portage some forty locks, as dawn broke the first team WILSA SPORT
HELLY HANSEN transferred to Mountain bikes for the final leg of the
stage, some 4 hours later than expected. Behind them teams with sea
kayaks were struggling, team ABSOLUE RAID Décathlon St Orens abandoned
the race halfway through the kayak leg.
The Raid CaneO nature organization was forced to make contingency
plans for teams in classification Raider and Adventure to ensure all
teams were ready to start Stage 3 later in the day..The order of
arrival in Extreme class was WILSA SPORT HELLY HANSEN, around an hour
ahead of TEAM SPORT 2000 LAFUMA VIBRAM who had had a good day, then
team WILSA WCUP CHTI Raid, showing on the leader board for the first
time arrived some 15 minutes later. HELLY HANSEN UK arrived in 5th
place around 3 hours behind the leaders and Nicola MacLeod said it was
the hardest kayak leg she had ever done, the team had stopped for a
ten minute cap nap, and headed strait to camp to eat and sleep before
the 1330 start of the next leg
..
The first two days of the Raid have been a little confusing with
problems of horse riding and the lack of time to finish stage 2 which
effected some 15 teams, details of the Raider and Adventure
classifications are not yet available.
.
Having taken into account all adjustments to date the overall race is
being lead by WILSA SPORT HELLY HANSEN who have a lead of around a one
and one half hours, over TEAM SPORT 2000 LAFUMA VIBRAM. Second place
is secured by over a two hour gap to a group of three teams chasing
teams. WILSA WCUP CHTI Raid, COLUMBIA Lozère Sport Nature and HELLY
HANSEN UK who are fighting it out for 3rd place and are at present
separated by a few minutes. (all above subject to confirmation)
The first withdrawal of the race came from team DENY in the Raider
classification and they are now unclassified MARINE NATIONALE -
LATTITUDE 55 also lost a team member and two members are continuing
unclassified., VESALIS, FUN EVENTS and VALMO RAID PINK TEAM -
DÉCATHLON SEQUEDIN are also out of classification.
Stage 3 had an interesting start, as the kayak leg started with the
passage through a tunnel, so that whichever team gets tot the entrance
first would have a great advantage as it was very hard to overtake,
this maybe just what current leaders need to consolidate their
position.
WILSA SPORT HELLY HANSEN took their customary lead from the restart,
but hit the side of the canal entering the tunnel and had to stop at
the exit which allowed WILSA WCUP CHTI Raid to go into the lead for
the first time, HELLY HANSEN UK started carefully and lead the second
group into the mouth of the tunnel
Later this evening there is mountain biking, abseiling, and inline
skating which will be reported tomorrow.