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A Course For Climbers

28.11.2004

"This course should favour the mountaineers", says Sylvain Thuault, the race director. But he goes on to hint that strong biking, paddling, sailing and riding skills will be needed by the winners too ...

With 11,000m of elevation gain and an climb to the top of the 3,775m Lanin volcano, it doesn’t take much imagination to realise that whoever earns the title of Raid World Champions will probably be comfortable with efforts at high-altitude.

After setting out from San Martin de Los Andes, a winter sports resort with alpine architecture, the 25 competing teams will quickly be into the thick of the action. And the Volcano ascent has been placed early in the race so that a majority of competitors can benefit from it.

They will have to climb using crampons and in places fixed ropes the 45° slopes of of the Lanin volcano, which is on the border of Argentina and Chile. "Never has any raider climbed such a slope," said Sylvain Thuault. "It will certainly be the most physically demanding section of the course".

If the accumulated ups and downs on the trekking, MTB and inline skating sections constitute one of the principle difficulties of this World Championship course, the orienteering is said to be less complicated.

But fatigue, days spent racing or the whims of the weather can cause even the best navigators to fail. "The first trekking sections will be easy to navigate", said the race director. "The athletes will either be on the summits and will therefore have a clear view to the horizon or they will be in the plain, on roads through bamboo forests cleared by the locals for the passage of their horses ...".

In MTB, the strong peddlers should be able to go all out. 4 of the 18 sections that make up the course will be for bikes and primarily over wide trails. Only one, more technical, will take place on a single track. It will be the ideal opportunity for the best bikers to distinguish themselves. In fact, the organizers, in the interests of promoting the athlete’s technical and physical skills, decided this year to introduce special sections, each carrying a cash prize of 1,000 US dollars.

A part of certain sections will be timed and the prize will go to the fastest team. This innovative bonus system will not only apply to a portion of the MTB section but also during the climb up the Lanin volcano, and on parts of the rafting inline skating stages.

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