The End Of The world

 

Raid CaneO Day 1 007

 

Day 10 Sea Kayak delayed by headwinds

The Winners of the first CaneO Nature Adventure race were expected to
arrive in Marseilles tonight having travelled 1100 from Paris, where
they started ten days ago with Horse Riding.

The final stage included another leg of horse riding, mountain biking
and Kayaking, however when teams arrived at the sea a force 4 wind was
blowing onshore and as some of the teams had only sit on top kayaks
the Organisation decided to postpone the section until tomorrow, when
they would move the start nearer to Marseilles and restarting.

The Ride and Run on local Camargue horses, saw teams starting at one
minute intervals in reverse order. There was little need to trot as
the teams had plenty of time to complete the section. The horses
tended to group naturally together, so this was a relaxing non
competitive stage. Only one team MARINE NATIONALE - LATTITUDE 55
appeared to have a problem when the changed over, as their mount
wanted to catch up with the others without waiting to be mounted. All
the teams exceeded the minimum two hour time limited so had to wait at
the end of the leg before they could enter transition.

The next leg was ride a run using mountain Bikes, and here its was
noticeable that teams who had competed previously in The Oman Bike and
Run Adventure. Had an advantage, so it was no surprise to see MARINE
NATIONALE - LATTITUDE 55 who are unclassified leading the teams onto
the beach, WILSA SPORT HELLY HANSEN posted the fastest time and HELLY
HANSEN UK were seen to be running at race pace despite the heat. They
consumed between 10-12 liters of water during the six hours they were
racing.

Tonight the racers will camp on a beach with their support crews
before setting off in the early hours of the morning for a short 30K
paddle to the finish at a Beach to the East of Marseilles.

A Number of teams were given penalties in stage 5 for leaving the
canyon by an unauthorisd road and werr spotted by the GeoPointer
tracking system, on of the teams caught were HELLY HANSEN UK and they
have dropped to sixth posisition in the ranking

Barring accidents the lead in the three classes is not likely to
change during the final leg. WILSA SPORT HELLY HANSEN will be crowned
winners tomorrow night by The Mayor of Marseilles at the prize giving
in the town hall.

A Day in Camargue

All teams were held up by dark zone in the river Gardon, some had more
rest than others and a few at the back no rest at all.Helly Hansen UK,
were one of the teams who had little time to sleep as they had been
held up at the cave the previous afternoon and then lost one hour when
a member of a team ahead of them panic which delayed them a further
hour.

The pace of the race has been very demanding and all the support crews
are suffering as they rush from one transition to another to support
their team. Today proved to be especially difficult with a short Kayak
of 7 K followed by orienteering and then mountain biking bfoe a 56K
kayak leg down the river Rhone.

The early morning restart saw teams departing in race order and only
team 6 made a mistake when they capsized 20 seconds prior to their
start. All the teams found the orienteering difficult as the final
checkpoint was at the entrance to an old Roman aqueduct tunnel, the
GPS position brought teams onto a high rock above the tunnel when they
needed to backtrack to a hidden entrance. The leading teams were close
together with Wilsa Sport Helly Hansen running safely in 3rd place.

Gerard Fusil stated earlier this year said there would be no sailing
leg, however a favorable wind blowing down the Rhone for the Kayak leg
saw many teams trying out sails with good results. Helly Hansen UK,
had planned to use K2's on this stage but changed to sea kayak with a
sail in front and an umbrella at the back to bake best use of the
following wind. One team did use a k2 and Vaucluse Aventures Evasions
were first away using a sail followed a few minutes later by Wilsa
Sport Helly Hansen, who used sea kayaks without sails.

Various sailing devices were used from off the shelf products to
custom devices and last minute DIY using trekking poles and shirts.
LES FOUS DE BASSIN TDR BX probably had the biggest sail at 2Sq meters
a square sail mounted in the middle of their sit on top kayak, Lieues
aventures used a small spinnaker on mast forward, but it meant the
front person could not paddle.

