Raid Gauloises
Solidarity and Sympathy
Raid Gauloises Reporting Team / 13.06.2003
The tragic death of Dominique Robert, on the first day of the 2003 Raid Gauloises, has had a predictably profound effect on the emotions of all the teams participating in the race and the word “competition� is being frequently replaced by that of “homage� or “dedication�. Teams are choosing to express their feelings as best they can within the context of the harsh weather conditions and relentlessly demanding course. Sobriety has been the rule with several teams taking the decision to ignore the competitive aspects of this year’s race.
CAP-AVENTURE (FR), DIALINK (FR), INTERSPORT (FR) and TECNICA (IT) have all chosen to finish the Raid Gauloises together in homage to Dominique Robert and will mark a stop of respect at every CP. Pascal Bahuaud of INTERSPORT (FR) at CP8 said: “It’s very difficult to continue when you are feeling so upset. I’ve given a lot of thought to Dominique during the ascension.� Jean Luc Diard, XA PRO (FR) and President of Salomon, said of Dominique: “She’s the one who brought us into this sport and she alone provided the motivation for Salomon to become a sponsor of the Raid Gauloises. We all owe her so much and want complete this race in remembrance of her. Everyone on the race, especially the organisation, recognised the role Dominique played in establishing adventure racing and agreed that she was a reference in the sport and an exceptional personality in the world of adventure racing.
Keeping a close eye on the weather and the physical condition of the teams, the organisation made some important changes to the course, preferring to reduce the difficulty of certain sections or eliminate them altogether. Such was the case at CP9, where the 26km trek over a snow bound pass at 4,300m was removed entirely and transformed into a 20km flat valley trek directly to CP12, preceded by a supplementary 2-hours’ rest on top of the 4 hours already imposed at Race Camp 1 (CP9). The ensuing MTB section was drawn out from 55kms to a massive 191km plus, thus bypassing the rafting section on the river Naryn and taking the racers all the way to CP17.
The first teams out of Race Camp 1 (CP9) left at around 02:00 in the morning while a number of teams had stalled on the climb to CP8 or were resting at CP7. HUMAN LINK (SE), had moved up from 3rd place to 1st by the time they reached CP12. By the time the transition from trek to MTB was over, around 09:00, VSD-EIDER (FR) had snatched the lead and were heading rapidly downhill with HUMAN LINK (SE) and ERTIPS (FR) in hot pursuit.
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