Discussion: Adventure Race World Championship - Raid in France

Today is the Opening Ceremony for the 2012 ARWC, the Raid in France. There will be a short orienteering prologue on Friday evening, then the race starts on Saturday at 6 a.m. (Friday night in North America). The final teams will reach the finish line a week later.

The course has just been announced - lots of elevation gain! Vincent, who is married to Stephanie on Team Pentathlon des Neiges, has just posted the course profile on their Facebook page. He is reporting from the race briefing now.

Some useful links:

ARWS Live Race Coverage (active once the race begins but not yet - includes GPS tracking)

Raid in France

A couple of teams have supporters who post regular updates on Facebook, including photos. Their news and insights can be very interesting. I'm sure there are more but here are two teams I know.

Team Tecnu Facebook Page

Team Tecnu has two Attackpointers, Getawaystix and Gratuitous. They won the 2012 Costa Rica adventure race and were 2nd at Huairasinchi in Ecuador. Last year Tecnu was 12th at ARWC with Gratuitous as the only returning member, and Getawaystix finished in 15th on Team Wilderness Traverse. They've joined up with Canadian Ursula Tracz, an ARWC veteran on Getawaystix's 2010 team, and a rising star from New Zealand, Sam Clark; Frankenjack and I met him at the 2011 Coast to Coast.

Team Pentathlon des Neiges - Processia Facebook Page

Team Pentathlon des Neiges (lovingly known as "Snowpants" in Ontario) are 2011 and 2012 champions of Wilderness Traverse in Canada.

Who are the other Attackpointers at ARWC? Any other good links? I assume there will be a Twitter feed.

[Edit: Sleepmonsters has a reporter posting articles.]

The official Raid in France Facebook page hasn't been updated in 5 days so it looks like they're focusing on their Live Coverage page.

Interesting... The maps and roadbook will be handed out *after* the race starts. Navigation on the fly! Navigators with orienteering experience will have an advantage.

Also interesting... if I'm understanding the French correctly, the first high mountain section has a 14-hour minimum time to enhance safety. If teams finish earlier, they have to wait, and it doesn't sound like there's a time credit so they have no incentive to go crazy fast. There will be high mountain guides on the course to ensure teams take safe routes and use their equipment properly. I assume they're talking about glacier travel here, as that was listed in the disciplines before the race. The high point will be 3500 m.

Maps in France are of the highest quality, should make it somehow easier to navigate on the fly but for high mountain/glacier it will require some thinking.

[Edit: Updated and added larger, clickable photo - copyright Andreas Strand.]

Hi Jackson5! Maybe you can help us here with better translations of some of the information.

For those who understand French, Vincent of Snowpants is giving a good play-by-play of the race briefing on their FB page above. Facebook translation gives you an idea too, although the results can be funny at times. :)

An interesting tidbit. The bike boxes will be weighed at some point *during* the race. If they are overweight, racers will have to carry the extra gear with them. Too bad - that is usually a good trick. :)

Also, the impact of the prologue has been explained. It will determine the start order for the race but teams will only start 1 second apart so it is really just for show, I guess.

Tomorrow there will be a parade of nations - *not* a parade of teams. So Team Tecnu will disperse to their three countries.

You have it right Bash, seems you french in in good shape:) 14h min for the first section, so no need to rush, for safety and environmental reasons. Bike boxes will be weighted during the race and over weight must carried by racer.. that's mean.

All good stuff.

Ryan VG (AP: DartVG) is racing for Dart Nuun SportMulti. He raced with Gratuitous on last years 12th place squad. A quick search found one of his teammates, mhayz, on AP as well.

Will miss the early stages while racing myself this weekend. I'll have to pretend I am racing against Thule, Dart, Snowpants, and Salomon TT just like back in Maine to keep myself motivated.

Thanks for that! A couple of additional tidbits:

- If any team reporter communicates information during the race to their team, it will be grounds for immediate disqualification for the team in question.

- The race was criticized last year for bussing teams to the race start; racers felt it was not in keeping with event's ethic of Back to Nature. This year all teams will be biking to the start, leaving at 04:00 a.m. for a race start at 06:00. That'll teach 'em. ;)

From Team Tecnu:

"Here is the truly epic course unveiled. Glaciers, huge mountains, tough bike rides, class 4 rivers, caving, long treks. Going to be an amazing course. Race starts tomorrow with a short prologue to determine Saturday's start order, then Saturday let's get it on! Race starts with a 72km trekking leg, followed by a short mountain bike leg."

Get to know Tecnu's Bob Miller. (Even if you already know him.)

Awesome info Bash and others, thanks! Looking forward to following along!

From Snowpants: "La stratégie de l'équipe de résume à faire 5 courses d'un jour. C'est à dire adopter un rythme élevé et le maintenir. Rester devant avec les favoris et dormir qu'au point d'assistance obligatoire, soit après 38 heures et après environ 70 heures. La course pourrait se gagner en 110 heures. L'état d'esprit est à son Max. Ça promet."

Jackson5? I think this means that the team's strategy is to approach ARWC as five 1-day races. They will try to stay up front and use mandatory rest breaks for sleep at 38 hrs and around 70 hrs. They think the winning time will be around 110 hrs.

The parade of nations will begin shortly followed by the prologue. It's an orienteering race with a maximum of 45 minutes to find 28 CPs. Finish order today will determine starting order tomorrow but it won't give anyone a big advantage.

Live stream! http://www.endorphinmag.fr/evenement/arwc2012.php

Right on with the translation Bash

Lots of infos should be available through french magazine/web site Endorphin Mag:

http://www.endorphinmag.fr/eng/index.php

https://www.facebook.com/pages/EndorphinMagfr/1137...

https://twitter.com/endorphinmag

Cool! There is a U.K. flag icon on that site that English speakers can press to get a translation. There is a good interview with Team Silva, one of the top Swedish teams.

http://www.endorphinmag.fr/eng/content.php?i=37

A few more notes with some unclear translation...

- Two mandatory 4-hour rest stops - the ones that Snowpants referred to above.
- Sounds like some shuttles(?) during the race
- Maps are high quality 1:25,000 or 1:50,000 with CPs on distinct features. An orienteering specialist was involved in course design.
- 2-hour penalty for "non-observance of cleanliness". Littering? If it's just general cleanliness, then I would get that penalty in every race I do! :)

Snowpants Facebook page is posting video clips of the parade and their team getting ready for the prologue.

Snowpants was around 27th in the prologue and they're fine with that. It was fast and crazy, and it won't make much difference to their start time tomorrow. No news yet about Tecnu.

I just saw a different explanation of the prologue on the official site... Teams start tomorrow at 30-second intervals based on their ranking in the prologue. That makes more sense.

There is an all-female team of 4 - Ducati Bicycles from Sweden!

Race course will be 490 km
- 170 km trekking and high mountain travel
- 230 km biking
- 90 km in rafts and canoes

There are 9 time cut-offs along the route. Teams moving onto a short course sooner will be ranked behind teams who stay on the full course longer - or for the entire race.

Any infringement of national park rules will lead to instant disqualification without warning or appeal.

As an example: "There is a 700m bike carry in a National park, where team's bikes must be carried, not pushed ... they are not allowed to touch the ground."

Prologue Results

1) Raidlight_LSN
2) Silva
3) Seagate

Raidlight_LSN are a French team I didn't know - Denis Merlin, Sandrine Béranger, Benjamin Monier, Olivier Combe

From Kyle P - Facebook.

We finished the urban orienteering course in 6th position after a rough start as someone gave me a 'flat tire,' and I had to go against the flow of 250 racers to retrieve my Cascadia shoe that fell off (reminded me of GRML 2011 prologue start). So we had to come back from last place (the pic here is me putting the shoe back on in last place :()and locate a lost Bob who smoked the navigation! RaidLight, Silva, and Seagate were top 3. We will start with a ceremonial ride to the real start tomorrow AM. At the re-start we will go 3 minutes after the lead team starts on a 30+K mountain trek with 2 glacial passed to conquer along the way. For safety there is a minimum time for the start of the second leg (B-MTB) at 7:30PM on Saturday night so no one rushes too fast through the glaciers. We then plan to hammer Leg B (MTB) and Leg C (40K wet and dark trek with technical ropes) to hit a dark zone on Leg D (Raft) at 2:45AM so we can rest for 4 hours before the raft put in at 6:45 AM on Sunday. If we get this 4 hours rest in the dark zone, we will be allowed to skip the mandatory 4 hour stop later in the course. It will be tight for any team, but teams that do it, will be in a league of their own!!

Here's Kyle (aka Gratuitous) demonstrating how the top competitors race. ;)



Photo copyright belongs to the amazing Andreas Strand.

P.S. Awesome comeback! Tecnu was 30 seconds 2 minutes back of the winner.

Weather for the next week looks dry and not too windy but it will drop to 5C at night even at low altitudes. Sunny daytime temperatures are still warm, ranging from 16-24C over the next week. http://www.weather.com/weather/tenday/Briancon+Fra...

Complete results from the prologue: http://www.raidinfrance.com/wp-content/uploads/201...

Barb, what happened to Liza Pye racing with Tecnu? She's been swapped for a diff Canadian I see . . . and the Brazilian guy isn't joining them for this race either?

Tecnu's squad for ARWC is Kyle Peter (captain - U.S.), Bob Miller (Canada), Sam Clark (New Zealand) and Ursula Tracz (Canada).

And they're off! Teams are biking to the starting line where the race will begin at 6 a.m. - midnight here in Ontario.

Course change already... Because of recent bad weather, the, high mountain guides decided to close the Alpine trek, which cuts the first trek in half. More distance will be added later to compensate. Given how carefully top teams have been planning their timing relative to dark zones and mandatory rest periods, this must throw a monkey wrench into things!

We met Sam in NZ, where he finished just ahead of Frankenjack at Coast to Coast. Nice guy, very fast. Ursula was my teammate for WT. Can run fast forever, solid in everything and as nice as she is fast. Cool to see them all racing together! The previous Tecnu squad was awesome too.

Most teams have completed the shortened initial trek. Teams started at 30-second intervals in order of their prologue finish. After a short distance, they stopped to pick up 5 maps covering the early stages of the race. They will be given the others at transitions 3 and 5 during the race.

