Raid II – The Sequel

Rob / 15.07.2003

First there was the Raid Gauloises, soon we’ll have the Raid World Championships, and like all good sequels some of the stars will be the same, but the plot will be a little different.

At a ‘team talk’ in Les Arcs last weekend before the second round of this year’s X-adventure series, race Director Alain Gaimard talked about the reasoning behind the change and responded to some disappointed and critical competitors.
He explained that TV coverage and opportunities in the US were a key factor in dropping one of the most famous and prestigious names in the sport.

The name Gauloises is not easy to market globally and for many is synonymous with French cigarettes (though that is not how the race name came about). This creates it’s own problems as laws against advertising and tobacco are getting more strict all over the world, and that’s an obstacle to getting good TV coverage in most countries. And that’s what the sponsors want.

It seems that is the case even in France. Recently there was a 12 minute feature on French television’s most famous sports programme (“Stade 2”), and the bibs were blurred out. And as Gaimard said, “for many the race is already known simply as the RAID.”

So the name change is a box office move, but what sort of race will it be? Will ‘Raid II’ be a rerun of the original exploratory expedition or something new? A bit of both it seems.

Salomon originally announced, \"The Raid World Championship will be constructed on a reduced format (2 to 3 days of racing) and will be more dynamic … the expedition disappears, the sports challenge gets stronger.”

However, this was later countered by Lotta Richter of race organisers Saga d’Aventures who said “No, the Raid World Championship will be a 4 to 5 day event, and will, as announced, remain the premier event in the world of adventure racing, preserving the essential spirit of the Raid, whose first and foremost calling is to venture into the furthest corners of the planet.”

Change is difficult and there will always be critics. Gerard Fusil, the founder of the Raid Gauloises, left the race in 1997 and felt it had already lost it’s exploratory spirit before the recent announcement. “I am a little sad to see my event disappear,” he said, “but it was already dead when they changed the concept. It is always extremely dangerous to change a concept. It is something very subtle …”

However, times change and adventure racing has come a long way since the first Raid Gauloises in 1989. The Raid Gauloises will be sadly missed, but if all the flare Saga d’Aventures bring to the Raid World Series can be combined with the ‘spirit of the Raid Gauloises’ then perhaps the new race will be able to justifiably claim the title of adventure racing’s ‘World Championships’.

[The Raid Gauloises site is currently off-line but will be back early next week with more information on the new world series structure and a long interview with Alain Gaimard.]