RAIDARAN-LLEIDA PIRINEUS

Vaucluse Aventures Evasions Withdraw In Protest

Anne-Marie Dunhill / 21.07.2016

­Thule was the first team to complete the high mountain section today; a section that took teams to all of the peaks over 3,000m in this area. They arrived at CP5 at 17:18 and left at 17:44. The kind folks that had lent them a bike (Specialized) earlier in the day after Simone had broken hers were back to cheer them in and they explained to the team that they had tried to fix the bike but had been unable to; they brought Simone’s bike back to her. In the chaos of the quick transition of the first team, asked for a photo with their son and the bike and Simone and Clas happily obliged.

But it was Lucy Spain from Dutch Adventure who really saved their race by lending Simone her CHIRU bike. Her team had just withdrawn and when Clas Björling said, “We’ll give you a couple of hundred euros to rent it to the end of the race,” Lucy refused and said, “Just take it!” Simone was understandably delighted and exclaimed, “thank you, it’s awesome!” looking the bike over Martin Flinta agreed, saying, “This bike is really good, the pedals are perfect.” Simone dug her toothbrush out of her bag and said that the team hadn’t slept yet. They looked upbeat and remarkably fresh as they headed out to the next 115km biking section.

Team number 5, Black Hill/OpavaNET were the next in, arriving at 17:50. They had a much slower transition, taking time to sit down and eat the pasta and sausages that the organization had provided. They appeared slightly stunned and subdued but a team member said, “we’re tired but good.”

I spoke to Vaucluse Aventures Evasions in French at 19:49. They had finished the mammoth trekking section and had just been informed of the 170 point penalty they’d been issued. They were livid and were discussing what to do next.

Team captain Jérôme Berruer explained that they had deliberately decided to skip yesterdays mountain trekking section so that would be able to collect points later on in the race. According to Jérôme, when they’d discussed this with checkpoint staff, a person from the tracking system told them that this would be possible and printed them up a map with the roads to the next transition area since it was off the maps. They were quite tired from the high mountain trekking today and to receive the news right after they came off the section completely took the wind out of their sails. They took the collective decision to withdraw from the race at this point in protest to the penalty.

When I asked the race director about this shortly afterwards, he explained to me in Spanish that the road book and rules were very clear as far as forbidden roads were concerned and that the only people who had the authority to give permission for a change were the members of the jury. As such, he said that the team should have insisted that the staff call one of them instead of taking the word of the person in charge of the tracking at that point.

Team 30, Wilderness Traverse.com from Canada was the last one to make it out of CP5 before it closed at 15:00. Pete Cameron was asking questions to Anna who was in charge of the checkpoint and his lack of sleep was very evident. He started out by asking her what time the CP closed “tomorrow at 15:00” and Anna looked up at him, very confused and said, “but this CP closes today at 15:00, today we’re the 21st!” Pete couldn’t quite believe her and had to look at his watch for confirmation.

Once the information had sunk in, several seconds later, he realized that the team only had 10 minutes to make it out of the transition and they had to quickly make the decision whether or not they would do the high mountain trekking section. All were eager to do it; an impressive 10 minute rapid transition ensued. They arrived to punch out at 15:00, just as Anna was removing the electronic timing device and a collective exclamation of “What?” was bellowed when she announced that it was closed and that they’d missed it. Several bystanders who’d been tensely waiting to see the outcome commented that it was still 15:00 and that they hadn’t actually missed it; I was one of them.

Anna conceded after confirming the time with the tracking system and the team barreled out of the transition area, to collapse in a heap and re-group a few meters away on a side street. Harper Forbes, who was beet red, said, “It doesn’t seem like any ones sunscreen is working today and I have to get a hat. I left mine back there and there’s no way we’re going back.” An elderly woman who only spoke Catalan opened up her shop for him and he was able to purchase a smart green cap for €2.80, without a word of Spanish. The team said that they planned to sleep in a refuge early on the section.

Lead teams who have completed all of the sections and collected all of the CPs are now racing through the second night of Raid Aran.