The mountain guides cancelled the circuit of Mont Pelvoux because "high winds had blown too much snow over the rocks". The new minimum time for this route was 7 hrs 30 min so teams did not need to rush across the glacier, and some of them were able to get some rest before starting out again. About 20 teams left together at the 7:30 mark, including Tecnu, Snowpants and Dart (although the leaderboard is a little unclear on that).

In order to compensate for the shortened trek, teams will bike 20 minutes to the village of Les Claux, then do a lower level trek; this was part of the short course planned for teams that timed out on the original trekking stage. This takes teams in a circuit around Cime de la Condamine ou la Roya before they resume the original route on their mountain bikes.

Much of this comes from Sleepmonsters who are posting good reports. http://www.sleepmonsters.com/racereport.php?page_a...

Snowpants chose to use their mountain boots on the first trek instead of shoes, which most teams used. As a result, they needed to take a break for some foot maintenance at the TA. If I'm understanding the French properly, it sounds like the race organization is permitting teams without shoes to purchase them for the next (unexpected) trek, as long as they buy them from strangers, i.e. not from supporters who may be accompanying them. Team supporters are not always allowed to get close to their teams at TAs and they are not permitted to share information.

Tecnu doesn't currently appear anywhere on the leaderboard (a lot of teams are missing) but it looks like someone is working on the problem. Their team manager, Doug Judson, said that after 5 hours, they were in 4th behind Thule, Ecuador/Nissan (the local team who finished ahead of them in Ecuador) and Seagate. This is confusing since other information says that Thule and Seagate finished the first trek together in the lead.

P.S. I'm off to have some outdoor adventures of my own today so please jump in with news if you're following the race.

Live feed on the race website is provided by yellow brick and appears to be much better than any I've encountered...but team are still too clustered to observe a lead order...great track though!

Again, the tracking plus leadreboard will likely give you the most complete picture. Tecnu didn't appear on the ldrbrd at all, but are tracking in about 8-9th place behind a slew of the usual suspect plus a couple of local French squads. Don't get lulled by the awesomeness of Yellowbrick (love that name): make sure you check the time stamp on each team's icon to see how recent it is.

Well I guess I know what I'll be doing this week!

Thanks Barb (and everyone else), I'm just back in from a long trail run and barely made it into the shower before Bossy Goat was all over me (that sounds kinky!) telling me to come check out what is going on in the race! So, between her and her Mom, I'm getting crazy updates!

Although the leaderboard is beautiful, it is not up to date. At the moment, Seagate is in the lead on what they're calling Trek 2, followed by Raid Quechua and Raidlight Cano Evasion. [Edit: Thule is in 2nd ahead of Raid Quechua.] As mentioned above, the first trek was shortened and an additional trek added, and they're calling those legs Trek 1a and Trek 1b. Racers biked 20 minutes to get from 1a to 1b.

After Trek 1b, there is a 2-ish hour bike ride to Trek 2. That's where Tecnu is right now, in about 8th-9th place, about 2 hours behind Seagate. Dart and Snowpants are still on the final stretch of Trek 1b, running about 2 hours behind Tecnu. It's 11 p.m. so they will all be trekking in the dark through the mountains.

That's all from the live coverage; I'll see what Facebook has to say!

Thanks for the updates, homies! Keep it coming. Who is posting most frequent pics/updates on FB?

Much appreciated!

Sean Clancy
DART Nuun

I've been watching Tecnu and Pentathlon des Neiges - see first post above for links. If anyone else is getting good info from a source not posted on this thread, please let the rest of us know about it!

Random news:

American team Brat Lupine is continuing unranked after Thomass Etter broke his fibula while biking. They are the first team to drop from the rankings.

A couple of teams on the first trek went to CPs that had been cancelled due to weather. By doing that, they missed mandatory CPs and had to return to pick them up.

It sounds like a number of teams further back wore their mountain boots on the first leg, like Snowpants did. They had expected a 15-hour high mountain leg with glacier travel so it seemed like a good idea at the time. I think the boots may even have been mandatory. However, Trek 1b was definitely better suited to running shoes. So the first part of the race has been harder on some racers' feet than expected. Snowpants are wearing their bike shoes for Trek 1b, and I'm sure they aren't alone.

Even with the minimum 7.5 hour time for Trek 1a, the top teams raced quickly so they could enjoy some rest. Teams were not allowed to enter the TA until after 7.5 hours, so they lay in the sun, slept, snacked and chatted.

Correction from earlier: Thule is in 2nd behind Seagate - then Raid Quechua. (I was counting the little team dots on the tracker and missed theirs!)

Apparently Dart and Snowpants are around 24th/25th.

Vincent, who is in France with Snowpants, tells me that as far as he knows, they were the only team to do Trek 1b in bike shoes. Most teams wearing mountain boots, including Thule, were able to obtain running shoes. Vincent refused three offers for his!

Incredible photos from the first mountain/glacier trek. Waah, I want to go to the Alps!
http://www.flickr.com//photos/72212682@N08/sets/72...

The Day 1 summary video is not nearly as scenic but it features Team Tecnu running by in the first few seconds. (French version also available.) (Of the video, not Team Tecnu.)



And here is the Parade of Nations and Race Prologue video. It features Kyle Peter's lonely lost shoe around the 0:48 mark.

Just found this course outline. It could be handy for us spectators!

20km MTB to start - neutral
Stage 1 32km Trek, Glacier (This was revised as discussed above.)
Stage 2 24km MTB
Stage 3 40km Trek, ropes
Stage 4 11km Raft
Stage 5 6km Run
Stage 6 21km Kayak (river)
4-hour stop
Stage 7 4km Run
Stage 8 59km MTB
Stage 9 34km Trek
Stage 10 33km MTB
4-hour stop
Stage 11 11km Canyon
Stage 12 49km Kayak (lake)
Stage 13 8km Trek
Stage 14 52km MTB
Stage 15 26km Trek
Stage 16 58km MTB
Stage 17 2km Run
Stage 18 5km Kayak (sea)

As sunrise approaches in France (and bedtime in Ontario), Seagate remains in the lead on Trek 2 with Thule about 2 km back. The 3-5th place teams are over 2 hours back of Seagate and very close to one another - Raidlight, Silva and Raid Quechua. Tecnu, Adidas Terrex and Ertips are currently very close together in 8-10th place about 3 hours behind Seagate. Dart and Snowpants are less than 1 km apart on the trek with Dart leading; they are about 5 hours behind Tecnu. About 25 teams are on Trek 2 now. Over a dozen teams are still on Trek 1b.

Tecnu is still missing from the leaderboard entirely, and the leaderboard is 4 hours behind. The tracking has been working pretty well, although the CPs aren't on the map which makes it less interesting to watch. I know it's a lot of work for Bob and Grant to get the CPs on our race tracker for Wilderness Traverse, and we have fewer CPs, but it makes the race soooo much more fun to watch.

Seagat leads by 1 hr at the end of the trek over Thule, with Quechua only a further 7 minutes back. As of 1140 local time those are the only teams done with the big trek, although 4th and 5th are on the final descent (Silva and Raidlight). A bit further back just past the final summit are Team Switzerland (?surprise!) and AXA Adidas in 6th and 7th. Approaching the final summit in 8th and 9th are Ertips and Vibram. Tecnu is alone in 10th, having lost contact with Ertips and Vibram with whom they had been racing for much of the first half of the trek. Snowpants is about 1/2way done the trek in 24th place and is part of a slew of teams madly racing to beat the 2000 rafting dark zone. Teams arriving after that time will have to bed down until 0630 the next morning.

Slight correction: the rafting is cutoff until p700 tomorrow, and extends onto the rafting leg i.e. if they are on the water at 2000 they will need to pull off until morning.

Sweco is out, Pernilla hurt her leg...

Seagate arrived at TA3 at the end of the long trek, but they were missing one of the CPs. They told organizers it was not in the right place. After some discussion, they were going to return there to avoid controversy, then they realized that they didn't have the right gear. When Quechua got in a short time later, they had found the CP but agreed that it was misplaced, and they only found it by luck. Vincent said that Thule had difficulty finding some CPs and did not find the allegedly misplaced one.

"équipe #25 sont arrivé mais aurait manqué de quoi." Vincent or Jackson5? I think this means that Raidlight Canoe Evasion did not find the CP either.

This is always a shame and may explain some of the shuffle in top rankings.

Snowpants has completed about 75% of Trek 2. They are about 1.5 hours behind Dart. According to Facebook, this has been a tough race for them. Doing Trek 1a in heavy mountain boots and Trek 1b in bike shoes was not the best thing for their feet at the start of a 5-6 day race. Also, Benoit L. was slowed earlier by GI trouble so Patrick took over the nav. "À la sortie de AT1bis, il semblait reprendre du poil de la bête." I think that means Benoit was looking better at the start of the mountain bike.

Unfortunately, they will not get off the trek in time to finish the rafting section before the dark zone, but the silver lining is that they will get a good sleep tonight and will hit the water at 6:30 a.m.

According to a translated Facebook comment, "the official website mentions that navigation is only allowed from 7 am to 8: 30 pm. The teams who have not completed their section of raft at 20: 30 are blocked on the River at the place where they are located." Most people are talking about an 8 p.m. cut-off. Maybe that is the cut-off to start the rafting.

About a dozen teams have started the 11 km rafting section. Seagate and Thule have completed it and are on the 6 km run that will take them to the 21 km river kayak section. Thule is within a kilometer behind Seagate. After that, I think teams who were not stopped for at least 4 hours by the rafting cut-off are required to take a 4-hour break. The top teams have likely been holding out, waiting for this mandatory break during the 2nd night, so there are probably some very sleepy racers on the water right now.

The lead teams remain unchanged and their advantage hasn't changed much either. Tecnu is sitting in 9th but there are two teams less than 1 km ahead of them. They are still about 3 hours behind Seagate so the lead teams are moving at a similar pace.

Here's a video summary of Day 1 that shows a lot more of the course than the earlier video summary. Looks like fun!

Heading out to play in the sunshine! If anyone is watching the tracks or has some news, please jump in. Thanks to everyone who has been sharing info here.

