Raid the North Extreme
Vive La France!
Susan McKenzie / 22.08.2003
As EADS veers off the road and into the parking lot of the Little Falls Recreation Centre, a police car honks in celebration. Race staff are there to greet the winning team with pizza and champagne (well, Canadian sparkling wine). So too are many local residents who got the word of the team’s arrival via radio and word of mouth.
The finish line is on the first tee of the Little Falls Golf Course. In golf, the “19th hole� refers to the clubhouse, the bar, the end of the round. The finish line for the 2003 edition of Raid the North Extreme is, appropriately enough, the 19th checkpoint.
Team EADS crosses the finish line with a winning time of five days and eleven minutes. The French led the race virtually from the start: on the bikes, through the treks, and on the water. The other teams were simply never able to catch up. In fact, as of this morning, no other team had even reached the Voyageur Canoe section.
The French not only had the voyageur canoe section to itself, but made the journey while enjoying a two-hour spectacle of Aurora Borealis, something you don’t see very often (well, ever) in France.
“It was incredible to paddle in the voyageur canoe, with the lights in the sky like that,� says Stephane Toussaint.
“They were fabulous last night,� says Laurence Maurin. “They were so bright.�
This is the first major race victory for Team EADS, and it guarantees them a paid berth in next year’s Adventure Racing World Championships.
“We did a little bit of everything in this race,� Cyril Margaritis tells race director Dave Zietsma as he jams a slice of hot pizza into his mouth. “On the trek we swam a bit, on the paddle we carried the boats a bit ...�
“... and on the canoes we slept a bit,� laughs Toussaint. “I was paddling and I could feel my body bobbing around, my paddle just sort of wobbling.�
“We were paddling in the park yesterday, and these people in a canoe yelled out ‘Vive La France!’� says Laurence Maurin. “We could not understand how they knew we were French, but they came over and told us that they had been following the race on television, so they knew who we were. It was wonderful.�
“I really like the Raid the North Extreme courses,� says Bruno Rey. “Dave (Zietsma) is an adventure racer, and he likes to create a challenging course. He designs courses that offer lots of adventure and navigation. So many adventure races are just sprints; just go very fast, no strategy, no navigation. Raid the North adventure races actually have adventure, they are not just races.�
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