Réunion d’Aventures
Into the Canyons
Reunion d\'Aventures/Rob / 17.09.2003
![Reunion d\](https://sm-racereports.s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/report_608_1.jpg "Reunion d\")
It’s been raining since early morning and the night was cold and uncomfortable, especially for the teams that did not manage to find a hut, unlike race leaders Wilda Sport Eider. Huguette Penno Casara from Renault Ti Tantine said her tent was flooded, and her clothes soaking wet. Jamie from International Adventurers stated that “the mountain bike route was terrible after the rain as it was on hiking trails and for most of the time the bikes had to be carried.�
The bikes were left at transition and in their place the teams loaded up their canyoning equipment. The recent rains have caused the water levels to rise, and added some more danger, making even river crossing difficult without the use of ropes.
At the end of day Wilda Sport Eider, made it just on time to CP 13, where their support team was already waiting. They would prepare for 250 meters climb in the morning, hoping that the weather would improve. Spie/The North Face also managed to descend from the summit of Piton des Neiges (3000 meters) to CP 11 before the dark zone. Banque de la Réunion-RFO the only other team still in the Extrem class spent what must have been a very uncomfortable night on Dimitille ridge leading up to the summit of Piton des Neiges.
The Adventure category is lead by Kinesium, who are also on the ridge. Some other teams on this course stopped at gite Emile with the back markers remaining in the canyon. As expected, The Globe Brothers lost 2 members of their team today Bruno Da Cruz and Aurélia Rosny, so the team is now unclassified.
Race Commentary
The choice of where and when to stop in this race is being made much more crucial by the appalling weather – there is no sign of the tropical sunshine the teams hoped to enjoy and the forecast is for much more rain. There are very few huts the main trails (though there is one a refuge on the summit of Piton des Neiges), but there is no other shelter of any sort. Not only will it be cold and wet at altitude, but the trails are all exceptionally steep and once muddy will be very slow to negotiate, whether on foot of bike.
The support crews will have their own adventures getting up into the Cirque Cilaos shortly as the single track road has continuous and seemingly never ending hairpins and many tunnels. The organisation too may be struggling as the only way to get around, and to supply remote checkpoints, is by helicopter, and they will almost certainly be unable to fly. So it’s sure to be difficult for everyone, and the organisers will be rueing the fact the race was forced from it’s original May date by the start of the war in Iraq.
At the end of the day the 3 teams on the Extrem course were still going, 6 remained on the adventure course, and 4 were continuing unranked, including International Adventurers.
They are at the back of the race, having reached CP11 after completing the canyoning. They did well in the canyons, enjoying many big waterfall jumps, though Anna lost her helmet and had to borrow another from the support crew later on.
SleepMonsters