What a shame about the misplaced CP, especially at a race as big as ARWC. Hopefully it won't have a big impact on outcomes.
I'm cheering for Seagate; I think it was unfortunate that their penalty at last year's ARWC had such a big impact on them. Yes, those are the rules, and you could even make an excited argument about how forgetting their tracker was a safety issue (therefore, very important) although we've seen how hit-and-miss the tracker reliability can be, so you could almost make a counter argument that if it were that essential, you should come up with a more reliable system.
Seagate was the fastest, best team, so I'd like to see them get some deserved recognition. That said, I'd also like to see them be challenged and see an exciting competition.

I agree with Carbon's Offset, I would like to see Seagate win this. They are so humble and yet so incredible in every aspect of AR. Can we please discuss their 6 and 8 minute TA times (and that includes bike TAs). Just for kicks at last year's race in Tasmania I used to check their TA times for interests sake. I was completely blown away.

Misplaced CP - ughghghghg.

I had no idea their TA times were so fast. That's awesome! Especially for a bike TA! Wow, gives me something to shoot for. Practice, practice!
Damn, in a long race, I'd be feeling pleasd about a 6 or 8 minute TA even if I was only refilling water and food!

And I'm cheering for Tecnu, PdN and DART too! :)

Tough break for Tecnu. It looks like they hit the dark zone on the rafting section about 1 km from the end so they're forced to take an 11-hour break onshore. They're in 13th now and unfortunately, this will create a gap since they were the highest ranked team forced to stop. It can be hard to count the dots accurately but it looked like they were in 9th place earlier in the rafting leg. I expect there is a story we'll hear later...

Seagate, Thule and Raid Quechua are currently taking a mandatory 4-hour rest stop further along the course, and Tecnu will not be required to make that stop now, as I understand the rules. However, the teams at the mandatory rest stop will be more comfortable and will have access to food and dry clothing in their gear boxes. More importantly, they do not need to stop for 11 hours. Not great news but there is lots of racing left.

Hmm, looks like the situation is better than I thought. After the raft section (which looks gnarly and fun - see official photos), there is a 6 km run/trek that leads to a 21 km river paddle. Apparently, the dark zone applies to that paddle as well. That means only the top 3 teams got through both sections before the dark zone. Everyone else is sleeping onshore somewhere or at the TA at the start of the second river section.

If any better French speakers are checking the Pentathlon des Neiges Facebook page, maybe you can help since I don't completely understand what happened - partly because I don't know where the CPs are - only the TAs. It sounds like Snowpants will have a relatively comfortable night after hitting the dark zone - dinner in a restaurant near a castle, then they'll find a warm place to sleep. But there was a via ferrata that they weren't allowed to do in the dark because of a dangerous gorge, and they need to go back there in the morning?... I think. They didn't have their trekking poles for Trek 2 because they dropped them after the first trek and didn't have them in the gear boxes they saw at the start of Trek 2. Patrick made some out of sticks. Benoit L. is feeling better.

A lot of teams are complaining of bad feet and sore knees with the steep descents.

Just a 'silly' question: I've noticed some racers are wearing wristbands....what are they for?

Myka, all teammates generally have to show they visited a control. In the past, this has meant they each need to punch their wristband.

On a different note, is any of this off trail?

I wonder if there is a rule that specifically states that you can't hike through the dark zone, and tow your raft... Tecnu is only half a mile from finishing the section and then could continue on the following trekking section in the dark.... Up to the kayak put in.... And might even be able to still do their 4 hours sleep, to get that mandatory stop out of the way. It could be better than sitting on the side of the river all night, probably 10 hours or so.
In my preference of "leaving it more wide open" in AR, I wish races would state what you can't do safely in the dark (ie paddle whitewater) but still leave other things open... Eg. Rather than simply saying you must stop if you are on a paddle section and the sun goes down, you can walk if you can figure out how to bring your boats with you. Now that's adventure :)

According to the Snowpants Facebook page, there was a "no portage" rule.

This story from the News page of the live website provides an excellent explanation of the part of the course the lead teams did today. It also clarifies Snowpants' current situation.

http://live.raidinfrance.com/down-two-rivers-to-th...

Urthbuoy, I'll ask Vincent about trail vs. off-trail. I noticed teams taking different routes in the mountains but that doesn't mean they were off-trail - except for the glacier travel, of course.

Some photos of the whitewater rafting section which included some Class 4 sections. Teams did not have guides.

http://www.flickr.com//photos/72212682@N08/sets/72...

Here is Tecnu demonstrating the "reverse down the waterfall" technique pioneered by Seagate a few hours earlier. Photo is copyright Andreas Strand. The Tecnu Facebook page has a selection of Strand's Tecnu photos from Day 2, including the two photos prior to this one which show the raft turning around. Urthbuoy would totally love this!

I've figured out what happened with Snowpants, and it's a little different from what I originally thought. They got to the point where they could have done the via ferrata, however, they would be stopped shortly after doing it at "Balise 16". (Not a CP or TA; the translation = "tag".) Beyond this point, teams would trek in the river gorge to the trek/raft TA3, and organizers felt this would be too dangerous in the dark. Snowpants decided that the start of the via ferrata looked like a better place for eating and sleeping, so they went to a restaurant and planned to look for a place to sleep. When they did not find a good place, they decided to get the via ferrata out of the way and sleep at Balise 16. There were 17 teams there when the course re-opened this morning. It looks like Snowpants was one of the first teams to reach TA3.

Tecnu wasted no time getting off the river and onto the trek. Their team manager figured they would be warm overnight since they were carrying all their mountaineering gear.

'@Leanimal- Seagate humble?!!? were you asleep during Nathan's 3rd placed "victory speech" in Tassie last year? hardly humble.

Nice to see some meat to the whitewater.

Raft photos - I have to give credit to team #25. Everybody else looks a bit out of sorts.

And don't give me that "they just went over a drop" nonsense:).

As a parallel example, how many mountain bikers have their legs in the air on a steep descent?

Snowpants has upped their pace and sit in 20th place approaching the kayak put-in. They are at the tail of a closely bunched group of 5 teams, so within striking distance of 16th place. Bravo! On Lache pas!

Tecnu is in 13th, doing the short trek from the end of the kayak to the start of the bike leg. Teams 6 - 15 are closely bunched so those spots could easily change. Out front we have Silva and Raidlight close together in 4th and 5th with a sizeable advantage over the chase pack. Seagate and Thule are out front with Quechua nipping at their heels. Following the dark zone, these lead 3 have a solid lead at this point.

NSW Stinger, you would have to refresh my memory because I did listen to him speak and don't remember anything other than being really disappointed with their result. I also know that he exploded at a reporter on course (and apologized later) but I can't say I blame him. I have seen many on course interviews and correspondence that gives me the impression that they are a pretty humble group, particularly for being one of the best and most consistent AR teams out there. Can't say I know them personally though.

That white water looks awesome. If we had that last year urthbouy would have to keep yelling at me to paddle while I tried to hide in the bottom of the boat!

Some more Canadian content... Vincent Fraser's photo of Snowpants rafting earlier today. Btw I'm sure there are people reading this discussion thread who are following other teams, and it would be great if you post info about those teams too. It is hard to follow more than a few teams closely.

Although there were no guides in the rafts, I noticed a guide giving instructions from shore in a couple of Vincent's photos. Not surprisingly, some rafts have flipped in here, and since only top teams have gone through so far, there will be more!

Vincent got some great photos of Snowpants yesterday evening and this morning - check the team's Facebook page linked from the first post in this thread. There is one pic that will disappoint Urthbuoy greatly. ;) I saw a couple of racers in yesterday's photos who had paddle blades pointed toward the sky in big rapids. Not sure how that helped - perhaps they were appealing to a higher power!

Thanks for the continued updated Bash and others. Making it alot easier to follow along.

At some TAs/CPs, Vincent can take photos of Snowpants but is not permitted to speak with them. If he provides them with race information, the team could face immediate disqualification. This has been frustrating, as Vincent is married to Stephanie on the team, and the team has had a tough race so far. It can't be easy to watch someone you love go through difficulties and not be able to do anything or even have a conversation. Fortunately, there are places where he is permitted to talk with them - but not tell them anything about the race. Apparently, there was some tension yesterday evening when they hit the dark zone with four sleepy teammates and multiple options to choose from, but they worked through it, and all is well now. They said they had a great sleep at Balise 16 and got their competitive fire back; they've been moving up through the pack today!

Endorphin Mag has been posting photos in a format where it is easy to scroll backward in time through the thumbnails. Some photos that are currently near the top of the gallery show Tecnu at this morning's Trek/Canoe transition. Bob was shown wolfing down some canned food so his appetite is just fine. Bob is the teammate I know best, and he looks to be in fine form. Ursula looks tired but was at the front as they ran into the TA.

http://www.endorphinmag.fr/evenement/arwc2012.php

I see that Kyle and Bob are paddling the pig canoe together, and Sam and Ursula are a team.

If you scroll backward, there are some cool photos of the via ferrata and a few more rafting photos that will mostly disappoint Urthbuoy. I suspect a couple of photos were the last ones taken before some of the raft occupants went for a swim!

A little tidbit... As we know, Tecnu was forced to camp on the raft section about a km from the TA. After that, there was a 6 km run to the river canoe section. Of the 19 teams whose time is on the leaderboard so far, Tecnu had the fastest run to the canoe TA. So their feet, GI systems and morale all seem to be in good shape.

Leanimal: I do remember part of Nathan's Tassie speech where he quoted a previous teammate and said "you think that was fast? That was donkey speed. Wait 'til we start going fast!". He was alluding to how fast his new team would become at future races. I think he may have also pointed out that they were the first team to 51 of 53 CPs. Some might consider that bragging, some might consider it just factual. I guess it was his way of saying he felt they were the fastest team at ARWC 2011.

Fa'avae gave a classy finish line interview that showed great sportsmanship. Here's the video for Facebook users.

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10150391272936...

There's also a more disappointed response where Nathan suggests that other top teams should have shown "integrity" and supported them. I'd be curious to hear of any examples where top teams like Seagate have voluntarily given up a world championship or similar major title because they thought a penalty to another team for an undisputed violation of race rules was too harsh. Seriously, could you do it? However he finishes with grace saying, "Had we truly raced like world champs, we'd be world champs."

http://hyperformancehardware.blogspot.ca/2011/11/n...

