Raid International Gaspesie
Raid International Gaspesie - In The Beginning
Pyro / 08.09.2015
As I sit with a coffee in Montreal Trudeau airport, I thought it was worth giving a quick introduction to the Raid International Gaspesie.
The RIG, as it's known, is a 4-day Stage Race across the Baie-des-Chaleurs region, Quebec. Teams can be all male, all female or mixed, and each team must have their own support crew (one team was appealing through the race for an assitstant just two days before the start, so things could be a bit tight there). The race includes trekking, mountain biking, canoeing and some ropework, plus some unlisted 'surprise' activities. The race logistics are split into two distance categories – 300km and 150km – and two teams categories within each, fours and pairs. Looking into the previous year's results, the 300km race was dominated by Fours with the top Pair coming in in seventh place. Conversely, the 150km was dominated by Pairs, with the top Four in sixth.
The team list is, unsurprisingly, dominated by local teams. Of the 48 teams entered, 34 are wholly or partially Canadian, and 30 of those are from Quebec and the Acadien region. Of that select remaining handful of international teams, seven are from South America, four from Europe and one each from the USA and South Africa.
The South African team, Painted Wolf, could be one of the more interesting bets for the race. Andre Gie led the team to take fourth place and first South African team at Expedition Africa 2014, and his teammate Mark Collins was a member of the highly successful Team Mazda a number of years ago. They may have a fight on their hands though, as the French team Cahors Lot Orientation, last year's top placed 300km Pair, are back again.
Merrell Denmark could also be a strong choice for the 300km Fours race, Lars Bukkehave joins the team off the back of a strong performance at Expedition Alaska, he and his teammates won the final run up the epic Mount Marathon finale. Last year's Fours winners aren't returning, but second place Dynafit are back and should be eyeing the top step of the podium hungrily.
In the 150km race, last year's winning pair, GalopeauXtreme are back to defend their title, as are fourth placed pair Pedini Iret from Italy. The Canadian Merrell team, Merrell-Garneau are back as well, having been the top placed Four in the 150km race last year.
Of course, as always with these races, so many things are unknown and any strong team can have a good (or bad) day, and with the frenetic pace of a stage race there can be no room for errors. The most accurate and strongest team will win, naturally, but who that will be is anyone's guess at the moment. The race prologue begins on Thursday afternoon, and we can only wait, watch, and try and take an educated guess or three until then!
SleepMonsters
