Patagonian Expedition Race
Third Time a Charm
Anne-Marie Dunhill / 27.01.2016
The 2016 Patagonian Expedition Race will be the third time that the French team Vaucluse Aventure Evasions will be participating in this race that has been coined “The Last Wild Race”; they previously participated in the 2011 and 2012 editions. In 2012 the team had to withdraw from the race on the last section due to severe foot problems. As SleepMonsters spoke in French to the team captain, Jerome Beurruer on the telephone today, the enthusiasm that this team has for the race was clear.
Vaucluse Aventure Evasions is an adventure racing association based in the Vaucluse department of France, near Avignon, and is composed of around 15 adventure racers with six or seven members making up a squad that competes in long international races.
Team captain Jerome Berruer said that he was chosen as captain simply because he has been taking care of the pre-race logistics and has several years experience racing in the ARWS circuit. He has a long history in French adventure racing, having participated in the 2003 Raid Gauloises which took place in Kyrgyzstan. His teammate Pascal Reymond has also raced the PER. Completing the team is the duo Jean Michel Cateau and Corrine Bonnet who as well as competing together are also a couple in real life.
Jerome stated that the 2016 edition of PER would be the first time that Corinne will compete in a long expedition race. When SleepMonsters enquired about her capacity to suffer, in light of the fact that she has yet to have competed in a non-stop expedition race, Jerome laughed and said, “We’re about to find out and she’s about to find out! But it is the format of the race that attracted her, she has very strong mental capacities and it is also the rhythm of the race that interests Corinne.”
When asked about any concerns he might have going into the race, Jerome said that their main concern was the time-cut offs. He said that he learned from his past racing experiences in PER that the first time-cutoffs are relatively tight (i.e. two or three days) so he felt that the key would be not to start out too slowly and miss the first cut-offs, effectively ending the race before it got properly started but maintaining enough “juice” to keep going for the 10 days of the race: “Finding the right rhythm from the start will be critical to our race.”
As the team will be arriving right before the race start he said that they were also concerned about all of their gear arriving safely in Punta Arenas. As for the rest, he said, “We know that the MTB sections can be strongly affected by the winds, the kayak sections long and very slow progression when we’re on foot, with our feet being constantly wet, so no problems with any of that. We also know that we’ll literally be in the middle of nowhere with no possibility of stopping and asking directions. That part suits me just fine as I can’t speak English or Spanish!”
Jerome went on to say,” You know, PER is like a little family, there aren’t many of us who do the race and I’m really looking forward to seeing friends down there again. For example the owner of the Hotel Rey Don Felipe, Enrique Garin, who is sponsoring our team and putting us up in his exquisite hotel in Punta Arenas before the race starts. This year we don’t have sponsors, apart from this sponsorship, we’re paying all of our own flights and the small adventure races and trails that our association organizes throughout the year in France will help to cover some of our costs.”
The team captain of Vaucluse Aventure Evasions closed the interview by saying, “You know, we’re going down there to suffer, with the land there that is so virgin, nowhere else in the world can you be in the middle of nowhere for 10 days, no trails, no nothing except perhaps a MTB trail, but you have to earn it. I’m impatient for the race to start!”
The team number for Vaucluse Aventure Evasions is 4 and you can find out more about the team (if you read French) on their website:
http://www.vaucluse-aventures.fr
SleepMonsters
