box with most of his gear never arrived and he did the race on a full suspension MTB and borrowed kit. He said afterwards that having raced four editions of the Transmarocaine he wasn’t particularly fussed about winning this one, that one comes to this race for the ambiance, to race with all different level of racers and for the organization that bends over backwards to make sure that the racers have an excellent experience. He said that most of the credit goes to his team mate Emmanuel Lang who did all of the work considering the technical handicap he had.
The organizers are compiling the final race results and they will be available shortly on their website.See All Event Posts
