An Action Packed First Day

Rob Howard / 09.09.2016

Day one of Raid International Gaspesie 2016 was action packed, including a visit to a cave, ropes stages and a zip line, mountain bike trails, swimming and trail running.

The first mountain bike stage quickly spread out the teams and took them deeper into the forest as they rode along unsurfaced roads and trails, heading West towards the first transition at Lac Robidoux. Given it was the first stage the pace was naturally quick, despite the slippery road surface, regular climbs and some morning fog.

The rain did ease off and the weather improved through the day, but the teams were not going to stay dry!  On arrival at the lake they had to swim about 500m, taking in a checkpoint half way across and then bushwhack for a while to find the trails to take them to the next transition. This was on the Bonaventure River, but before they reached transition teams had to wade across the shallow but fast flowing waters and bushwhack along the shore.

There was a bridge, and the transition was set beside it, but where’s the fun in walking over that?

The transitions at the race are a hive of activity as the assistants park up their trucks, drop and collect bikes, and set out their stall to help the racers.  (Pretty much everyone has a big 4x4 truck, with lots of trailers and campers too.) I watched one pair of racers have their PFD’s pulled on and tightened for them, and another opening his mouth wide to have a banana stuffed into it! Why dress or feed yourself when you have an assistant!

Once the canoes were run out into the stream 12k of idyllic downstream paddling began on the perfectly clear waters, passing occasional shallow rapids, and stopping off 3 times to trek up into the hills for checkpoints. (This was for the 300km teams, the 150km teams stuck to the more direct race route.)

All of the racers finally paddled into TA4, which was close by the finish, but there were still more challenges and course options still to tackle before crossing the line. The transition was by the Ruisseau Creux suspension bridge and it was packed with assistants and team supporters, who were lined up across the long bridge and clustered around the get out point. A huge fire was being built and salmon cooked on this and as soon as the spotter on the bridge with binoculars identified the arriving teams the cheers and shouting began.

The 150km racers were close to the finish now but one of each team still had to take a zip wire across the broad river, and then run back around across the bridge before being allowed over the finish line.

Even getting from the bridge to the finish wasn’t easy as the direct route, which everyone took, was dense bush with slippery bluffs and fallen trees in it, so a few were going round in circles close to the finish line!  I did also see a couple of racers simply wade back over the river on their own directly to the finish line – clearly they’d got into the spirit of the race and decided bridges were out of bounds.

The 300km teams (who made the cut-off) had an extra loop to complete on their bikes around the Du Ruisseau Blanc Falls where there are extensive XC Ski, ATV and foot trails, and naturally the race made use of the falls and pools to include more ropes access and underwater checkpoints! Then it was back for the zip line, a bit more bushwhacking, and into the finish.

The first camp was set up at the Fishing Camp Le Canadian, a very exclusive camp for what I’m told are some of the best salmon fishing waters in the world. The camp has been established for 115 years and until today has been strictly private, only allowing visitors by invitation, but they opened up especially for the race and allowed everyone to camp on the fields surrounding the buildings.  So by the time the racers came in tents, gazebos and kitchens had been set up ready for them. (When you have a big truck a big camp can be unpacked from it!)

The first 150km team in were Paysage/Navigue.com, taking 5.38.24 and they were an hour ahead of their nearest rivals, Intersport Carlton Sur Mer.  (All the times mentioned here are unofficial until checked and don’t account for any penalties for missed CP’s.)

The quickest in the 300km were the Estonian ACE Adventure pair (7.32.30), closely followed by the team of 4, Azimut/Espresso Sports.

As dusk fell the finish line and the camp became busier. I saw the Chinese racer Haifen Zhang showing his scrapped arm to some supporters, the result of a bike fall during the day.  Not the only one during the day I’m sure. His racing partner is Sebastien Germain-Careau and before the race they’d never even met. “I didn’t know I was racing until 5 days ago,” Sebastian said. “Then I got a call to ask if I’d race with someone from China, so here I am. We are getting on fine, and though it was more extreme than I expected we had a good day.”

The South African team hadn’t had quite such a good day, breaking a bike frame and a canoe paddle, and deciding to drop checkpoint 13 to be sure of making the 17.00 cut-off at the transition by the finish. They just made if for 17.00, only to find the cut-off was moved to 18.00 and they needn’t have dropped the CP!

The US team, ‘Rev3 and Wondering Wanderer’ finished a little later and were similarly affected. “I wish we’d known as we would have made different decisions,” said Wendi Lucas.  Dave Ashley agreed but added, “The good thing is it meant more teams did those final stages and they were great, the best bit of the day. The bike trails were superb, and there was a checkpoint alongside a waterfall we abseiled down to and another in a waterfall pool we had to search for. You don’t normally get that in adventure racing.”

Teams were still finishing well after dark, and those who come in later will get less recovery time before tomorrow mornings 07.15 shuttle bus departure to the day 2 start line.

You can follow the race tracking and see the days results at http://www.raidinternationalgaspesie.com/

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