Raid Gauloises
Parallax - Happy to Survive to the End
05.05.2002
Setting a blistering pace throughout the first half of the race, this explosive cocktail of seasoned performers from America and Australia, have been through hell and back again in the last few days. Three members fell ill, one seriously enough to require an IV-drip, their boat sank while crossing a lake and the damage done to an MTB, after a crash, had to be repaired by a local craftsman …
Parallax will most certainly enter into the annals of the Raid Gauloises but not necessarily as winners… not this year at least. However, their story is remarkable for its glittering ascent and even more so for the trials and tribulations overcome during the closing stages of this 2002 edition.
Everything started superbly, as they came through the initial soul-destroying trek unscathed and only one-hour off the race leaders. Moving out of AP1, they seemed to slice effortlessly through the opposition, every kilometre covered stretching their lead like compound interest until they were, at the zenith of their powers, 8 hours ahead of the nearest competition, themselves no slackers. Then misfortune struck in the form of heat-stroke and, a regular on the dirty-water circuit, staphylococcus. When Gary Sutherland was hit by severe diarrhoea and vomiting, while at the same time displaying the symptoms of heat-stroke, the well-oiled machine that is team Parallax ground to a halt and almost seized completely. From slick unit to hobbled hack they could do nothing but watch as they lost ground to the pursuing teams.
“The one thing we were missing this year is a team member� confided team captain Tony Molina. By this he was referring to team regular, Patrick Harper, forced to withdraw only two weeks before the race through injury and replaced by the luckless Gary Sutherland. Having overcome in outstanding style this potentially disruptive setback, the team went on to allay all fears of a fragile constitution by blitzing the opposition so early in the race. That is until other more unfortunate technical issues began to beset them.
At CP37, their sampan took on water and sank leaving them high, but not very dry, on a small island where they waited for over 2 hours, not daring to move for fear of disqualification. Once the situation resolved, they took to the MTB section where an early orienteering error brought home to Tony that what little sleep they had been getting. It was time to rest and as they did so, two teams swept passed them and Parallax began to move down the ranking. Down they were but out they weren’t.
Picking up their bikes in the early hours of the morning and determined to make up the lost ground, they hadn’t gone far when one team member crashed breaking 4 spokes of a wheel. Still convinced of the necessity to finish, their boundless tenacity drove them to look for someone in the nearest village who could repair the wheel. .
As they reached the sea-kayaking section, their troubles were over and to prove it, these powerful paddlers completed their run into the finish line for 4th place faster than any other team so far. They even went so far as to regret that the race wasn’t longer, something else that sets these Outdoor pro-racers apart from all the other teams…
Copyright www.raidgauloises.com
SleepMonsters
