Raid in France
Half of the Teams Still on the Full Course
Helen Smith / 16.09.2014
Less than half way into the 2014 Raid in France and already the race is living up to its reputation as an uncompromising challenge. Of the 28 teams which started half are already on a short course of once kind or another, while 400Team Raidlight forge ahead in a strong lead.
Helen Smith is on the course and has been watching the progress of the teams for SleepMonsters.
400 Team Raidlight (14) were the first to arrive at assistance point 5 at 11.05, which was 3-4 hours ahead of 2nd place. This was Team Lozere Sport, who finished the trek at 2.48, followed closely by Averne Outdoor at 2.50.
A massive thunderstorm hit this afternoon with heavy rain and hail! It was pretty horrific conditions for the tired teams out on the 40km mountain trek, but luckily those teams that arrived earlier slept through it in a nice warm room! Somehow the leaders always get the good breaks?!
Lakes Multisport arrived at 2am and said it was a horrific trek through rocky rivers and bushes! The maps are also very basic with pathways missing. The route book says to stick to the path but this was tricky when the path doesn't seem to be on the map! They were very pleased to have some hot food and a sleep and continued on the next cycling stage to Les Chambons (48.4 km) just after 9am in the morning.
Raid74 Maxirace.org 2 headed off at 7.27 shortly followed by Arverne outdoor then Outnorth Adventure, the team from Sweden! They are only visiting international team to be well up in the rankings and the other teams from outside France to still be full course are Salomon Lima Intersport and Leteci Nomadi Leitapu.
Team Agde Raid Aventure Cyreo arrived in transition at 11.05 pm after spending 5 hours trying to find CP19 in the forest but they eventually gave up. Philippe Geral is struggling with inflamed tendons and is unable to take anti inflammatory so the team need to decide if he will continue. They were looking forward to a good 3 hour sleep! (Ed. Geral did subsequently withdraw from the race and his team mates are continuing.) Team 3 withspirit.fr Born to Adventure also have one team member withdrawn.
Team 7 (Vitalliance) were picked up and brought to transition at 2.45 in the afternoon to be short coursed. They are disappointed but still in good spirits.
There was a mandatory 3 hour sleep at this first Assistance point and also a cut-off of midnight, before which teams had to have slept and left the TA on the next section. It was this cut-off which lead to many teams being put on short cuts, which means they are out of the official ranking – RIF is very old school! you have to complete the full course to be ranked.
Naturally there was something of Midnight rush and 4 teams (13, 22, 23 & 15) began their mountain bike section as the cut off approached.
Among the later arrivals were the second Swiss team, R’adys Team Switzerland at 01.20am.
Team Cross Contour are one of those affected by stomach issues (Dan), and along with Oufti Adventure Belgique they were taken by bus to aT9 to continue on the section canyon section at 18.00 and move them along the course. Cross Contour also struggled to find CP19 and as both these teams had not left the first assistance point by 10.00am the decision was made to move them forward – or shunt them as the race describes it.
The race is now very spread out with half of the teams shunted in some way and 400 Team Raidlight well ahead.
You can follow the race live at http://live.raidinfrance.com
SleepMonsters
