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Pick a Winner ...

Rob Howard / 09.09.2005

Ask the press, the organisers or those who follow the Raid Series closely who is going to win and the answer is either, “I don’t know,� or one of half a dozen different teams. The field here is exceptional and with so many tops teams from all over the world it’s hard to pick a favourite.

As defending champions Nike ACG/Balance Bar have the No.1 vest and it would be brave to bet against them. Ian Adamson and the two Mike’s, Kloser and Tobin, have won just about everything in adventure racing and they are joined by mountain bike specialist Monique Merrill who raced with them in the qualifier in Oregon earlier in the year.

However they were beaten in that race by Les Arcs Quechua of France, who are the form team coming into the race, having won 3 of 4 qualifiers. Christophe Faure, Florence Marguet, Rudy Gouy and Canadian Yves Billodeau, are a formidable team, strong climbers and very much on home territory ... but with no pedigree in long races. They’ve ruled supreme in the weekend qualification events, but came nowhere in last years Raid World Champs in Argentina.

The only time they were beaten this year was in the first qualifier in Australia by the New Zealand team Balance Vector (formerly Seagate). Nathan Fa’avae has led the team for many years and won all the big races, but for this race Kristina Anglem takes on the captain’s role. They are joined by Marcel Hagener, a German who lives in New Zealand (and raced the last qualifier with Mont Blanc International) and by Richard Ussher who came in as a replacement for George Christison. Ussher is a multisport specialist who races regularly with the team so they won’t be weakend by the change.

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