Corsica Raid

Day 4: Mountain to sea

Anne-Marie Dunhill / 21.05.2013

The night was a short one for teams that were navigating in the dark on the nocturnal trail. After two hours sleep in Tattone at the Camping le Soleil  teams were transferred by their assistance vehicles to the start of the fourth day in U Poghju di Nazza. The temperature was 3 degrees at dawn. There was a two hour drive to the other side of the island and heavily charged vans with kayaks on top wound their way down the hairpin curves with racers crammed in the back, finishing their nights sleep.

The village of U Poghju di Nazza offered the racers breakfast in the municipal hall which racers appreciated as they listened to the days race briefing. Perrine Blanc of Quechua said that her team was doing well and that she felt better then expected after the nocturnal trail; “I thought that the section would be hard hard, but it was only hard”. 

They then took off on a 7km mountain bike section with 700m positive ascent. It was a steep climb through single tracks in the forest to Tana. A quick glance to the right offered a spectacular view all the way down to the sea. The clocked was then stopped to allow racers to do a 80m abseil with a view of the sea. Racers then picked up their mountain bikes and continued down the mountain towards the sea.Team number 12, IMS, had been leading on the mountain biking section but a navigational error cost them almost and hour and they had to shunt a portion of the course. According to team reporter German Cuevas, the Spanish team Keltoi Fridama withdrew from the race yesterday but continued on certain sections today. 

A short transfer in the support vans led teams to the next section of sea kayak on the Etang de Diana. (An “etang” in French is a pond but it was much larger then a mere pond). Oysters are cultivated here and the water was scattered with buoys marking their location. Teams paddled to a brief orienteering section in the vineyards of one of the race sponsors, the Clos Poggiale. 

After the orienteering section teams leapt into their kayaks for 20 kilometers of sea kayaking along the coast. At one point Nicolas Rambier and Benjamin Monier broke from formation with their team mates and headed in land. Apparently they had left behind their kayaking skirts and were taking in water after three large waves on an otherwise calm sea. 

The day finished with another orienteering section and a trail of 5km (with a group start) from the beach to Ghisunaccia where stage four will be completed. There is a stark contrast between the new architecture on this part of the coast and the ancient stone buildings in land. This is apparently because in the last century malaria kept Corsicans from building on this coast. 

Once again the three jerseys of the top team in the overall ranking, the top team for todays stage and the top Corsican team will be awarded this evening in a ceremony at the town hall of Ghiscunaccia. Tomorrow is the last day of racing and most of us here have given up checking the weather forecast! 

The current leaders, LSN, crossed the finish line hand in hand with a Corsican team. Afterwards Audrey congratulated the race director on the beauty of the single tracks earlier in the day. Anaîs Joly from the race organization said earlier that the person in charge of the mountain biking section was a “maniac” who had been out for three weeks prior to the race clearing the tracks and removing obstacles. Team captain Benjamin Monier stayed at the finish line to cheer on the teams arriving behind them

The complete ranking and results are available on the official race website.