Raid Aran
The Catalan team Vall Fosca Wins the Second Edition of the Raid Aran
Anne-Marie Dunhill / 10.07.2015
The high mountain trekking section that followed turned out to be more than many of the teams had bargained for. The section was 15km with 1,350m elevation gain on highly technical terrain.
The French team Haut Languedoc Aventure was competing in the Adventure category racing with a 2+1 formation after one of their team members sustained an injury prior to the race start. Racing on the team was Mickael Serrano who at age 19 was the youngest competitor in the second edition of the Raid Aran. His fellow team member, Christophe Mazan, had been his high school physics professor and Eric Maire completed the trio.
In describing the last high mountain trekking section, Christophe Mazan said, “The climb to the peak Mulleres was technical, the path was not marked and I was highly concentrated so as to not lose the cairns. We were rapidly catching up to teams that were roaming amidst rocky outcrops…Too focused on finding the best route I forget a CP(10 points lost ... This is where we realize that we’re less than completely lucid!). Some snowfields crossings later and after a short while climbing a crag, we reached the peak of Mulleres (3013 m) on Sunday at 01:30.”
Christophe continued describing the section in French, “The descent was even more delicate, amid ice and snowfields. Some snow bridges had to be avoided with caution. To avoid having to go back, I tried a direct crossing to the Col d'Aranési that although delicate, paid off…”
After a final mountain biking section followed by a 13km trek and a tyrolean in Lès, teams raced to cross the finish line behind the village church before the race closed at 14:00 on Sunday.
The French team FMR was the first of the Elite teams to cross the finish line shortly after 12:00. They were announced as the winners and press swarmed around them, taking photos and doing interviews. Because of the complicated ranking system, the team and their assistants were still unsure of their first place podium until it was confirmed to them by a member of the organization and they all broke out in ear to ear grins. They were told that they had gained their lead by making the time-cut (that had been advanced twice; in the end it was 02:00) the previous night that the Catalan team Vall Fosca had missed.
However, due to the previously stated complicated ranking system, and problems with the GPS trackers that stopped sending data at some points, their win was announced prematurely. FMR wasn’t immediately aware of this fact as they missed the prize-giving ceremony to embark on the long drive back to their homes in the French Alps.
The all-women French team, Les Belettes, crossed the finish line and fell into the arms of their support crew, Maya and Laure. They had raced an intelligent race and Hélène said in French afterwards, “This race was the goal of the year for our team. We’d raced seperately in different Issy Absolu teams to train for this one. It’s been the longest non-stop race that we’ve ever done and we were pleasantly surprised by how little sleep we actually needed. “
When asked what she thought about the race, Hélène said, “The scenery was spectacular but it was a hard race. We’re really happy with our race and our goal is to continue training and to compete in another race in the ARES series next year.” Their team had worked incredibly hard just to participate in the race, selling calendars with photos of their team and creating a crowd-funding page. Given the dearth of women adventure racers, this determined team that completed all of the sections and did some fine navigating are to be kept on the radar.
Teams crossing the finish line invariably spoke about the beauty of the scenery that they’d raced through during their 72 hours of racing but also, invariably, about how complicated it was to understand the rules with the system of points and optional and mandatory checkpoints. The rules followed by the race are of the FEEC, that is the Catalan Federation of mountain clubs (the Catalan mountain federation.) The FEEC is included in the International Mountain Federation (UIAA).
Any reader who followed the ARWC in Portugal in 2009 is likely to be shuddering at this information. Although many adventure races in Spain and Portugal adhere to these rules, it has been a hotly debated point in previous meetings of the ARES. This Sleepmonsters journalist has been forwarded e-mail correspondences between disgruntled French teams that are urging a common set of rules throughout the ARES races in the hopes of avoiding the confusion in rankings that took place on the Raid Aran.
After quick showers in the camping in Lès, the prize giving ceremony took place in the village gymnasium. After collecting their T-shirts given by the race as a congratulatory gesture, teams took their place at long tables and ate a hearty three-course meal in the hot gymnasium during which the winners of all of the categories were announced.
In the short time between the race finish and the prize-giving ceremony, several teams had lodged official complaints concerning the rankings that were announced on the finish line and checkpoints that were not counted in their scoring. Because of the changes in official rankings, which have continued throughout the week, SleepMonsters has not been in the position to publish an accurate final write-up of the race. At the time of this writing, the top three podium places went to Vall Fosca (Catalan), FMR (FR) and Euskal Raid Aventure (FR).
This confusion was unfortunate because the second edition of the Raid Aran had provided adventure racers with a top-notch race from the point of view of course planning. The race director, Xavier Rodriguez, said that he and his co-director Eduard Abella had wanted to create the kind of race that they themselves would want to compete in and in that they succeeded. There were no “filler” sections included merely to transport teams from one section to another, adventure racers of all levels had the possibility to compete as the map planning provided several options and the race volunteers were all enthusiastic and welcoming to teams. As well, the Val d’Aran in Spain is an adventure racers’ dream playground.
The organizers seem to be very open to input from all of the teams and the race directors wife, Carolina, said after the prize-giving ceremony that they would be sending out a survey to all of the teams as they are eager to improve their race for its third edition. SleepMonsters is looking forward to covering the race next year when it hosts the ARES Championships.
Full rankings for the Elite, Adventure and Open categories can be found on the race website:
http://raidaran.com/pages/ranking
