The Raid World Championship 2006
The Raid wraps up
Susan McKenzie / 17.09.2006
The announcer on shore provided a play by play of the action as the Germans of Adidas Natventure paddled in to shore. Holding hands, they dashed across the finish line, clearly overjoyed and then one by one they punched out of the CP.
\"We were hoping for maybe a top ten finish,\" Adidas\' Marc Pschebizin said. \"We can\'t believe this.
\"We slept every day,\" he continued, hopping from left foot to right foot, unable to stop smiling. \"We really just did our own race, not really knowing where the other teams were on the course, if they were ahead of us or behind us, or how much they had slept or anything. Our biking yesterday was really good, and all through the race we just kept moving faster and faster. We were nervous about the paddling today, though, because Spyder and Les Arcs are so strong, and we really aren\'t. But it felt so easy today, we did not feel the tide and it seemed like a good wind.\"
\"Quebec is so beautiful,\" he continued. \"We hoped to get more a sense of the size of the land, but we did a lot of running through the woods so we did to see as much.\"
One spot where they did get a sense of the size was on Lac St Jean, the only paddling section that was had no dark zone.
\"It was very dark and windy and hard to paddle,\" Marc added.
Next up - was it Spyder or Les Arcs Quechua? The GPS showed Les Arcs well ahead, but it also showed the Germans as still being at the TA, so it was perhaps not the best guide to the standings.
\"What colour are the kayaks?\"
\"What about the life jackets and helmets?\"
As the unknown team paddled to shore, the respective support crews gathered on shore. So, too, did other racers, like Isaac Wilson of GoLite Timberland and support crew racer Billy Mattison.
\"It\'s a real paddle race out there,\" Mattison said.
\"I\'m just glad I\'m not out there,\" added Wilson.
Spotting your team for a support crew is a bit like a mother recognising her child\'s laugh. Spyder\'s support crew Lili Spewak knew it was her team, and was busy gathering the bits and pieces necessary to greet them.
\"Oh yeah, that\'s them,\" she said with authority.
She was right, it was Spyder, chapped lips, sunburned faces and raw hands and all. Even with the less than fantastic boats Spyder had rented, Les Arcs was unable to pass the Aussie/American quartet of John Jacoby (or John Nicholas Jacoby, as he was introduced), Narelle Ash, Dave Mackey and Travis Macy (or Macy Travis, as they had him.)
Jacoby credited some early navigational errors for the teams slower progress in earlier sections, and noted that more paddling might have moved them up the leaderboard.
Jacoby, an Australian, has now raced in almost half of Canada\'s provinces. By contrast, this was not only Quebecer Yves Billodeau\'s first race in his home province, but also his first time racing in Canada. Les Arcs Quechua won the race in the Haute Savoie region of France last year, but were unable to make a repeat this year, instead finishing sixth.
\"We made a few navigational errors, plus I had real problems with my legs, so we were slower than we had hoped. We won last year, Nike won this year, so this will give us incentive to train and come back harder next year.\"
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