Wilsa Sport Helly Hansen tactics proved to be the best as they
finished the stage ahead of Vaucluse Aventures Evasions with WILSA
WCUP CHTI Raid in third place. The sails had worked on the Rhone but
once the teams turned into the lesser Rhone the direction was wrong,

A Hot Day on The Ardeche For Raid CaneO Nature Teams

Another day of kayaking, bit with a difference as it was down the Adeche River and passed through a gorge with sections of rapids. Teams set off at 1 minute intervals in race order, so WILSA SPORT HELLY HANSEN was first away shortly after six. Most teams usd sea kayaks but a couple of teams used K2, which they had to portage them around the rapid. A few of the teams got caught out in the rapids and had a early bath.

Once again HELLY HANSEN UK had a excellent start and were in 2nd place at the first transition Saint-Martin- D'Ardeche, but then once on mountain bikes they lost their way allowing all but one of the  extreme teams to overtake them. Extreme and Raider classes spent the afternoon underground in the 2 K Fees Cave, around Thaaux.

WILSA SPORT HELLY HANSEN took longer than expected to complete the caving as they had to backtrack when they went the wrong way. The team are pacing themselves as thre of the mebrs have a race in China in a few weeks time.

Tonight the teams will doing orienteering, Mountain biking and along kayak of 51K.

There have been no further changes in ranking at mis stage of this leg, and due to limited internet access there will be no further news until tomorrow

Rest Day and results of Stage

A rest day is a new concept for Gerard Fusils' races, but looking at the teams most are need a break to refresh themselves. As dawn broke however, only a few times had arrived. The first two team were from the Adventure class as they missed out on the second cave.

WILSA SPORT HELLY HANSEN seem to have a firm grip on the race and once again won the stage, but they were chased home by COLUMBIA Lozère Sport Nature who were only a few minutes behind and then ABSOLUE RAID Décathlon St Orens. The UK challenge failed when HELLY HANSEN UK misread the route and as a result took them on a track which caused many punctures, it is a question if they will retain 5th place overall.

The Raider class is led by SOFERMI - RAID NATURE 46 once again stretching their lead over the other teams, RAID NATURE 09 and PIC ST LOUP AVENTURE.

The Adventure class were led in by SPORT-OUTDOOR.COM, who are now fighting back to regain the overall lead in the class which is held by BAYER - Vet Adventure Team who arrived in 3rd place this morning, the two teams were separated by Petit Casino.

The caving caused some controversy amongst the Raider and Adventure teams. When they were given a choice of a shorter route due to a long queue at the entrance, team already in the cave had not had a choice and as a result lost some three hours of daylight, which slowed them down.

The overall lead in Extreme is still held by WILSA SPORT HELLY HANSEN but WILSA WCUP CHTI Riad has lost 3rd place having lost time in the caving. HELLY HANSEN UK still remains in 5th place as a result of a bonus for fixing the damaged rope in the cave.
Raider classification is still led by SOFERMI - RAID NATURE 46 but Flying Avent'Hure Palfinger has dropped from 2nd to 4th place as a result of the caving.

The Adventure class has a completely new look again as a result of losses and gains in the canyoning and caving sections, those teams caught at the back loosing time with slower teams ahead of them blocking process in the cave where passing was impossible
.


Race reflections from HELLY HANSEN UK the best parts of the race on the canal with all the portages and yesterdays canyoning. The worst memories so far was the 14 punctures yesterday when they passed along a road where the hedge had been trimmed leaving many sharp points to puncture tyres. The team only had one spare tyre and after this had to resort to patches. They worked together as a team on the assembly line to save time, however at one point Nicola could not find her blue handled tyre lever. A few minutes later another puncture solved the mystery, the level was inside the tyre and caused a new puncture.


The worst part of the race for Nicola was, the Dragonnairr cave, crawling though tight passages with your nose in the mud over stalagmites' and banging ones head against stalactites in an underground traffic jam. Her constant complaining caused the rest of the team to request ear defenders for the next cave!

A Good Start To the Day for the British

Nat's-Colla del Matí – Bombers de Lleida withdrew from the race
yesterday having had difficulties understanding the race instruction
since the beginning of the race.

All teams spent the night with their support teams near LA GARDE
GUERIN the site of a 12th Century village which has been partly
restored. The enforced stop was because the canyon had a dark zone and
teams were forbidden to start until 5.30 in the morning. Many teams
made full use of this time to get much needed sleep, before 10 k of
canyoning, 37k mountain biking, 19K of caving hiking and ropes,
followed by more biking, caving canyoning and orienteering.

