The Raid World Championship 2005
A Tough Night
Rob Howard / 10.09.2005
The leaders completed their first cycling stage and left Assistance Point 3 with several hours of daylight to begin the long ascent on trek, and first to go were Les Arcs Quechua who had extended their lead on the ride. They set off with a 17 minute advantage over Aiglle Seybelles ESF, who had Nike ACG/Balance Bar in their footsteps just a couple of minutes behind.
Atout Majeur, Aresa Salud and Sport 2000 Lafuma all had a 20 minute penalty here for failing to attend a pre-race technical meeting. The unlucky Ertips Salomon, who had been well placed, were no longer in the race, following a bike crash in which Jerome Dumoulin was injured. The accident happened just after the start of the first ride, and he was taken to hospital and treated for an injured shoulder. Ertips have so often promised to do well this year and suffered unlucky accidents or technical failures.
The leading teams know that at the end of the second bike ride, which is again mostly downhill, they can sleep. They have to as they must wait for the 8.00 opening of the canoe section next morning. For the later teams however, the trek and ride may take all night, and they will have to choose whether to sleep (they surely will) and for how long.
At dusk at Assistance Point 2 (19.30) only the top 20 teams had arrived. The Danish team Tscherning arrived in 13th place at 18.36, and though they took a long time in transition they all looked in good condition. I reminded Martin Ebro that he’d said after the race in Andorra that they would not come to the final and he replied. “Well, you forget about the pain when you get home and this was such a good opportunity. In fact I think we are better prepared than ever and Nicky agreeing to race with us is great.�
SleepMonsters
