Raid International Gaspesie
Raid International Gaspesie - Turning the screw
Pyro / 14.09.2015
The final day of the Raid International Gaspesie was another bright and sunny affair, although the 5:30am start for the 300km racers couldn't be described as either bright or sunny. The sunrise, however, as seen from the start area at the top of Mont St Joseph, was spectacular.
From the off the teams headed out on bikes, and as yesterday, a front group of the top contenders got away from the main pack. The top four teams have dictated a blistering pace, especially during MTB sections, and the good condition of the trails, gravel roads and ATV tracks has helped immensely.
The next technical activity was an orienteering section within the area of one of Cartier Energie's windfarms. Cartier are a local power supplier who run a number of windfarms in Quebec province, and are also supporting one of the teams in the 150km race, Coach & Joueur, which consists of a teacher from the high school in Carleton and one of his former students. From there, the teams rode onwards to the next ropes section, a canyon run and guided abseil on the Chutes de Mius waterfall, where we heard that Merrell Denmark were continuing their run of bad luck. First, Anna had sprained her ankle. Second, a miscommunication with transition staff mean they'd waited unnecessarily for their support crew when their equipment was already at the start of yesterday's canoe. Lastly, today Jonas broke his saddle. Like almost all things in this race, the problem was fixed with the help of another team: local team Nullius in Verba had withdrawn from the race after one of their racers, having raced for two full days on a damaged hamstring, pulled during the prologue, decided last night that enough was enough. His partner started the day as an unofficial third member of the French team Cahors Lot Orientation, themselves saved from a DNF by another local team loaning them one of their spare bikes, but word had got to their support crew, following the race, that the Danes had saddle trouble. At the transition after the canyon, Merrell Denmark's support crew was handed a saddle and seatpost, fortunately of the right size and spec, so they could finish the race. With the crews all camping together and chatting at transition, this really has become one of the most friendly races on the calendar.
After the canyon, the racers climbed back onto the bikes once more to ride a short MTB-orienteering stage. This took place in a small park where a number of singletrack trails and short bike loops have been developed, and the slightly more technical, rooty trails caught a few riders out, with slips and minor crashes aplenty. Probably because of this, and despite words of encouragement, unfortunately the media team were unable to persuade any racers to ride the jump just below one of the CPs.
From below the MTB-O, down towards the town of Maria, and the teams transitioned onto their feet for a couple of trekking checkpoints before a wade/swim through a culvert to bring them out onto the beach. The transition here was crowded with cheering spectators, enjoying the spectacle of the race and sharing jokes with the local racers, of which there are many. Some teams played to the crowd, Thiago Elias of Brou Kailash grabbing a beer from his support crew and downing it, while the audience sang a couple of locals drinking songs at him. He drained the bottle in one go, to a large round of applause, then they grabbed their bikes for a rough, slippy bike leg along the beach.
After the bike, the final transition caused a few headaches for teams. Picking up canoes from the transition itself, they were faces with a narrow, slightly twisted staircase down to the beach to launch. The boats were just too wide to slide nicely down the stairs, and so had to be turned on their sides, but a canoe does not sit happily on its side, so there was much pushing, pulling, jamming and swearing, until a young racer in the 150km looked at the problem a little differently. Picking up his team's boat, he looked at the small cliff down to the wide section of beach, and asked the transition staff simply “Can I just throw the boat down there?”. The race's head judge was present, thought for a second, consulted the roadbook and replied “This doesn't say you can't”. Problem solved.
The last section, as befitting a Canadian race, was a canoe along the coast, with a short portage over the outer bank into the Carleton lagoon, with a checkpoint on one of the 'yurt islands'. The lagoon was millpond flat, and while the water was shallow enough for the bed to grab at the boats, the couple of feet of mud underneath meant jumping out and dragging wasn't an attractive prospect.
Having managed to crank up the pace and shake off most of their competition, Dynafit/SkimoEast.com were the first across the line, followed closely by the top 2-man team, Spin Sports. The two Canadian teams had worked hard together to try and distance the racers behind them, turning the screw on the bikes. Those two teams took top honours each in their respective categories for the race, with Painted Wolf coming in third overall (second in Pairs) and Raid Bras du Nord in fourth overall/second Four.Switzerland Engadin took third step of the Pairs podium, with Rheal Pitre Sport Gaspesie third in the Fours.
In the 150km race, GalopeaueXtreme took the overall win, with Intersport Carleton-sur-Mer second/first Pair, Pedini Iret from Italy third/second Pair. Les Beaux Freres were third Pair, and Les Extraordinaires and Merrell-Garneau took second and third Fours (fith and eighth overall)
The ceremony closed with a race video, edited daily to show the best of the race , which is available to view over at the Raid International Gaspesie Facebook page. The show closed with an invitation for all teams to come back next year, which I think many will. Until then, thank you and good night!
SleepMonsters