However... if he mentioned this during the final speeches, that would be inappropriate. After some initial natural grumbling, a loss like this should be accepted with dignity - congratulations to the winner, lessons learned for next time, blah blah. Thule had a fantastic race and followed the rules set out in advance; no one should imply an asterisk on their victory. (I'm not saying that Nathan did - I didn't hear his speech nor see anything posted about it.)

In response to Urthbuoy's question awhile ago, Vincent confirmed that the trekking is all on trails. So it's a Euro race, not a Canadian race.

So... The three top teams who escaped the dark zone (Seagate, Thule, Quechua) are in a different race. Unless something major goes wrong, they will share the podium. But there is quite a race behind them for the rest of the top 10 positions! Tecnu arrived at the end of this morning's canoe section in 14th place but they were only 3.5 hours behind 4th place Team Silva. Next was a short run followed by a 59 km mountain bike leg, which Tecnu is finishing now. Next up is a 34 km trek. This is likely Tecnu's strongest discipline, especially if there are some good navigation challenges along the way. Darkness is falling.

Snowpants is also on the 59 km mountain bike section about 5 hours behind Tecnu. Looks like they're around 20th place. It's hard to figure out rankings since some key teams (Thule, Dart) haven't been tracking lately and the leaderboard is not up to date.

Btw the words "canoe" and "kayak" were used interchangeably by different people describing today's river section. Turns out they were sit-on-top kayaks with a hull shape similar to a canoe. The boats look slow but Snowpants said they really enjoyed that section.

It's too bad about the dark zone. I really hate it when the race is not able to be played out over the duration of the race. Quechua must have been so pumped to make it 6 minutes before the cut-off, a race within a race (I still don't like it though). I bet there are people who will say it was worth it though for the ride they had on that river!

I still want Seagate to take it. There are VERY few teams who can race in the variety of races that these guys can and compete for the win every time. This is a very different race from last year and many other years. Look how many European teams are in the top ten.

How much change in team roster can happen from the qualifying/series races to the championship?

I believe 2 of your 4 members have to have been on the team that earned the spot through the qualifying race.

From what I remember at Tasmania, Nathan and Seagate were quite sportsmanlike, saying that it was their mistake therefore they accept the consequences.

Bummer that it has all been on trail , but I guess there isn't that much remote wilderness in France, and if there is a trail nearby you would have to use it in order to be competitive. That's kind of what we were thinking when we were considering this race. Still, we knew it would be gorgeous terrain.
Maybe next year for some adventures in France and/or Switzerland... :)

Having organized races in the Alps, I can attest to how RIDDLED with trails these mountains are . . . and most trails are exceedingly well marked, too. Races through the winter can be more "wild" as the snow covers all the trails, but this time of year I'd expect trails to be hard to avoid. Combine that with maps that are so very accurate, and the stage is set for a fast race of cardio carnage that doesn't play to the strengths of adventure racers in other parts of the world.

For Thule and Seagate to be out in front again, given the dramatic differences btw France and Tasmania, is a testament to their versatility and all-around super-humanness.

I'm with Leanimal on both the darkzone comment as well as supporting Seagate for the win. They were the fastest team last year and it was a shame that the forgotten Spot tracker cost them their win. With such a fast course it's great to see that they can race so incredible fast outside pure wilderness too.

Aye caramba! I hope this is a yollowbrick tracking error for Pantalons, as it's showing them doing an insane climb in completely the wrong direction from a very obvious location. They had to know where they were, and even with sleepmonsters this just is too crazy of an error. Of course, we don't have the same maps, but still...
Gonna be eagerly waiting for the next tracker update.

Tecnu meanwhile is trekking at the tail end of a string of 9 teams all fairly close together. They should be able to see the lights of at least 3 teams not far ahead near the top of the col they're climbing right now.

...and they're ok. It was a tracker glitch. :)

Various news tidbits:

"4th place Team Silva was less than 10 minutes from the end of rafting stage when they had to stop and camp – so they went from being 15 minutes behind Raid Quechua to 7 hours behind them. (Even more frustrating was the fact they had spent 30 minutes looking for an earlier checkpoint, which was not in place at the time.)" Ugh.

The same article said that Tecnu was just 5 minutes from the raft/trek TA when they hit the dark zone. OUCH! But the subsequent TA and run only took them 75 minutes, then they would have been stopped by the dark zone at the start of the kayak leg anyway. So it didn't make a huge difference timewise but it would have been nice to get to the TA. It was a dry night but racers were described as chilly, tired and wet.

Some of the sit-on-top kayaks flipped on the Rabioux Rapids on the Durance River, including Kyle and Bob of Tecnu. The "heavy loads of kit" carried by racers did not help with stability. Daredevils Adventure Racing were stuck for awhile when their boat got pinned on a rock. Team Switzerland had bigger problems when a crack in their boat let water in. They had to wait for a replacement kayak from organizers, and their team was separated as a result. Adidas Terrex also had a gash in their boat that let water in, but they continued down the river and had a tough time steering.

*After* teams checked out of the kayak/trek transition, they were handed their next set of maps and the second part of the road book.

Sophie Hart of Seagate had a broken bike pedal on the long bike leg. Seagate asked the race organization for help but were told they had to be self sufficient. It sounds like they were eventually able to fix it somehow.

Quechua spent a long transition at CP17 with a bike mechanical - sounds like a broken spoke or something even bigger happening to a wheel. They carried on but were worried about the wheel breaking completely.

At the bike/trek transition a few hours ago: "The American team #5, Tecnu, arrived after the Swedish team Axa-adidas; on their way up the mountain one team member commented, “I’m only speaking for myself, but I’m ******!" Hope he was joking! (I say "he" because I can't imagine Ursula saying that!)

The first set of cut-offs kicked in around dinnertime Monday (a few hours ago). So some teams have been short-coursed, which means a bus ride to TA6 (after the kayak).

A short and sweet glimpse of the course starting late in Trek 2 with the via ferrata and the trek in the river gorge. I seriously think I saw a few seconds of actual *bushwhacking*! Then some fun-looking rafting and kayaking action.



The Tecnu Facebook page has posted a video of Team Silva rafting one of the big rapids without much paddling.

Does anyone have any info on DART-nuun aka Nuun SportMulti? They're OTB, so something must be up. Hope everyone is OK.

Their tracker hasn't been working since 9:30 a.m. but the leaderboard shows them finishing the river paddle at 3 p.m. so all is probably fine. The live news website has listed several racer names and injuries from the past 24 hours but Dart was not among them.

You could try posting on the Pentathlon des Neiges Facebook page. I think Vincent said they passed Dart earlier today but the two teams have been close together for most of the race so far. He may be in touch with their volunteers or may even have seen the team.

This is so fun!
What exactly does the "rhum line" signify? Is it considered the perfect route? And if some teams' tracks bypass sections of this line, does it just mean that their signal wasn't coming through?

Thanks Bash!

I don't know that any race director would presume to *know* the perfect route! :) But it's probably a pretty good route. When you see a team's tracks off the route, they may be lost, they may be taking a clever shortcut or a longer route with less elevation gain, their tracker may not be working right, etc. Unfortunately, we don't know where the CPs are so we don't know which points they have to pass through.

When Bob and I set up the GPS tracking with Grant for Wilderness Traverse, we usually give him GPS tracks from our course tests, which we would never dare suggest are "perfect routes"! All our CPs are on the tracking map, which I know is a lot of work for Bob and Grant, even for a 24-hour race.

Pentathlon has moved up to 19th on the long 58km mountain bike leg. Tecnu continues to stay at the rear of the train of teams from 6th to 14th.

ha, I kind of answered my own question to the same effect while I was typing. :) Thanks for the behind-the-scenes from RD's perspective. :D

Sorry, Bob and Kyle, but it's part of the story. ;)



Photo is by Rob Howard, copyright Sleepmonsters.com.

Tecnu's team manager says the team member who said "I'm ******!" was just providing comic relief, and they're all feeling fine.

At 5:30 a.m. in France, Seagate is taking their second mandatory 4-hour rest stop. It looks like they rolled into the TA from the mountain bike leg around 3 a.m., which is pretty much perfect timing for a rest. Thule hasn't been tracking for a long time but they are probably there too.

After that, it gets interesting. It had looked like the 3 teams who made it past last night's dark zone had gapped the field and were having a race within a race - but now Raidlight Cano Evasion is on the bike leg in 3rd, followed closely by Silva in 4th and Raid Quechua (formerly in the top three) in 5th. These teams are 15-20K behind Seagate and may actually be riding together. Silva and Raidlight were 3-3.5 hours behind Quechua at the start of this bike leg. With the mandatory rest stop coming up next, it's unlikely that a top team would stop to sleep on a 33K bike leg. Maybe Quechua's damaged wheel turned into a bigger mechanical?

...And half an hour later, Quechua is back in 3rd - but only by a nose. Quechua, Raidlight Cano Evasion and Silva are all within a kilometer of one another.

More interesting news for North American fans... if I'm counting my dots right (and adding one for the missing Thule track), Tecnu has moved up from 14th to 11th on the trek so far, and is about half a kilometer behind two other teams (Ertips and FJS). They're all within 2 km of the trek/bike TA, then they'll ride 33K to the mandatory rest stop. Good work! (There are 3 teams within a kilometre behind them so they'll have to keep pushing!)

Snowpants has kept pushing since their re-start this morning after the dark zone. It looks like they're in 19th place now. They're on the same trek that Tecnu is just finishing, running about 7.5 hours behind them. The last time the leaderboard was updated (early in the 59K mountain bike leg, Stage 8), Dart was half an hour behind Snowpants but their tracker still isn't working so their location is unknown.

Tecnu is about 13 hours behind Seagate as they come into TA9 before the 33K bike leg, stage 10.

And Quechua has fallen back into 4th behind Raidlight Cano Evasion - again. The race for the podium is far from over.

And last but not least, my French language education moment du jour... A French racer in a TA referred to an English team as "les rosbifs"! (As in "Roast beefs".)

