SaabSalomon 5th in French X-adventure Raid

Rob / 07.07.2002

In their second international outing Team SaabSalomon lived up to the hopes of team coach Tim Lloyd to finish in an impressive 5th place.

On a tough high altitude course crossing the French/Italian Alpine border they were up against the very best French teams, and it was the familiar names of Intersport, Ertips and Spie who took the top places. (Intersport won despite getting a 45 minute penalty.) However, Nicky and Jim Davies, Ben Bardsely and Marc Laithwaite gave them tough race from start to finish.

They got off to fantastic start, winning the ‘cross-orienteering’ stage (the mountain run) to lead after section ‘A’, but lost time later on the snow covered section of the high level mountain traverse, where teams of good skiers went past them at speed, and in their weakest sport - in-line skating. They came back strongly in the middle part of the race with 2nd places in consecutive Hydrospeed and Mtb stages, and were 4th overnight, and within striking distance of the leaders. They had moved up to 3rd place at the start of the final Mtb, which was very tough and required a lot of carrying, but were passed by both Ertips and Intersport Extrem and finished a creditable 5th. It’s a strong performance in only their second outing and the top international teams are now very aware they are a force to be reckoned with.

We’ll have a full report from the team later this week - check the race reports section to find it as it’s going to be busy this week and nothing will stay on the home page long!