Raid Gauloises
Getting There
Tim Lloyd / 09.06.2003
The whole concept of the team is only 15 months old, and here we are seeded 3rd for what is arguably the World’s premier and hottest contested race ever. We are all very happy with our progress over the last year or so, it is the result of a lot of work and a big commitment from all involved. Yes, you could argue that we had the pick of Britain’s Adventure racers, but that doesn’t mean that they have some God given talent for AR, it just means that they are bloody determined.
The ‘free’ entry came courtesy of our ranking in the 2002 Raid Series World Tour, we finished 3rd. Since then we have spent thousands of pounds and hundreds of hours buying equipment, sorting insurance and the general logistical planning needed for a race of this magnitude in Kyrgyzstan. Thankfully we recently signed a secondary sponsorship deal with Casio which has helped with these additional financial demands. The planning process has taken 6 months at least, not only the gear, travel etc, but the training for the guys. How do you train for a race like this? It’s a good question, and not that easy to do through the British winter, but we have tailored our training as much as possible. We can train the specific disciplines, working hardest on potential weaknesses. Rafting, Horse Riding and general team stuff have been the key areas for us, along with the usual running and biking of course. The guys have raced bikes, running and kayaking through the winter, so they’ve always had something to focus on in the short term, but have also been focused on the Raid too which has meant a lot of endurance work.
As for the team selection, this hasn’t been easy for us either. We could only select from the 8 who raced in the 2002 squad, which was Jim, Pete, Ben, Steve Birkinshaw, Marc Laithwaite, Adam Haynes, Nicky Davies and Helen. With Marc and Adam choosing to opt out of the team in 2003 we were limited to 4 men, but finally decided to go with Jim, Ben and Pete, who would be joined by Nic. There were many reasons for this, but ultimately we thought this would be the best team for the Raid when considering all of the other races programmed for the year. However, there would be a few spanners thrown in the works before we finally made it to Kyrgyzstan.
The first complication was when Nic was given a start date for her Fire Service training 6 months in advance of what she had originally been told. This would count her out completely and left Helen with no choice but to fill the gap. H took a fair bit of persuading that it was a good idea (by me and a few of her AR friends – thanks guys), but we managed to convince her and now she’s really up for it. Next problem would be Jim. At the 2nd round of the British Fell Running Championship, he was having a storming run and looking like he might win, before he had a very heavy twist of the ankle which left him unable to walk, this was only 5 weeks ago.
This led to many more hours on the phone and at the docs/hospital/physio’s, in the hope that he would recover in time. It looks good now and Jim is confident that he will be fine, one positive thing about it all was that he was forced out on to his bike which was needed. For a while Steve was on stand-by, but I think he was relieved not to be called up at the last minute.
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