From Tecnu fb: we are definitely in 9th place all by our lonesome on a VERY tough navigational bike ride. FJS and Switzerland continue to move just a hair faster than us right now, but are about 20-25 minutes ahead of us. If we move past them while I sleep, we will be in 7th place

Tracking shows Tecnu riding in 9th - 10th place with Ertips, chasing FJS and Switzerland just ahead of them.

Pentathlon des Neiges has continued to move up the leaderboard and I now have them in 16th place. They're moving well, and teams are starting to drop in front of them.

We saw a shake-up in the podium spots last night with Thule having to stop to take care of feet and getting passed by Raidlight. Quechua was also having a hard go of it, getting passed by Raidlight and Silva. They now also have Adidas Terrex on their heels as they start another mountain trek. It looks like, other than the otherworldy Seagate, the lack of rest for the 3 teams making the darkzone cutoff is starting to nibble on their collective asses...

Wow, it seems like just yesterday (wait a minute, I think it was) that the dark zone seemed to split the field by such a huge margin and now look at things. Of course we all know how quickly things can change, even when there are 7 hours separating teams.

Tecnu looking good and I will be so pumped to see Snowpants climb up even further. I know they must have been disappointed on the first day or two so their fire must be getting fueled now. Jeez this race looks punishing.

Second place just got real interesting after the mandatory 4 hour break. Thule, Silva, Raidlight, and Quechua are all within a few hundred metres of eacg other starting the trek.

The second chase pack of 4 teams is now resting at the mandatory rest. These are Vibram, FJS, Ertips, and ...wait for it...Tecnu. Top 8 for the Beaver and company! Awesome!

Top-9. Pre-coffee math is still a work in progress.

Snowpants is done their trek and are transitioning to the bike, having clawed their way back to 15th place! Superbe! On lache pas!

Awesome 12 hour period for Tecnu and Snowpants! Sounds like they are pacing themselves very well given all the mandatory stops and dark zones.

What about Team Switzerland? I have Tecnu in 10th. Btw the rankings on the Tecnu Facebook page have been inaccurate more often than not. They usually come from the GPS tracker so our guess is as good as theirs most of the time.

Great job, regardless! And good work, Snowpants!

I am on the edge of my seat reading all these reports! Thanks everyone for posting and keeping us informed! ;)

this is awesome.. thanks for all the summaries, saves me going to the website!!

Corrections: Tecnu came into their rest stop in 11th, within minutes of FJS. There's a big pile of6 teams sleeping at that rest stop, so you have to zoom in and start untracking teams to see who all is there.

This puts Pentathlon into 16th place, but they are within 4km of 2 teams in front of them. Stephanies' feet are getting bad, but there's only 1 long trek before the end, with a long paddle before it to rest them up. The rest of the team seem to be doing fine.

I'm calling it, folks: barring catastrophe Seagate will win the 2012 ARWC. The race for 2nd is very tight with Thule, Silva, Raidlight, and Quechua fighting it out. Thule has at least one member in some trouble with bad feet and Quechua is riding with a gimpy bike that they haven't - up until now - been able to repair. Silva and Raidlight were the 2 teams here who missed the darkzone cutoff, but they may be looking at that as a blessing now.

Going out on a real limb there with Seagate, Pete!

What can I say: I like life on the ragged edge of disaster.

Remember that Pete isn't just some guy... He's a professional adventure race reporter. ;)

As of the last leaderboard update (which wasn't recent - it never is), there were 16 teams on 4 different short coursess, 3 teams racing unranked and 9 withdrawals. If all the teams are listed on the leaderboard now, that leaves 36 teams on the full course. However, when the leaderboard was last updated, only the top 5 teams had arrived at the post-MTB mandatory rest stop.

DART's tracker hasn't worked for over 30 hours and there doesn't seem to be any info on their Facebook or Twitter either. The lack of tracking information is disappointing for spectators but Yellowbrick is also safety gear. I'm surprised organizers haven't found a solution by now.

Tension must be building at the TA10 rest stop. Adidas Terrex and Vibram Lafuma have headed out to chase the top 5 teams. Team Switzerland, FJS, Ertips and Tecnu should start the next trek any time now, if they haven't already. A meaningful leaderboard would make this much easier to figure out but the Yellowbrick time rewind feature is pretty good.

Snowpants have come back so well from their troubles at the start! They still appear to be in 16th on the bike section, heading toward the mandatory rest stop. They are 7.5 hours behind Tecnu, and there are two teams within 10 km in front of them. The good news for them is that they will have their mandatory rest stop in the dark. Except for Seagate, all the other top teams have had to take their 4-hour rest stop during precious daylight hours.

Update from Vincent before Snowpants started the bike section: Stephanie's feet aren't too good but the others are feeling OK. They made a 1-hour nav error on the last trek. They also mentioned that they had to serve a 1-hour penalty at CP6 because they were missing two sleeping bags. We don't know where the CPs are but that was a long time ago.

He also mentioned that clouds are gathering. There is no dark zone on the upcoming 49 km kayak section (which follows the 11 km canyon trek after the mandatory rest stop) but if there is a thunderstorm, teams on the water are supposed to stop.

Looks like another team was hiding at the rest stop. Snowpants appears to be 17th. Here's an analysis of the 19:00 tracker that someone did on the Snowpants FB page and it looks right. Here's the team list with numbers since that's hard to figure out from the tracker.
http://www.raidinfrance.com/en/2012-final/teams-li...

AT12
1er #3
2eme a 5eme dans un mouchoir de poche #1,#25,#15, #63
AT11
6eme #64
7eme #12
8eme #67 un peu off track cependant
9eme #65
10eme #7
11eme a 14eme a AT10 #5,#10,#32,#34
hors course #33
15eme #70
16eme #48
17eme les meilleurs #47!

More French language education for me... The teams racing so close together in 2nd through 5th are "in a pocket handkerchief"!

FJS, Team Switzerland, Ertips and Tecnu are on the canyon trek, travelling in that order, all within a 1 km stretch. Tecnu is an hour behind Vibram Lafuma in 7th place. Adidas Terrex is two hours ahead of Vibram Lafuma in 6th.

Just in case you don't think I read these every 15mins. I do.
Bash, you are the best aggregate news source on the web!

For perspective, Tecnu is about 6-7 hours behind the 2nd-5th place group who are all on the 49 km kayak leg now.

Los Dobos is amazing at analyzing the race itself. Glad he's dropping in here once in awhile!

I'm real busy at work right now and were it not for all your updates here, keeping me up to speed, I'd have surely been fired by now! Thanks!!

Ha ha FB, I second that!! I have the live coverage map and this page running in the background constantly!! :)

Thanks to everyone for the analysis, updates and French lessons!! ;)

And just before dark, they're making their move... It looks like Tecnu just passed Team Switzerland on the canyon trek, and they appear to be with Ertips, which would put them in a tie for 9th place. 8th place FJS is not far ahead. Awesome work!

Btw it's nice to hear that some folks are following the race here along with the official sources. Hermes (aka Bob's girlfriend Shannon) is flying to France today and I'm hoping she will do some on-the-spot reporting for Attackpoint!

i'm following this discussion every 5 minutes...

Weeanimal's excessive clinginess (is that even a word) is preventing me from checking all sources so I too appreciate the updates. Thanks everyone.

And with the 20:30 tracking update, Tecnu appears to have passed Ertips to claim exclusive possession of 9th place. They look to be within 100 meters behind 8th place FJS. Holy crap, guys - apparently, a 4-hour rest makes you feel pretty good.

Rats! Looks like we're not going to get a 21:00 tracking update from Tecnu or Ertips but there's a chance that Tecnu moved up to 8th, based on where FJS's 21:00 track is. And 7th place Vibram Lafuma is about 1 km in front!

Tecnu appears to have moved past FJS into 7th place. Their tracker hasn't shown that last 2100 update, but I think they've passed them.

FYI you snowpants fans: some unranked teams are showing up ahead of them on the live tracking, so don't count them when trying to figure out their placing. Teams 33 and 20 (Daredevils and Scandinavian Outdoostor) are both unranked.

From FB just a few minutes ago:

Tecnu is hauling butt on this trek leaving behind Columbia/Vidaraid, Switzerland, Ertips, and is racing neck-in-neck with FJS in 7th place. About 50 minutes ahead is Addidas Terrex but they have been slowing significantly. With half the trek to go before the long paddling leg, things are looking good. The teams strategy was to put some hurt in teams on this leg, recover in the boat, then crush the next bike leg. So far it looks like that strategies paying off. Get after it Tecnu! Go team GOOOOO!

...that places Snowpants in 17th spot as they approach about 2/3 done the long bike section leading to the last 4-hr mandatory rest.

DD...that sounds just a wee bit like Earring Doug. Gee,Pete, ya think? ;)

According to a Twitter post, Thule (in 2nd) has made quite a move and are only 3 hours behind Seagate now!

DD, the rankings posted on Tecnu's Facebook page are almost invariably wrong. Their team manager is using the leaderboard just like us, but his optimism exceeds his dot-counting skills.

Drat, no 21:30 track for Tecnu. If Tecnu passed FJS (very likely), that puts them in 8th. They also need to pass Vibram Lafuma (which looks possible and may even have happened) to move to 7th. Adidas Terrex are still ahead on the trek in 6th, plus the top 5 teams are on the paddle.

Okay sorry for the confusion. I will avoid that source for now! :)

Bash - I get 7th if the passed FJS. Who am I missing?
Seagate
Thule
Raidlight
Quechua
Silva
Adidas Terrex

Only for rankings, DD. There is other good stuff on the Tecnu Facebook page including links to some great pics. Kyle's Mom is there so she has been posting some news from the field.

Los Dobos - Vibram Lafuma, but Tecnu may have passed them by now if they were able to maintain their pace.

It is a little confusing because Tecnu's Facebook page announced that Team Vibram Lafuma had dropped out, moving Tecnu up by one. But they didn't. It was their close friends (I can only assume), Team Lafuma Vibram.

yes, it was the bizarro-world version that dropped out. And I think that on th eprevious track update Tecnu had pulled ahead of Vibram and were nec-and-neck with FJS. wish they would update soon.

