Raid in France
And They're Off! Back to Nature
Anne-Marie Dunhill / 04.09.2016
The eighth edition of Raid in France started last night at 00:00 in Font Romeu. Part of the ARWS, the popular French race started in the Pyrénées in 2007, created by Pascal Bahuaud and Bruno Vignuales. It hosted the Adventure Racing World Championships in 2012. There are thirty-one teams on the list with several strong international entries as well as the “crème de la crème” of French adventure racing. After a French team (FMR) won the ITERRA Ireland race last month, the French will be looking for another World Series win.
Leading up to the race start, there were several changes in the composition of the teams, for various reasons. Some examples of those changes: the young New Zealand adventure racer, Isla Smith, is racing with Seagate. Two days ago the race director of Raid Aran, Xavi Rodriguez, got called to replace a member of the Spanish Catalonian team Aventure X-Perience-Raidaventura.org. He was competing in one of the UTMB races last weekend so his body may be cursing him more than usual once this week is finished. The renowned French racer, Rudy Gouy of team Quechua, stepped in at the last minute to race with team number 17, RaidsAventure.fr/Team2Raid. It has been a bit of a scramble for our SleepMonsters reporting team as well as we found out that we were covering the race at 20:00 on Friday.
After the opening ceremonies in the complex of the Casino of Font-Romeu, teams had a couple of hours to deliver their different boxes to the race village that is centrally located on the Esplanade des Comptes de Cerdagne.
Once the race director, Pascal Bahuaud gave the start, there was a quick prologue that was also open to the general public. Teams barreled down the empty streets of Font Romeu to pick up their prologue maps which were hanging from a clothes line in front of the Casino. In the scramble team 30, Cap Opale took team 29’s map and captain Laurent Lestarquit bellowed for several seconds, “My maps, my maps!” in a flustered panic. The youngest participant was Lola, aged 11, who ran with her mother and afterwards her mother said that it was Lola who had done the navigating and found all of the flags for their team.
The prologue finished on the track field of the CREPS of Font Romeu; Font Romeu is an internationally recognized high altitude training center for elite athletes such as Martin Fourcade. The first team to finish the prologue was Seagate, finishing in 30 minutes, followed two minutes later by Issy Aventure Absolu Raid 1. A gaggle of teams followed in close succession and it was controlled mayhem as teams received their race maps at this point. This was their first access to their maps and it was interesting to observe the different strategies. Seagate isolated themselves in a well-lit changing room for a few moments while Chris Forme and Stuart Lynch quickly looked at the maps. Other teams headed directly out of the transition area while some spread themselves out on the spot and started highlighting the route.
Teams will be completing ten sections and over 400kms to reach the finish line in Saint Pierre de la Mer. The sections and distances are as follows:
Section A: Trekking 76km
Section B: Raft 12km
Section C: Mountain biking 91km
Section D: Trekking 37km
Section E: Mountain biking 70km
Section F: Canyon-Caving-Ropes 12km
Section G: Mountain biking 17km
Section H: Trekking-Ropes-Canyon 6km
Section I: Mountain biking 40km
Section J: Kayak 69km
The first trekking section that the racers embarked on late last night after getting their maps is a kicker! It will take the teams to the highest point on the race, on the summit of the Puig Carlit; nearly 3,000m in altitude. Raid in France is underway and all racers, organizers, volunteers and media are Back to Nature.
The race is using the YellowBrick tracking system which is now live and you can get stuck into a good week’s worth of dot watching at the following link:
live.raidinfrance.com
SleepMonsters
