Raid Gauloises
Parallax Paralyses The Rest Of The Field
Chris/Raid Gauloises / 01.05.2002
After taking the lead from VSD-Eider at CP21 team Parallax have set a cracking pace and checked in at CP28 6 hours ahead of their closest rivals. Behind them, both Ertips and Nokia have caught VSD-Eider and pushed them into fourth spot just ahead of Intersport, who paid a heavy price for negligence.
On day 5 American team Parallax, led by Tony Molina, continues up front, spending the last 24 hours consolidating a lead taken at CP22 and stretching it into a chasm by the time they reached CP28, 160kms later. Covering an initial 45km trekking section with a steep climb to 950m in 11 hours, they then went onto a fast 70km MTB section, half the original canoeing section being replaced due to prohibitively low water levels on the Song Cau river. They finished this section in 6 hours, a whopping 7 hours ahead the following teams. The final canoeing run into CP28, leaving them still 6 hours in front, was completed in about 4 and a half hours. Next they will be approaching CP33 at the end of a 61km long, relatively flat trekking section leading into the caving section.
Behind the front runners the action has been complex with VSD-Eider, Ertips and Nokia Adventure all fighting for supremacy, taking pains not to push too hard and run the risk of burnout but haunted by the idea of losing touch with the race leaders. VSD-Eider, perhaps paying the price for the effort made over the initial 121km trek, have twice requested medical assistance and appear to be losing ground, slipping into 4th place.
Despite being one of the most experienced teams in adventure racing, French team Intersport picked up a 5 hour penalty at CP16 with a mistake which may have put an end to their dreams of finally winning the Raid Gauloises. They arrived at the flying-fox section without their harnesses. The organisation lent them a set but imposed a penalty of one hour per missing harness, 5 hours all together, to be purged at CP33, after the caving section. The team’s objective has never been anything less than to win, especially after finishing second three times in the past, but that is beginning to look like a remote possibility now.
A new endangered species has been seen in the region around the magnificent Ba Be National Park. A number of teams bringing up the rear of the race are facing the dire possibility of elimination from the ranking, should they arrive too late at CP22. The CP closes tomorrow (02/05) at 18h00 and, if the slowest teams don’t increase their pace and finish the rafting section in time, they could be out of the race.
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