Raid International Gaspesie - Pushing and Coasting

Pyro / 12.09.2015

Day 2 was a long, hot affair for the teams out here in Gaspesia. Overnight discussions and agreements with the race jury meant the penalties levied on Painted Wolf, Brou Kailash and International Bio-Team had been reduced from 3hrs to 30 minutes, meaning the top of the 300km leaderboard rapidly became much more crowded. Dynafit Skimoeast retained their lead with Spin Sports in second overall (and first Pair), followed by Raid Bras du Nord who had also had a penalty for poor/misplaced punching annulled, and then Painted Wolf, Switzerland Engadin, and Cahors Lot Orientation.

The start today, from just outside of Allard, was steep right from the off. Starting on the bikes, the teams wound its way along a well surfaced ATV trail, due north into the hills. The narrow valley, flanked by steep climbs to a high plateau is fairly typical of the area, and was the scene of today's first disaster. At almost the furthest, least accessible point of the ride, one of the riders from Cahors Lot Orientation crashed unexpectedly. Picking himself up and looking for the cause of the crash it quickly became obvious: a complete separation of the chain stays of his bike, just behind the cranks. From a promising sixth place, their race came to an end almost instantly.

Just ahead of them, a battle was forming, with the leading teams fighting to open small time gaps over the others. Painted Wolf, Dynafit and Spin Sports all passed through TA1 almost simultaneously, but the bike leg had been fast and furious. Mark Collins had been feeling the burn up at the sharp end “There's some really strong bikers on those Canadian teams. I spent a lot of that bike leg hanging on and trying not to cry” (I think he may have been joking, but you never can tell).

The trek that followed dropped the teams back down another canyon and down into rooty, small hiking trails and singletrack, before spitting them out at a crystal clear and tempting looking salmon pool on the Nouvelle river, where more local support had been mustered. Keen supporters of the race stood on the suspension bridge over the river, ringing a large bell at each team's arrival and subsequent departure in canoes. At the front, the lead three teams (Dynafit, Spin Sports and Painted Wolf) were pushing hard, but lower down the pack one of Team Rookies Mountain took the opportunity to cool down with a quick dive into the river before they headed off. He was heard at a couple of moments shouting “this race is so much fun!”, which is probably true. It's sometimes hard to spot sarcasm here though.

The paddle leg took the teams back to the village of Allard once again, and the warm, wet racers climbed back into the saddle from the main highway over a ridge, the descended steeply once more down to the coast at Miguasha. There was one final sting in the tail, and up-and-down dogleg bike to pick up a checkpoint at a clifftop viewpoint, and here the South Africans managed to open a slender lead over the Canadian teams, which they held on to as they hit the final transition and the running and coasteering leg towards the finish. The coasteer began with a swim out to a buoy around a small headland, then back to land and along in the shadow of the high red stone cliffs. For a final thrill ride activity, half of each team had to wind their way up a steep rooted path to the back of the finish area, only to be sent back down in about a quarter of the time on a large zipline. The drop off the edge took many by surprise, though most racers jumped without hesitation, a couple took a little more coaxing, sitting down on the edge and sliding off a little more carefully than most.

After a final run round the coast, the finish line was in sight, and Painted Wolf crossed with around 10 minutes clear air behind them, only having to send a single racer up and down the zipline playing to their advantage, rather than having to wait for the line to be reset and a second racer to come down. The finish and camping area filled steadily as teams and assistants arrived, and after dinner the landowner came down to light a pre-prepared bonfire and one of the volunteers produced bags of marshmallows for the racers and staff to enjoy. The community spirit in this race is strong.

Again, the 150km results have been released, but the 300km are still being checked and calculated, but both sets will be available at the race website - www.raidinternationalgaspesie.com/index.php/en/results

The 300km racers have a very early start tomorrow for the final day of the race: 05:30 at the summit of Mont St Joseph, so it's an early night or all. The 150km racers get a small lie-in, they start at 07:30. Good night from Canada!

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