The Raid World Championship 2005
“It’s a Monster�
Rob Howard / 09.09.2005
“I’m used to mountains,� said Rebecca Rusch of Montrail Revo, “but not to climbing quite so many! I’m more used to big races being in remote and wild areas as well, but am looking forward to seeing the Alps as I’ve never raced here.�
She will certainly see a lot of the Alps, in the 3 countries! The course, which covers 577km, has more ascent in it than any race ever held – a massive, and potentially morale and knee destroying 24,000m. When asked what qualities he thought racers needed do well the course director Slyvain Thualt said, “Mental endurance will be the deciding factor. At the end of the day it will no longer be a fight against fatigue but against tormenting physical pain.� He was speaking to the press – not to the racers, but having seen the course they know the score anyway.
Strategy will play a part too as the race again includes a mandatory 24 hours of sleep on the course, taken in a minimum of 4 hour blocks at checkpoints, assistance areas (here the teams meet their support crews), or on the banks of rivers if they are on the water.
That sounds a lot, but this could be a very fragmented course, where teams will take sleep at dark zones. These could come into play at the canoe and kayak stages and on the big trek on the Mont Blanc Glacier. “The glacier is not technical,� said Lotta Richter of the organising team, “but there are lots of crevasses so it’s more a matter of visibility.� She added that teams will be accompanied by guides on this stage and that the lower level, alternate route in case of bad weather takes the same time as the glacier trek. This means if some teams do the glacier and then the weather turns so other are re-routed, there will be no time adjustments necessary.
SleepMonsters
