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The Race Stops Overnight

Rob Howard / 11.09.2005

The weather was bad on the first night of this Raid World Championship, but worse on the second, so much so the race was temporarily brought to a halt.

The leaders reached Assistance Point 9 the end of the cycle ride, which crossed the border into Italy, at 17.29, with Les Arcs Quechua once again opening up a lead over Nike ACG/Balance Bar, who arrived 16 minutes later. However, the dark zone came into force there and they were obliged to sleep until 3am when the course reopened. This was still applied despite the fact the crossing of the Saleina and Tour Glaciers had been cancelled and the bad weather course, which skirts the mountains via Champex and Val d’Arpeta, adopted. With storms and fresh snow on the glacier there was no choice but to abandon this crossing, which was to be the highlight of the race (especially as there is no rafting or canyoning on the course).

Those teams who subsequently arrived also stopped until 03.00, but not all teams were allowed to even reach that far. The weather was so bad some teams were stopped at the previous Assistance Point at Les Chapieux (Assistance Point 8) after dark and didn’t begin the cycle ride.

Those teams who had not yet arrived at Les Chapieux were turned back on the previous trekking stage as they approach CP21. This was situated on a high ridge and as more snow fell it became too dangerous to cross. The checkpoint was closed at 21.00 and those teams who had started the ascent were turned back to Bourg St. Maurice and bussed up to Les Chapieux. It was here that Lundhags withdrew due to an injury to Anna Semren, who had to be carried down the mountain by her team mates and race support staff.

In the morning the race will restart from Assistance Points 8 and 9 and race staff will have the task of applying time adjustments and credits to account for the course changes. Fortunately, these will not affect the lead teams who have completed the full course, and the bad weather course is also planned to take the same time as the glacier crossing to keep the race on its expected schedule. (If the leaders have some minor time adjustments these are from the first nights rerouted bike ride for which 90 minutes was allowed.)

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