Bash, thanks for being the eye in the sky for this race! reading your comments is way more entertaining than counting dots. :)

When are race directors going to catch on and just hire the team of Bash/Los Dobos to do online/in the field coverage......oh wait a minute, that would mean less info. about "our" teams as they would be trying to cover all teams. Nevermind, bad idea!

Los Dobos and I did that last month for Wilderness Traverse where I updated the leaderboard 3-4 times an hour, keeping it as close to real time as possible. If you have an accurate leaderboard, you don't need people to count dots! But it does require a lot of staffed CPs with good communications. Not always easy in a big race like ARWC. We were lucky.

Los Dobos, when Tecnu last tracked at 20:30, Vibram was still ahead. Vibram isn't moving very quickly though so I'm eagerly awaiting the next track. Tecnu may have moved into 7th but on the other hand, Vibram appears to be in a particularly cliffy area of the canyon so it may be slow for everyone.

Thanks for the reminder about the short course teams ahead of Snowpants. The dot counting just became a near-impossible task! :)

Zoom into the finish area and you'll see that racers come off a monster bike leg and then transition to trekking. But it's only about 1.5km sprint down to another transition into the boats for s sprint paddle (<4km) to the finish. Now picture the 4 teams vying for 2nd coming into that bike-trek TA together. Will they need to disassemble and pack their bike before they are allowed to leave? The podium may come down to bike mechanic skills.

...or you may see racers destroying their bikes in order to cram them into the bike boxes. Could be interesting.

Vincent said that at this point in the race, a physician is posted at each transition. Team Lafuma Vibram had the most interesting medical problem - a serious allergic reaction to a poisonous plant. So I guess the racers get off the trail from time to time!

2230 updates are starting to happen...we may finally see where Tecnu's at.

as of 2230 Pentathlon is about 5km from the end of the bike ride. Then they get 4 hours of snooze time, all of it in the dark. Bonus.

Fortunately, the boxes required for the race only require the pedals, front wheel and handlebars to be removed.

Sounds simple, but nothing ever is when you've slept less than 12 hours in the past 6 days and are trying to hurry.

People may have already seen this but here is the Day 4 video clip covering the race.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6c90JNSSTjc&fea...

I believe the long bike stage coming up for the top teams is where there are sections that they are forbidden to ride their bicycles. Not sure how long an area that is but might make it interesting for the sleep deprived.

As a reminder, here's what's left in the race after the 2nd mandatory rest stop.

4-hour stop
Stage 11 11km Canyon
Stage 12 49km Kayak
Stage 13 8km Trek
Stage 14 52km MTB
Stage 15 26km Trek
Stage 16 58km MTB
Stage 17 2km Run
Stage 18 5km Kayak (sea)

Seagate is about halfway through the Stage 13 Trek.

The next 4 teams are on the Stage 12 paddle. Thule is probably in 2nd but hasn't tracked for two hours. Raidlight Cano Evasion is in 3rd almost 6 hours behind Seagate. Raid Quechua and Silva are together about 4 k behind Raidlight.

6th place Adidas Terrex should now be in TA11 at the start of the kayak.

Vibram Lafuma is 2 hours behind them. Tecnu is probably near this team - ahead or behind - but they haven't tracked in 2 hours. These teams are in 7th and 8th unless something really crazy has happened. Suspense!

Team Bash & LosDobos ("Team BLD"): awesome work on the race coverage! You are doing such a good job that you have me checking in way too often during my vacation in northern France (and I'm learning those handy French sayings while I'm at it! Tomorrow, there will be many things "in a pocket handkerchief").
Wow, go Technu, go PdN, go DART (wherever you are)!!

As for the section where it is forbidden to ride their bikes, is that the section in some park where they can't let their bikes touch the ground for 700 meters?

Columbia Vidaraid has come out of the mandatory rest stop with the same competitive fire that Tecnu was showing. It appears likely that they have passed Ertips and FJS to move into 9th place. It looks like satellite tracking doesn't work super well on a canyon trek. Go figure.

CO, re the bike carrying: yes, that's what I remember too. There may be further info on one of the news sites but it's hard to tear myself away from the live tracking page, given that I also have real life things I'm doing at the same time (believe it or not)!

From the Tecnu Facebook page, quoted from another unknown source:

"Teams 67. FJS and 05. Tecnu both arrived at CP33 on the mountain bike stage within minutes of each other, but both with very different experiences of the section. FJS arrived first, with the words « Difficult to ride? No – not possible to ride » after carrying their bikes both along the Var river bed and through the bushes to get to the checkpoint. Tecnu, in contrast, arrived along an easy track and a short tarmac ride, with Sam Clark commenting « That section was gold! Down the scree was fantastic ». Both teams are chasing to make up time on the leaders, and counting on the extra sleep they had in the dark zone to aid them in making back the time gap to the top 3."

Go Bob-the-Navigator!

What happened was that FJS had been penalized for taking a road into a CP earlier in the race and were gun-shy about taking the road into this one. They were the only team to bike-whack this bit, poor buggers.

As we speculate about what may be happening on the canyon trek in the absence of hard tracking data, it is worth noting that this 11 km trek took the top five teams an average of 6 hours to complete in daylight, i.e. they averaged < 2 kph. The current group of teams will do most of the canyon trek in the dark.

Hopefully not a repeat but more on the French Racer who had to withdraw after coming into contact with a poisonous plant.

The wounded and the weary
French adventure racing legend Marc Balaskovic was transported by race staff in the early morning hours to the organization relay in the quaint town of Jausiers. On an earlier section he had a nasty run-in with a poisonous plant. His left hand brushed against it and it left several splinters in his thumb. Thinking nothing of it at the time he continued racing. On one of the earlier long trekking sections he stopped to extract the splinters and all hell broke loose.

He suffered convulsions as the poison diffused in his body and his thumb swelled to four times the normal size. Although race doctors continued to monitor him, he was forced to withdraw as the pain, allergic reaction and the inability to bend his thumb meant that the technical mountain biking stage was rendered impossible.

Speaking to him afterwards he said that it was only the second time he’d ever had to withdraw from a race; the first time being when he had septicemia in Costa Rica. He went on to speak with pride of his seventeen year old son who is an up and coming adventure racer himself.

From Sleepmonsters re: FJS

Team FJS had the most frustrating end to this section when they tried to get to checkpoint B33. They emerged on a road and saw the two jury members 100m along it, roughly at the location of the checkpoint. Having been penalised earlier in the race for walking along a road to a checkpoint and told this was not in the spirit of the race, they stopped, turned around and continued up the river bed to try and find a way up to the checkpoint without going along the road.

This wasn’t easy and they spent 20 minutes before finally forcing a way up a steep overgrown bank to get to the right spot, only to be told by the jury members that they could have ridden along the road in the first place. (They were there to check that teams were all together.) When told; “It’s OK you have found it now”, the response was a heartfelt and grumpy, “No, it’s not!” It isn’t always easy following instructions in international races, though all the other teams we saw pass through didn’t hesitate and came straight down the road and onto AT10.

Not sure when the penalty takes affect.

Bash - is the 11km trek you mentioned above Stage K? If so it involves a rope stage which means they were hauling all of their climbing gear.

Stage K took teams up into the mountains, once again carrying their climbing gear. The ropes stages have been an integral part of each trekking stage, not just an added challenge on the route, so teams are used to carrying their climbing gear now. This time they would descend a canyon above the Gorge Daluis, a route which took several hours, and then abseil down into the gorge, to finish the section by walking along the river valley to a kayak put in.

It is a spectacular gorge, running for several kilometres and flanked by red rocks and high waterfalls, and the leading teams were through this stage in daylight. Adidas TERREX almost forgot a mandatory piece of climbing equipment, a prusik, but decided they could make one with rope they had rather than go back and find it.

Some nice new photos of the team on the Snowpants FB page: https://www.facebook.com/PentathlonARTeam

Thanks for all the updates, DD. Yes, that's the same canyon trek. No wonder it takes teams so long!

After posting the photo of Bob and Kyle swimming, I owe them this. They look hardcore in these paddling pics! I especially love the expression on Bob's face after they drop off the ledge.

Works best if you click on slideshow.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/72212682@N08/tags/tec...

Photos are copyright Jean-Jacques Raynal.

The tracker doesn't show it yet, but Snowpants has arrived at AT10, the rest stop after the long bike. They mad some nav errors due to sleepmonsters and are now eating, grabbing a few hours sleep, and then transitioning for the upcoming trek.

Bash - looks like they were in a submarine in those last 2 shots. That'd be a bit dodgy at night.

Tecnu has updated and are shown alongside Ertips and FJS at the start of the canyon. This puts them in 8th-10th place. Looks like Vibram has picked up their pace and will hold 7th into the transition. Adidas Trrrex in 6th left said transition on the long paddle a few minutes ago.

Thule's tracker has stopped updating - last track is from 2031 and it's now 0000 - but it's fairly safe to assume that they're in 2nd place and about done with the paddle.

Quechua's tracker has also skipped a couple of updates, so I imagine they are right there with Raidlight and Silva for 3rd spot.

Seagate meanwhile has all but finished the post-paddling trek and should be transitioning to a long bike leg any minute now.

Quechua just updated and as you guessed they are Raidlight and Silva.

Thule just had their first update in 3 hours and are just finishing the paddle beginning the shorter trek. They are in 2nd place behind Seagate and in front of Raidlight, Quechua and Silva. From my not so great calculations, this puts Thule about 4.5 hours behind Seagate.

Re the Bob-Kyle submarine photo: That kayak leg had a dark zone, fortunately!

Columbia Vidaraid is in 11th place, not far behind the Tecnu-Ertips-FJS group. Look over your shoulders, boys and girls!

Rumour has it that the big mountain bike section before the mandatory rest stop was about 2/3 hike-a-bike or carry-a-bike. Tecnu has posted some nice professional photos of the team carrying their bikes in a rocky river beneath soaring canyon walls. For those of you who know sweet quiet Ursula, you have never seen her look so hardcore!

I think the word you're looking for is trashed or shattered. But still moving.

Tough, determined and tired. For the 4th day of an exped race, I think she looks great!

Based on the latest tracks, Tecnu is definitely 8th with a gap back to Ertips and FJS. Maybe they were at the bottom of the ropes and the others were at the top when we saw them tracking so close together. They're heading toward the trek/kayak TA!

