Raid Aran

Day Two: Racing in the Scorching Heat

Anne-Marie Dunhill / 03.07.2015

The temperatures cooled during the first night of racing on the Raid Aran but teams who had pushed hard during the heat of the first day were feeling the effects. Yesterday evening high in the Pyrenees at the transition area in the vast ski resort of Baqueira-Beret, support crews waited for their teams to come off the trek. Baqueira-Beret is the largest ski resort in Spain and the altitude is over 2,500m.  A strong wind kicked in and low lying clouds delivered the occasional rain shower.

The French team XTTR63 arrived first, having taken the decision to skip the via ferrata and all optional checkpoints. Excellent orientation meant that they were able to take an option and cut a straight line through an area in which all but three other teams had done a loop. Steve confirmed what the maps had hinted at, that the terrain in some points was extremely difficult with steep ascents in the scree.

Arriving in the transition, a member of the organization informed the team that they would have to wait to continue the next section until the first team that had done all of the checkpoints, both mandatory and optional, arrived. A current of discontent ran through the assistance zone as support crews searched their rules in French and in English to find a trace of this information. XTTR63 had to wait for over an hour before they were allowed to leave so all of their efforts and strategy to reach this transition area quickly, dropping the points of optional checkpoints along the way, hadn’t paid off as planned.

Several support crews questioned the organization about this rule, seeking to understand what information they should communicate to their teams when they came in. Maya Castex, who is crewing for the all women French team Les Belettes, calmly explained to the organizers that she wanted to be absolutely clear in the information that she gave her team.

Three members of the organization scanned the rules in Spanish with the support crews and couldn’t find a trace of it either. Spanish teams expressed their displeasure as well so it was clear that the problem was not one of information lost in translation. Henri from the tracking company TraceMyWay noted all times in order to be able to rectify the timings depending upon what the organizers decide to with that decision.

Racing through the cool mountain night, racers made their way to the rafting section in the village of Llavorsi. The roadbook in French had stated that the rafting section would open at 09:30 but it will open at 10:45 this morning. Several teams took advantage of this difference in timing to rinse off in the river and to get some sleep.

Christelle Labat of the French team Culture Sud felt the effects of the heat on the via ferrata yesterday. The team had spent about three hours on this section and she had finished her all of her water and wasn’t able to find more. She had a malaise on the steep trekking section that followed and decided to withdraw from the race at 22:30 after being checked over by Spanish firemen whom the team had called.  (In Spain, as in France, it is often the fire brigade that responds first to emergency calls.)

Chatting afterwards with her charming team in the transition in Llavorsi in what they had nicknamed their living room, Christelle said that this was her first non-stop race and when we spoke she wasn’t sure if she wanted to do another one. She said that in the twenty-four hour races that she is accustomed to, she enjoys every minute and on the trek yesterday she was simply miserable. Her three teammates have decided to continue to the finish and Christelle will become part of the support crew.  The assistant who had been solo until this point joked in French, “It’ll be great to have you but I’m doing the driving!”

Raid Aran is a race in which it is wise to have two people doing support as there are great distances to cover in the High Pyrenees mountains. It was a two hour drive last night to the next transition area and the scenery at dusk was stunning coming down from Baqueira. The geographical formations were captivating but the hairpin curves required every ounce of attention. That road would have been considerably less enjoyable for support crews coming down at night, such as Lupe who is crewing for a Spanish team and who arrived in Llavorsi at 03:15.

Teams further down in the ranking weren’t the only ones who’d had a difficult time on the via ferrata section because of the heat.  Elisabeth Revol of the French team FMR who are currently in second place at the rafting transition spoke about the difficulties her team faced at this point that almost cost them their race.

Elisabeth said that one of her team members started vomiting violently; the episode caught him completely by surprise. They’d been first up to the via ferrata and when I saw their team on the steep hike up, they'd all looked strong. The team was forced to stop for three hours and eventually they were able to continue after the ill teammate was able to rehydrate.

Team FMR quickly transitioned to the rafting, so quickly in fact that their assistant called after them, “Hey you guys, I think you forgot your mandatory equipment!”  Once on the river however they were slowed down by a slight traffic jam (if that’s possible on a river) caused by two other rafts that merged into the river from another one, carrying less experienced tourists who were frankly all over the place.

The lone Dutch team withdrew completely from the race at this transition. They had made the decision earlier to continue unranked but at this point, according to Marc Cornet of the race organization, one of the remaining team members said that he was simply too knackered to continue the race in any shape or form.  An exhausted member of the team eased his socks and shoes off in the back of the support van revealing water soaked, crevassed and swollen feet.

According to the tracking system TraceMyWay, at 10:00 the top three teams on the Elite race were Vall Fosca, followed by FMR and TrangoWorld Adventure team. As stated previously, all rankings are provisional due to the complex system of mandatory and optional checkpoints.

The paddle surf section this afternoon was cancelled for logistical reasons so after the rafting teams will transition to mountain biking and canyoning. Temperatures are rising once again so the remaining adventure racers on the Raid Aran are in for another scorching day of racing.