A New Route in the Mountains

Rob Howard & Anne-Marie Dunhill / 15.09.2012

The race organisation had a busy night last night after the mountain guide team called off much of the opening trekking stage on safety grounds.  A recent storm and the high winds of the last few days had blown too much snow over the rocks and the race had to start with ‘plan B’.

The mornings events still went as planned, with all the teams arriving in the town square on their bikes for a 4am roll out to the start at a campsite up in the mountains.  The teams sat on their bikes in a group in the main road, all except Seagate who were relaxing on some cafe chairs in the chill morning temperatures.  With a shout everyone was off, glad to get moving, though they warmed up soon enough as the route was mainly uphill.

They were heading for a campsite above the village of Ailefroide where the darkness was illuminated in noisy bursts by the burner from a hot air balloon tethered next to the start by sponsors EDF Energy. On arrival teams had some hot tea and set about preparing for the mountain trek, stacking their bikes by their kit boxes, as they would be returning to the start area after a shortened mountain trek. 

The new route required the issuing of new pages of the road book for the first 3 sections of the race and shortened the first trekking stage considerably.  From the departure point the new route was up and down  to checkpoint number B4, climbing up the Glacier du Sele to reach a col at 3283m.  (Descending this glacier was to have been the end of a complete circuit of Mont Pelvoux.)

All the teams had heavy packs with the mountain trekking boots, ropes and climbing gear, as well as carrying good supplies of water for the glacier.

First away were Team Raidlight, the winners of the Prologue, sprinting along the track in the darkness for a few metres before being called aside by some marshals to collect their first set of maps and accompanying route book.  They were given 5 maps covering the early stages and will be given the others at transitions 3 and 5 during the race.

Each team collected their Yellowbrick tracker before setting off, although teams SXM and Griffons Punch Power both forgot theirs and had to go back for them.  Once teams had the maps they had to quickly work out the modified instructions, some doing this more quickly than others, and one team asking the marshal; “Where do we go?”

All the teams are now on the glacier and this stage has a minimum time of 7 hours 30 minutes so any teams arriving back earlier than this will have to wait to enter the transition.  From there they will have a short mountain bike ride to the village of Les Claux before undertaking another, lower level trek which was the short course planned for teams timed out on the original stage one.  This takes teams in a circuit around Cime de la Condamine ou la Roya before they resume the original route on their mountain bikes.

See All Stories On This Race