It looks like Tecnu have dropped Ertips, FJS, and Columbia in the canyon and are hot on Vibram's heels, who have just left on the paddle.

Snowpants is doing their 4 hour mandatory stop so don't expect anything on that front for a while. Apparently they really need the sleep, as Ben L. dozed off midway through a sentence when chatting with Vincent.

Tecnu's 1:30 a.m. track shows them on the river side by side with Vibram Lafuma tied for 7th place! Wow, they've been hammering.

Awww... Posted by Kyle Peter's Mom with the caption, "Shhh, my baby is sleeping!"



Not sure whose baby is sleeping by the next bike box.

Tidbits...

One woman suffered a dislocated shoulder when her teammate pulled her back into the raft after she fell out. Her shoulder was put back in but she was forced to withdraw from the race anyway because her feet were so sore. She said the shoulder was nothing by comparison!

From Sleepmonsters, talking about the bike ride before the mandatory rest stop at TA10: "The race is well known for its ‘hike-a-bike’ stages, it is almost a trademark, and section J was when the wheels came off the ground. Kyle Peter of Tecnu said; I’ve never done a ride like that before in any race anywhere! We were hardly riding at all, maybe just a little bit downhill from the high pass.”

He had just reached a checkpoint at Guillaumes after riding down a broad and rocky river bed for the past couple of hours. Occasionally there was track on the river bank but for much of it teams were pushing and carrying bikes over the boulders alongside the river."

"Chris Hope of the adidas TERREX team, who were racing in 6th place for most of the day, said that section just opened up the sores and blisters again, and after teams had reached the transition in a camping site just above the valley there was more trekking to come."

The water level in the river is low, and racers' boats are bumping into rocks. Teams had been warned that a dark zone might be imposed on the kayak leg depending on water level but this will not be necessary.

At the 2 a.m. track, Tecnu and Vibram Lafuma remain tied for 7th but FJS is minutes behind them.

Yikes..

I think I count 4 helmets - but just barely...

"Explore. Compete. Live." has just shared Ursula's aforementioned photo with their Facebook fans so I may as well do my part to help it go viral. :) Photo copyright belongs to Andreas Strand.

Tecnu is starting to open up a gap on FJS and Ertips, consolidating 7th place. Vibram in 6th is about 2 miles further down the river. Looking good right now.

The tracks must have been playing games with us over the last hour since their dots were shown together at 1:30 and 2:00. It did seem strange that Tecnu appeared to catch Vibram so quickly. Vibram is in 7th. Adidas Terrex is in 6th. So Tecnu is still in 8th - for now.

In other news, Dart started tracking again after almost 2 days of racing incognito. It looks like their tracker started working at the start of the bike leg before the mandatory rest. They are about 30% of the way through the ride, which has been taking top teams 7-9 hours. If their dot is accurate, they are heading off for some Alpine exploration away from the race course. But hopefully that is just a tracker anomaly.

At the front of the race, Seagate is at TA13 getting ready for a 52 km mountain bike ride. Lots of switchbacks and hairpins... this looks like work. It is 3 a.m. so they won't be in the dark for long. Maybe they'll take a slightly longer TA now to prepare for the final push to the finish.

Weird race for DART! Looking forward to the stories.

Seagate caught 2 hours of shut-eye at the paddle-bike TA. Tecnu's tracker hasn't got the latest update but it looks like all three teams (FJS and Ertips) are together and closing in on Vibram.

0400 updates just coming in...Thule looks like they finished the paddle almost 2 hours ahead of Raidlight and Silva. Quechua is just coming into the transition now, with Adidas Terrex a couple more hours back on the river. Next comes Vibram and then Tecnu - the gap between them has definitely closed, but a stern chase is a long chase. They might catch them at the end of the paddle. FJS and Ertips are slowly dropping behind Tecnu.

Pentathlon should be heading out on the canyon trek shortly, still chasing Salewa, Berghaus, and Axa.

Seagate has finished off the post-paddle trek and are about 25% done the next, long bike leg. Thule's tracker has again stopped so not sure of their location, but likely nearing the end of the trek, in 2nd place.

Holy shite! Snowpants has either mis-set their alarm or has slept through it. They should have been up and gone by now. Vincent is frantic: he's at the TA but the only volunteer there says he cannot wake them without risking a penalty.

The real shite is that the teams ahead of them were apparently woken up by media/race staff/volunteers. Who knows what's going on right now. Maybe they decided to sleep until dawn and start the trek at first light. I've just asked Vincent that question...

...a stern chase is a long chase

So true - I like that! At 4:30 a.m., Tecnu remains in 8th about 5 km behind Vibram and 4 km ahead of FJS. I wouldn't expect any change until the next bike leg.

Oh merde! They set the alarm ro 0330 and it's now 0437. Vincent has tried to contact race staff or other volunteers with no luck. He doesn't want to risk DQ-ing the team by waking them.

Still sleeping. Vincent is afraid they'll get DQ'ed if he tries anything to wake them.
This blows.

A truck just pulled in. Vincent thinks it might have woken them up. I told him to pretend it ran over his foot and start screaming.

Also, chatting with Pye and she confirms that they are almost impossible to wake up in these situations.

Based on the photos and description, they were beyond exhausted when they arrived. It is possible that a little extra sleep now in the dark may not be such a bad investment. It may be enough to get them to the end of the course. But it's not what they planned, and I can sure understand Vincent's stress!

Geez! Hopefully that did the trick. Anxiously awaiting his next update.

Yes, I asked Vincent at one point if maybe they planned on sleeping longer than the 4 hour minimum, but he said they had wanted to set the alarm for 0330. Which was 90 minutes ago. It may still play into their favour, banking extra sleep, even if by accident.

Update on Tecnu. It seems that they haven't shaken FJS, who are right behind them. Both these teams have, however dropped Ertips who is now several km back.
They are also gaining steadily on Vibram and AXA. The last tracking had Tecnu about 1 mile behind Vibram. They should be able to see their lights soon...

not AXA...the other Adidas, Terrex.

Thule's track is working again...it's still tight for 2nd and 3rd between them and Raidlight and Silva. Quechua looks like they've lost touch with them.

Snowpants not woken by truck, or by Vincent flashing his headlamp over their tent at every opportunity while helping the volunteer to unload the truck. However, he says he might have herad them talking, in which case they've decided to sleep longer. We'll find out when they get up.

Until now, the tracking has seemed pretty good but it has been squirrelly tonight in several places around the course. There's no way FJS made up 3.5 km on Tecnu in half an hour. I think their current position is probably accurate though (immediately behind Tecnu). The sky will start getting light around 6:15 a.m. They're probably a little chilly right now. Paddle hard to warm up!

...and suddenly FJS is about 1.5km ahead of Tecnu. Vibram not updated yet.

Yeah it always gets colder somehow just before dawn. I hate that. Which is why I like to be in bed when it happens.

It looks like Ertips has stopped to sleep beside the river...they haven't moved yet their time is up to date.

Looks like it's a Swedish battle for 2nd right now, with Thule a bit ahead of Silva, who has pulled about 1 hour ahead of Raidlight.

Goodnight folks! Pentathlon continuing to sleep has kept me awke past my bedtime. They continue to snooze as I write this.

There's a light on in one of their tents now!

I'm not trusting the tracking in Tecnu's section of the race right now. Distances between teams are suddenly changing back and forth. In particular, the track suggests that Tecnu has travelled less than 1 km in the past 90 minutes. It is possible that they're taking a nap in the last hour of darkness, and the track's movement is just noise, but I'd be surprised if they'd take a break there in wet clothes in the coldest part of the night, especially when it hasn't been that long since the mandatory rest stop.

If the tracking *is* to be believed, Tecnu has stopped, and they've been passed by both FJS and Ertips, with Columbia Vidaraid a few minutes behind them. If this is accurate, they're in 10th or 11th. But there is some weirdness in their track before this, and in some of the other teams' tracks too. I'm not sure this is really what's happening.

Snowpants is awake and groggy after almost 6 hours of sleep. Steph thinks the alarm went off, then they fell back asleep. It is sunrise right now. Time to go!

Actually, it's time to take their bikes apart and get them into the boxes. They were so tired when they arrived that they decided to do some of their TA tasks after a rest. It's daylight now. Hurry!

The 7:30 track shows Tecnu moving again, right behind Ertips with Columbia Vidaraid and FJS behind, possibly stopped. More tracking weirdness. If true, this would put Tecnu in 9th. I'm going to bed - maybe that will help. Leanimal in France: please take the next shift! :)

Ughghghghg Weeanimal is up, she doesn't let me play on the computer but I will try to be incognito with the iPad. Great work while I slept guys!

Okay from what I can see Tecnu is in 8th still on the water just ahead of Ertips, Columbia Vidaraid and FJS. Vibram has finished the paddle, I am going to guess 10km or so ahead of Tecnu.

Silva is done the trek, Quechua not far from the TA and Raidlight closing in too. Adidas Terrex is just about a fifth of the way into it.

That's all I can see before Weeanimal is about to throw her breakfast on the floor!

Axa is now on the water and Team Switzerland is about 1/4 the way done. This is all as of 8:57am our time.

It looks like PDN got going at around 7am, went the opposite way out of the TA, turned around and are now headed in the right direction.

m bbbbcbcbcbcb ghf. That was Weeanimal's take on this whole thing.

Check out times @ AT13
Thule 7:50
Silva 8:07
Raidlight 9:19
Quechua 9:37

Pentathlon des neiges (snowpants) left AT10 @ 0830 and should arrive at AT11 around 1630

Looks like they are there already, that's the start of the paddle right?

yup

Right Leanimal: "Team 47. Pentathlon des Neiges Processia arrive along the river bed to AT11 to start the kayak" must be around 1414

Ertips interview @ AT12.
They had a hole in their boat, so they called the organisation who came in to help with a new boat. They stopped for about 1:15-1:30 and made a fire

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3MxukxWGpTg&fea...

Thanks to our new France correspondents, Leanimal and Weeanimal, for handling the night shift single-handedly! :)

The 15:30 tracking is interesting... Vibram Lafuma have overtaken Adidas Terrex early in bike section N to move into 6th place.

