The Raid World Championships
A Long Day on The River
01.12.2004
Leaders Nike ACG/Balance Bar and Saab Salomon resumed their rafting stage as the day’s competition opened at 6am and it only took them only 10 minutes to reach the next transition in time for a big early morning breakfast. Their support crews knew they were close by and had hot food ready – the teams had a long day’s paddling ahead of them.
The course then took them downriver, through some class 4 rapids. From CP25 they passed 26 and 27, stopping at CP28 for a 2 hour ropes section. This was a 7km loop on a volcanic tower of basalt where teams followed via ferrata, zipped down a 100m ‘flying fox’, abseiled, completed rope ascents and finished with a 100m rappel.
After completing this they continued in their canoes onto CP32, where they could stretch their aching, cold and cramped muscles and begin the next Mtb stage. The distance of the canoeing stage was approximately 80 kms and all the teams knew they had to complete it before the dark zone at 21.00.
The leaders had about an hours start on their nearest rivals and had also taken more of the mandatory 20 hours sleep, so they will be able to push on to the finish while the teams behind them have to take more sleep breaks. Nokia were closest to them, but fell back during the day as they got held up at CP28, arriving to find their assistance crew and climbing gear were not there yet. They’ve had an unlucky race so far.
The leaders reached the end of the marathon paddle at around 18.00 but behind them 3 more of the fancied teams had dropped out. Wilsa Sport/Helly Hansen of France had been pushing strongly, setting the fastest time on the special Mtb stage on day 3 and on the timed rafting section, and winning $2000 in the process. But they paid the price when Benoit Gilly was too exhausted to continue and the team withdrew at CP25.
SleepMonsters
