The Adventure Tourists

Rob Howard & Anne-Marie Dunhill / 19.09.2012

On the morning of day 5 the teams bringing up the back of the race were arriving in AT9 after the high mountain trekking stage in the Mercantour National Park.  Most of the teams arriving at this time had missed an earlier cut-off and are racing as unranked, some are combinations of teams and while we were in transition one French team was retiring and asking about the best way to hitch-hike back to the start, where they had left their car.

The race medic and the Race Director were both there and busy.  The medic was patching up feet, attending to any eye injury and when he had the chance he was ringing the hospital to check on a couple of racers who have been admitted for a bike crash and dehydration.  He said the race reminded him of the Raid Gauloises in terms of its difficulty and spirit, and that the medical work had been difficult.

Race Director, Pascal Bahaud, was busy trying to organise the logistics to support the race and said it was difficult as the race is very spread out.  The Belgian team who were lost in the night are now in the town of Barcelonette but he wasn’t sure how, or if he could retrieve them, and at the same time knows the leaders will probably finish in the early hours of tomorrow morning.  (Traditionally the race has been a supported event, with all teams having their own transport, so those dropping out have not been a problem, but the race switched to unsupported when it was elected for the World Champs, to come into line with others in the AR World Series.)

When I asked him why the teams short-coursed earlier in the race had not been taken further forward along the route he just said he wanted them all to have the chance to see the scenery on this part of the race and preferred to shorten the end of the course.  (There are more cut-offs still to come and those teams who missed the first cut will almost certainly miss these as well.)

Mark Lattanzi of Dancing Pandas commented; “It was strange, they moved us forward on the course a little, then said we couldn’t restart until the early hours of the morning so we were still just as far behind.  I think we’ll certainly miss the cut again later on as some of the team are struggling with blisters and there is a whole lot of trekking in this race.”

His team missed the cut before the via Ferrata, so didn’t get to do that, the rafting or the first kayaking stage and he added; “I’m looking forward to sitting in a boat!”  He still has some way to go before that can happen.  He was also looking forward to a hot meal.  “We are going into town and are really hoping to get some food, we need hot protein now.”

He also said his team had already done a different via Ferrata.  “I was navigating, not very well, and took them 300m up a via Ferrata in the mountains, only to realise the checkpoint was down the bottom all the time!”

In transition at the same time was Eoin Keith of Ireland, who started the race with BRAT Lupine, but is now with a French team of three.  “I’m an adventure tourist now,” he said.  His team had suffered the first injury of the race when Thomas Etter broke his leg, and he said his two remaining Brazilian team mates  “just wanted to stay in bed one morning”. 

Now he has joined another team, one of whom broke some ribs falling out of the rafts, so he is wondering if he is a Jonah and which of this companions will break something next!

“It took me a while to get out of race mode and into the idea of adventure tourism,” he said, “but I’m quite enjoying it now.  We stop for coffee and I feel great.  I don’t think I’ve ever felt so good in a race - I don’t even have a single blister.  The scenery is fantastic too, the views and the alpine meadows are stunning – the whole course has been.  Some of the mountain biking has been superb too – the best I’ve known anywhere.”

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