Raid Gauloises
Bikes, Hikes and Horses
Tim Lloyd - Manager Team Saab Salomon / 13.06.2003
Montrail have obviously taken full advantage of the enormous bike ride that preceded the trek to CP 20, this was to be expected with them being such a strong biking team. Clearly they have been able to maintain their blistering pace over the following high altitude trek, further extending their lead over second place Human Link.
The Swede’s too are putting in a very impressive performance. They would not have been on anyone’s list of race favourites before the start, but they have shown that they have incredible strength and endurance, to be less than an hour off the pace this far in. I would be very surprised if one of these two will not be the first to cross the finish line on Sunday (probably), despite the fact that there is still a very long way to go, they now have a comfortable cushion and can afford to ease off the gas a little. Of course, they might well get involved in their own personal battle for the lead and keep pushing on hard. It is to be hoped that they don’t push too hard now and pay the price in the next day or two.
Coming off the horses the teams should be relatively rested and fresh. A four hour compulsory stop at CP 20 will have given them the opportunity to re-fuel and catch up on some much needed sleep. This, followed by several hours on the horses will prepare them well for the bike leg to follow. Again, you should expect to see Montrail extend their lead on the bikes, but the French teams VSD Eider and Ertips may well make up some time if the rafting goes ahead.
The teams behind the front two are pretty much bunched between 3rd and 6th. Another surprise is the Spansh team Extrem Buff (3rd) who I would not have expected to be so high up the rankings. They are a very experienced team, but have always struggled on expedition length races. Recently they have also lost some form on the shorter stage races, it would appear that some effective training in the winter months is now paying dividends.
They have now moved up to third after a very impressive performance on the high mountain trek where they passed the leading French team, Ertips. Ertips (4th) are followed by the 2002 title holders VSD Eider (France), who have suffered some bad luck with one team member needing to be put on a IV drip for 2 hours to recover from serious de-hydration. Saab Salomon appear to be almost 2 hours down on VSD, but have been able to move past Seagate (NZ) on the trek, Seagate are now 15 minutes behind the Brits in 7th. These two teams remain close together as they have been for the best part of 2 days now, but they both seem to be losing time on the front four. Saying that, it is still possible that either of these could move into the top three over the next 2 days, especially if they have paced themselves better than some of the teams in front.
A couple of factors to consider that may alter things are that there is no more time to be spent at high altitude which might favour Saab Salomon and Seagate, it does look like these two have not been so good over 3000 metres; secondly, there is a lot of water based activity to come which will not be to Saab Salomon’s advantage.
As for Saab Salomon’s expectations from now, top five is possible, maybe even top three if things go really well, but certainly less likely. They have obviously had a pretty steady race and it would appear that, apart from the first day accident, are having a good time. They now face a night time horse ride navigation stage which may well be a new experience for all of them, giddy up lads…
SleepMonsters
