Raid Gauloises
A Long Held Ambition
Raid Gauloises Press Release / 09.06.2003
“When I first saw pictures of the French team INTERSPORT during the 2002 Raid Gauloises in Tibet/Nepal, I immediately felt that Kyrgyzstan would be an ideal location for this event…� With these words his Excellency, Mr. Ortobaiev, Vice-premier of the Kyrgyz Republic, put the final seal on a long held ambition during his declaration at the official opening ceremony of the 2003 Raid Gauloises yesterday afternoon.
An edition rendered all the more remarkable for its new format which requires, for the first time in its history, competing teams to qualify via participation in the 2002 X-adventure Raid Series, thus ensuring the presence of the crème de la crème. “We want the Raid Gauloises to remain the world’s premier adventure race, and, as its ineluctable role of reference becomes apparent, to fulfil its vocation of Adventure Racing World Championships,� CEO and race director Alain Gaimard told a room filled with athletes from the 36 teams representing 19 different nations.
Most of the teams had arrived in Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan, on Thursday, after transiting via Paris-Istanbul, London-Baku and Paris Moscow. SEAGATE went a few steps better in what turned out to be a veritable Odyssey, taking three days to first cross the Pacific to Los Angeles, then the Atlantic to Frankfurt, and eventually transited via Istanbul where they took a flight to Bishkek.
With barely enough time to enjoy the leafy parks and avenues of Bishkek, the teams were swept into the technical verifications, an initial and indispensable phase designed to guarantee the safety of the athletes, an example of which is the first aid kit. Every box was carefully examined by the medical team, who spent the entire day giving out advice. “Its really difficult to read the boxes marked in Cyrillic so verifying that the contents of certain containers conforms to our expectations is quite tough. For example, Russian adhesive bandages haven’t really evolved very much,� explained Sylvie Poppof one of the raid’s medical team.
The same rigour and intransigence could be observed at the rope checking, ARVA or GPS stages. It’s important to point out that for the first time ever, the teams will not be assisted by personal support crews. “From a human point of view, I think it takes a lot away. In the past, it was an opportunity to converse with someone outside the racing team; someone who would pamper us,� expressed Stéphane Toussaint of DIALINK (FR).
For Yves Masson (VSD-EIDER) this new format: “Can only make the race more competitive. In the past everything had to be explained at least twice and we frequently lost time and the support crew didn’t always understand our tactics or intentions. � From now on every team must hand over bags and cases with everything they need already stowed inside and in working order according to the transitions and disciplines to be come; all this to improve performance but, more importantly, for safety reasons.
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