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A lovely welcome party with lots of local rum...

Jacqueline Windh / 25.11.2007

The last leg of my flight today gave a bit of an overview of what to expect in Guadeloupe. I chose a window seat on the left side of the plane, just so I would get to see the arc of Caribbean islands as we flew from Puerto Rico to Pointe-a-Pitre. It was quite a thrill to see that the volcano on Nevis was actually erupting as we flew over – clouds of steam, mixed with little bit of ash, billowed out of fissures on its crest and were carried westward across the sea.

Coming into Guadeloupe itself, we saw the line of reef quite far out from shore, then a broad lagoon, and then a lush flat landscape that seemes to be be mostly canefields and forest. The volcanos that rise from the centre of the island were shrouded in cloud.

Only a few teams had arrived the day before – most were coming in at the same time as me, only hours before the opening ceremony. I erroneously reporterd earlier that biking was one of the disciplines of this race, but it is actually not. Racers were thrilled about how easy travel is when you are not carting bike boxes around!

So most of us went pretty much directly from the airport to the opening ceremony. After the teams were presented, everyone had to traverse an incredibly long zipline in the dark right across the harbour, spotlight upon them as all the locals cheered. Then we were treated to a great welcome party, with lots of food and especially lots of local rum.

There is a very interesting mix of teams here – some that are very experienced on the international stage, but also quite a few with one or both members moving up from shorter format to multi-day racing, (the relatively short stages of this competition easing their transition to longer-format).

Some of the strong teams here, who could easily win this competition, include Brazil’s Atenah Natura (Subi and Fernanda), Spain’s Teva La Pinilla (Antonio and Sonia), Russia’s Chasing Daylight (Artem and Mischa), and France’s TSL Outdoor. (I suspect that, with such a short time from arrival to racing, the Brazilians will have an advantage over the Europeans in acclimatization).

At the reception, many of the competitors completely avoided the rum. Russia’s Mischa was walking around with a glass of straight rum, and his partner Artem looking worried. “He tells me that it is traditional for him to drink before a race and after a race... and sometimes during a race,� explained Artem.

We hear that tomorrow’s competition is entirely water sports, and we have been warned: dress for the heat.

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