Aveyron Adventure Race

At St. Jean le Froid

Rob Howard & Anne-Marie Dunhill / 27.07.2013

On the morning of day 3 the leading teams have been arriving at Transition 7, at St. Jean le Froids. This is the finish of the trekking stage most teams have been on during the night, and the transition back to bikes to take them into the final full day of the race.

It was a stiff climb to reach the transition, which is set up at a chapel and hermitage on top of a steep and isolated hill, but once on top the 360 panorama is magnificent.  The two leading teams Raid Quechua and Raid Nature 46 arrived around dawn, with Quechua coming in first. The team were discussing tactics for later in the day when there is an optional canyoning stage with an 8 hour penalty, and by the sounds of it they may miss it out.

Raid Nature 46 arrived from a different direction so it likely they missed one of the final checkpoints and their support crew confirmed they are sticking with the strategy of not going to CP’s that are too off route or too demanding in terms of ascent and descent.  “They will miss the canyoning,” he said, “and had never planned to do it at all. It has an 8 hour penalty but may take them 6 hours, and in that 6 hours they can be getting other checkpoints.”  Once again they were in good spirits, laughing and joking.

Later in the morning one of the Issy Adventure team with British racer Bethany Thompson arrived. Remarkably this is her first ever adventure race ... and her first time on a mountain bike!  “I got an email from a friend last Friday, “she told me, “asking if I would do the race and I said yes. My mum was worried and my boyfriend said he thought I wasn’t really prepared ... but here I am!”

The team are well forward in the race and still going strong when 9 others have already retired. “The boys have made me do some things I didn’t think I could, which is good,” she said, “and they have been teaching me as we go along. Things like how to ride and use gears!”

She is with an experienced team, who all speak English and the captain Philip Chod (who had his birthday yesterday) explained, “We have a lot of experience and are a good team to look after our girl racers and it has been good for us. We have taken a different view of the race and relearnt some things with Bethany, so all is going well.”

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