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Top International Teams Head for the Grand Raid Nord Pas de Calais

News Release / 20.06.2011

The North of France is mainly known to have been one of the first regions in the world to enter the industrial era. Coalmines, blast furnaces, textile industry, large commercial ports and the fishing industry made its fortune and accompanied a strong agricultural tradition.

In the spirit of cultivating this paradox, Karine Baillet, internationally renowned adventure racer following her win at the Raid Gauloises in Vietnam, rose to the challenge of organizing in her home region a large scale adventure race.

In so doing she demonstrates that next to interesting former industrial sites such as slag heaps, vast forests, a coastal zone of sand dunes and cliffs, an complex network of rivers, swamps and lakes can be the setting for an event at the highest level.

Top athletes from the international adventure racing circuit will be present when the starting gun goes off on Wednesday, June 22nd in Calais. Over five days and 450 kilometres of racing, interspersed with bivouacs in the evening, the teams will practice 8 different disciplines using different means of progression.

These champions will be coming mainly from Northern Europe, Eastern Europe, Spain as well as from the other side of the world with a team from New Zealand ; a country which for the past twenty years has produced some of the best adventure racers.

-Thule Adventure Team (France/Sweden) with Martin Flinta,Per Vestling,Jacky Boisset and Myriam Guillot.

-Wilsa AFG (France/New Zealand )with Sébastien Sxay, Elina and Richard Ussher and Marcel Hagener.

-Buff Thermocool (Spain) with Emma Roca, Juan Jose Sancosmed, Dani Terrisse and Josef Ajram

- OS Direct (Ukraine) with, Marchenko Kostiantyn, Dmytruk Oleksandr, Artemenko Ivan, Kolomiec Nadejda.

And several strong French teams ...

Beyond the race reserved for elite athletes, for a week the entire Northern region of France will be synced to the rhythm of outdoor sports. Karine Baillet has created made to measure events for a large audience ; families, school children and those who practice sports on a more regular basis (these ‘challengers’ will be able to compare their performances to those of the elite racers over a day of racing).

There is live race coverage on the race <a href="#" onClick="javascript:newsitewindow('http://www.legrandraid.org/en/')" class="main">website</a> and we’ll also follow race news here on SleepMonsters.

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