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Day 9 Arrival In Camargue

David Ogden International Adventurers / 05.08.2008

All the teams were held up by a dark zone in the river Gardon, some had more rest than others and a few at the back no rest at all. Helly Hansen UK were one of the teams who had little time to sleep as they had been held up at the cave the previous afternoon and then lost one hour when a member of a team ahead of them paniced, which delayed them a further hour.

The pace of the race has been very demanding and all the support crews are suffering as they rush from one transition to another to support their team. Today proved to be especially difficult with a short Kayak of 7K followed by orienteering and then mountain biking before a 56K kayak leg down the River Rhone.

The early morning restart saw teams departing in race order and only team 6 made a mistake when they capsized 20 seconds prior to their start.

All the teams found the orienteering difficult as the final checkpoint was at the entrance to an old Roman aqueduct tunnel. The GPS position brought teams onto a high rock above the tunnel when they needed to backtrack to a hidden entrance. The leading teams were close together with Wilsa Sport Helly Hansen running safely in 3rd place.

Gerard Fusil stated earlier this year that there would be no sailing leg, however a favorable wind blowing down the Rhone for the kayak leg saw many teams trying out sails with good results. Helly Hansen UK had planned to use K2’s on this stage but changed to a sea kayak with a sail in front and an umbrella at the back to make best use of the following wind. One team did use a K2 and Vaucluse Aventures Evasions were first away using a sail followed a few minutes later by Wilsa Sport Helly Hansen, who used sea kayaks without sails.

Various sailing devices were used, from off the shelf products to custom devices and last minute DIY using trekking poles and shirts. LES FOUS DE BASSIN TDR BX probably had the biggest sail at 2Ssq meters with a square sail mounted in the middle of their sit-on-top kayak. Lieues aventures used a small spinnaker on a mast but it meant the front person could not paddle.

Wilsa Sport Helly Hansen\'s tactics proved to be the best as they finished the stage ahead of Vaucluse Aventures Evasions with WILSA WCUP CHTI Raid in third place. The sails had worked on the Rhone but once the teams turned into the lesser Rhone the direction was wrong.

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