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A Course for Champions

Rob Howard / 09.09.2006

Almost 1000km on foot and bike through forests and mountains, across the sea and along rivers – The Raid lives up to its reputation as one of the most difficult races in the world.

Yesterday the teams gathered at the port of Chicoutimi to receive the course details and their route to the finish at Tadoussac. Race Director Sylvain Thuault said, “The course will never be flat� ... but there is some sea kayaking in it!

It consists of 20 sections, 9 mountain bike stages covering 611km, 4 foot stages totalling 134km, 3 canoe stages (157km), 3 sea kayak stages (71km) and a total of 13km of technical ropes. A total for the whole route of 986km and nearly 15,000m of ascent.

Among the many technical sections on the course there is a 78 km descent of on the tumultuous waters of the Ashuapmushuan, 36 km of sea kayaking between Saint-Félicien and Valley-Jalbert, which could prove very difficult in the event of large waves, 46 km of tough trekking on the southern bank of Lake Kénogami and a 139km mountain bike ride between Laterrière and La Malbaie.

The final section to the finish at Tadoussac is 18 km of sea kayaking, where the tides will play a critical role. On section R local reports says canoeing is likely to be problematic due to the very low level of the Sainte Marguerite river.

In keeping with the safety rules of the Raid there will be dark zones on the water and ropes stages, on which teams must stop overnight, and a set time of 27 hours mandatory sleep during the race. This is likely to ensure a fast start and a very tactical competiton.

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