HELLY HANSEN UK started the day in fine form having at last had a good
four hours of sleep, they were the first team to reach the start of
the canyon, minutes ahead of the other Extreme teams. WILSA SPORT
HELLY HANSEN made a navigation error and took the wrong track as a
result of which they lost around 10 minuits.

The canyon was quite slippery and a few teams had unexpected early
baths although they did have wetsuits to protect them from the cold.
One member of LYS AVENTURE fell off a boulder in a dry section of the
canyon and bruised his hip, the team withdrew from the stage but may
continue as an incomplete team.

LES FOUS DE BASSIN TDR BX had been fighting the sleepmonster since the
start of the race and finally succumbed in the Canyon dropping down to
Raider classification.

All teams enjoyed the canyon especially those that were incomplete or
out of classification.

The second leg of the day consisted of 38 k of mountain biking and the
British team lost their lead when they incurred 14 punctures which
allowed WILSA SPORT HELLY HANSEN, COLUMBIA Lozère Sport Nature and
ABSOLUE RAID Décathlon St Orens to slip past them prior to the 1st of
two caving sections.

WILSA SPORT HELLY HANSEN entered the Dragonnière de BANNE cave during
the late afternoon via a small hole in field but had to wait in a
queue for Adventure and Raider classes who had arrived ahead of them
directly from the canyon.

The results of first three stages show WILSA SPORT HELLY HANSEN, some
four hours ahead of COLUMBIA Lozère Sport Nature who have a one hour
buffer over WILSA WCUP CHTI Raid.

The Raider classification is much closer with SOFERMI - RAID NATURE 46
around one and a half hours ahead of Flying Avent'Hure Palfinger who
incurred a penalty of 1 hour along with a number of other teams for
missing equipment, but they still are ahead of OAHU.

The Adventure class is very close with thre teams in contention BAYER
- Vet Adventure Team, EMSA: RAID'EPERNON and INTERSPORT LIEGE

Ten teams are out of classification including LATTITUDE 55 as they
missed a section yesterday but thy ar still enjoying themselves.

As this press release was issued the latest leaders of the day are
WILSA SPORT HELLY HANSEN, SOFERMI - RAID NATURE 46 and
SPORT-OUTDOOR.COM as they entered the first cave so it is possible
that the lead in Adventure might change.

A Day of Multi Sport

One team The Fous de Bassin TDR BX barely made it to the start of stage 4. In fact the start was delayed to allow them to quickly change to restart the race.

The pace of the race seemed to pick up today wil a short 6k Kayak across lake Naussac, then on to mountain bikes. The Adventure teams had only a short ride before being transferred to the start of trekking stage, whilst the other teams cycled the full 46K, before setting of intothe mountains for a 35 K hike.

Once again favorites WILSA SPORT HELLY HANSEN were in the vanguard but The Fous de Bassin TDR BX was in close contention even though they had had no sleep. British team HELLY HANSEN UK, had a bad night taking the wrong route twice and Nicola MacLeod cracked her elbow as a result of falling off her bike some many times as the team raced to stay in the Extreme classification.’

Team 16 LATTITUDE 55 in Adventure are enjoying the race without stressing themselves and even found a way to save time on the river section, using a tactic I myself used in in the Elf Authentique Adventure.

At CP 19 the end of 1st leg of Mountain biking a SPORT-OUTDOOR.COM in Adventure class was nck and neck with WILSA SPORT HELLY HANSEN and the leading Raider team SOFERMI - RAID NATURE 46 one minute behind, Little had changed at the end of the second leg zprt from the fact that adventure teams arrived via support vehicle so some were on the course ahead of the other classification, however WILSA SPORT HELLY HANSEN opened up a lead of 5 minutes over Columbia Lozère Sport Nature and ABSOLUE RAID - Décathlon Saint-Orens, further down the field HELLY HANSEN UK had gained a six place but was loosing ground on the leaders.

The trekking is expected to take teams all day as they orienteer across the mountains, thankfully the heat of the last few days has abated and provided the rain holds off the conditions are pretty good.

A full classification will only be available later, but it is not expected to change the overall leaders in any class. Many teams are incomplete or out of classification but racing for fun, which Gerard Fusil encourages all to do , it’s the taking part that matters not the winning.