It appears that Tecnu was the first team to leave the TA and they are 1.5 hours behind Adidas Terrex. However, there is a tight group of teams right behind them - Columbia Vidaraid, Ertips, FJS and Raidlight LSN (winners of the prologue). This section took Seagate over 8 hours and everyone will be pushing!

I think this puts Snowpants in 17th again in spite of their long nap.

I am predicting I will get fired by the end of this week, for checking this site every few minutes when I am suppose to be working......

Seems teams passing in Saint-Martin Vésubie are all stopping at the boulangerie, I think that's one thing I like the most in races, stoping at restaurant/café/boulangerie to pick up tons of fresh local food, it's such a moral/physical booster

https://twitter.com/RaidInFrance/status/2484154834...

As always, enjoying the analysis here of a big race. The live tracking page is addictive. Impressive move by Vibram Lafuna over the last day. And Bash, a bike section should really be named "N+1".

Haha! :) Jackson5, I totally agree. That was one of the coolest things about racing in Switzerland. "Hmm, is this mountain trek getting too cold? Maybe we should stop for hot dinner in a restaurant before we continue." :)

The 16:00 track confirms that Tecnu is the only team to have left the TA on the bike section. Adidas Terrex is within 10 km. When I supported Bob's team at Primal Quest, I was assigned to take care of the female member of our team, Sonya Clarke, who is now a member of Adidas Terrex. I'm sure Bob will be happy to catch up and say hello! :)

The gap between 5th place Raidlight Cano Evasion and recently-moved-up-to-6th place Vibram Laguma is about 25 km of technical biking. It's a long distance but if a team in the top 5 has trouble, it may be possible to bridge that gap.

At the front of the race, Thule is at TA14 getting ready to start the 26 km trek. They are only about 10 km behind Seagate.

Mmmm boulangerie! I could name ten things right now that I would pick up. Now I will have to refrain from going since I have not been racing for 5 days. Sorry, that's not really contributing to the race analysis.

It looks like the Trek that Seagate is on is quite slow or possibly they've stopped a few times. My rough estimate is that it's taken Seagate almost 6 hours on the trek so far.

Update on Snowpants... I'll put the full French version below for those who can understand. The team is doing well and completed the canyon trek so quickly that Vincent didn't get to the ropes section in time to take any photos of them. They're now on the river where things are going well but the low water levels mean it's full of rocks, and the heavy boat with the two Benoits is often hitting bottom. They are gaining time on the two teams ahead. A member of one of those teams, AXA Adidas, is doing very poorly and spent 4 hours at TA11 before starting the paddle - big blisters on both feet and vomiting. (People with better French are welcome to correct me!)

L'équipe va bien. Au AT11, au départ du kayak, ils étaient tous très fort. Sur le trek + cannonying, ils ont fait un super temps. Tellement super que je les ai manqué aux cordes (j'ai une photo des cordes vides). En kayak ça va bien, par contre la rivière et plein de cailloux et y a pas d'eau alors ils sont souvent pris. Surtout les deux lourdeaux, Ben et Ben qui font la paire ensemble. Côté concurrence on a repris du temps ce matin sur l'équipe 70 et l'équipe 32 va très mal. Un des gars à des mégas ampoules aux deux pieds et il est resté immobilisé au départ du kayak pour 4 heure du à des vomissements. Il est réputé pour ne pas compléter ces courses, alors je parie qu'on va les doubler bientôt.

Adidas Terrex passed through the area where Tecnu currently is almost an hour ago so 7th place is getting closer! Vibram continues to do well putting some distance between them and Adidas Terrex for 6th place.

At 16:30, Tecnu is gaining quickly on Adidas Terrex. It looks like AT may have taken a nap or had a bike mechanical.

FJS and Raidlight_LSN have left TA12 to chase Tecnu but they are within 2 km of the TA which is about an hour behind Tecnu. Columbia Vidaraid and Ertips are still in the TA.

6th place Vibram Lafuma continues to move well after passing Adidas Terrex - but they are only 3-4 km ahead of them so the race remains tight.

Pressed "submit" almost the same time you did, DD! :)

From the Live Update site. A few updates on other teams midpack and short coursed.

The Adventure Tourists
On the morning of day 5 the teams bringing up the back of the race were arriving in AT9 after the high mountain trekking stage in the Mercantour National Park. Most of the teams arriving at this time had missed an earlier cut-off and are racing as unranked, some are combinations of teams and while we were in transition one French team was retiring and asking about the best way to hitch-hike back to the start, where they had left their car.

The race medic and the Race Director were both there and busy. The medic was patching up feet, attending to any eye injury and when he had the chance he was ringing the hospital to check on a couple of racers who have been admitted for a bike crash and dehydration. He said the race reminded him of the Raid Gauloises in terms of its difficulty and spirit, and that the medical work had been difficult.

Race Director, Pascal Bahaud, was busy trying to organise the logistics to support the race and said it was difficult as the race is very spread out. The Belgian team who were lost in the night are now in the town of Barcelonette but he wasn’t sure how, or if he could retrieve them, and at the same time knows the leaders will probably finish in the early hours of tomorrow morning. (Traditionally the race has been a supported event, with all teams having their own transport, so those dropping out have not been a problem, but the race switched to unsupported when it was elected for the World Champs, to come into line with others in the AR World Series.)

When I asked him why the teams short-coursed earlier in the race had not been taken further forward along the route he just said he wanted them all to have the chance to see the scenery on this part of the race and preferred to shorten the end of the course. (There are more cut-offs still to come and those teams who missed the first cut will almost certainly miss these as well.)

Mark Lattanzi of Dancing Pandas commented; “It was strange, they moved us forward on the course a little, then said we couldn’t restart until the early hours of the morning so we were still just as far behind. I think we’ll certainly miss the cut again later on as some of the team are struggling with blisters and there is a whole lot of trekking in this race.”

His team missed the cut before the via Ferrata, so didn’t get to do that, the rafting or the first kayaking stage and he added; “I’m looking forward to sitting in a boat!” He still has some way to go before that can happen. He was also looking forward to a hot meal. “We are going into town and are really hoping to get some food, we need hot protein now.”

He also said his team had already done a different via Ferrata. “I was navigating, not very well, and took them 300m up a via Ferrata in the mountains, only to realise the checkpoint was down the bottom all the time!”

In transition at the same time was Eoin Keith of Ireland, who started the race with BRAT Lupine, but is now with a French team of three. “I’m an adventure tourist now,” he said. His team had suffered the first injury of the race when Thomas Etter broke his leg, and he said his two remaining Brazilian team mates “just wanted to stay in bed one morning”.

Now he has joined another team, one of whom broke some ribs falling out of the rafts, so he is wondering if he is a Jonah and which of this companions will break something next!

“It took me a while to get out of race mode and into the idea of adventure tourism,” he said, “but I’m quite enjoying it now. We stop for coffee and I feel great. I don’t think I’ve ever felt so good in a race – I don’t even have a single blister. The scenery is fantastic too, the views and the alpine meadows are stunning – the whole course has been. Some of the mountain biking has been superb too – the best I’ve known anywhere.”

Cool little blurb regarding Team Seagate. I used Google Translator so don't blame me for the butchered translation. ;)

They have become the darlings of CP controllers. In addition to making a strong impression in sports, team 03. Seagate impressed observers with their calm, their professionalism, kindness and serenity at every checkpoint. If Nathan Faa've Captain Maori, a little sunken eyes this morning CP27, the overall shape is gleaming after more than 100 hours of racing.
It is time for the race management, with more than 5 hours ahead of their pursuers, too useless up in "towers". After three days spent in the Mercantour National Park and its soft larches, "hefty" Southern Hemisphere take their time and care for them every CP or transition point. With discipline, serenity, tranquility and order which leaves admiration. Transitions, Sophie, Chris Trevor and listen religiously Captain Nathan, issuing instructions without a word higher than the other. His three crew obtempèrent without flinching. A perfect ballet, a remarkable cohesion - which contrasts with the tension or approximations in other teams - despite the fatigue and lack of sleep.
The leaders of this world championship as well manage their diet, almost every checkpoint and transition. CP27 this morning, Sophie ran a bakery in Saint Martin Vésubie, bring a stick to each of his teammates, quiches, while Nathan opened a packet of bacon. Two hours later, the New Z remettaient cover La Madonna Fenestre at the end of the bike section.
Property on the territory of the Vatican, the New Z set off on a trek of 26km from the magnificent prehistoric site in the Valley of Wonders, and cave paintings in the hundreds. While clouds clung to the surrounding peaks, the quartet took the road without haste, sure of his strength ....

Hmm..the latest update has Adidas Terrex right behind Vibram again for 6th place (approx 2 km) so maybe they weren't losing time.

Dart, Snowpants and Tecnu are all on the full course and unlikely to miss upcoming cut-offs, barring disaster. If you're watching a team further back, here are the cut-offs. (The numbers will likely be understandable to non-French speakers even without Google Translate.)

http://live.raidinfrance.com/tm-mode-demploi/

From Twitter -

#raidlight very tired at CP27. Want to take a sleep.

They were pushing well for 4th place but a sleep at this point in the race might open the door for 6th-8th place teams to move up to top 5. Should be an interesting couple of hours on the bike for the chasing teams.

6th place Vibram Lafuma passed Adidas Terrex awhile ago but hasn't put a lot of time into them. 8th place Tecnu, by contrast, is gaining on Adidas Terrex. The next couple of tracks (every 30 minutes usually) will tell the tale.

Rob Howard's "Day 4 - River Var" photos (20 of them) on Sleepmonsters give a nice, quick overview of the hike-a-bike before the mandatory rest stop, the stunning Gorge Daluis where teams rappelled during the canyon trek, and the rocky kayak paddle where Snowpants is now.

http://www.sleepmonsters.com/racereport.php?page_a...

The 18:00 track shows Vibram Lafuma just ahead of Adidas Terrex on the bike. Adidas Terrex looks like they may regain 6th place soon. Tecnu is about 8 km behind but the next section took the other teams about 1.5-2 hours so it must be slow going (unless they both had troubles). Tecnu's chase pack starts about 5 km back.

Snowpants is paddling well, about 2 hours behind AXA Adidas, the team with the member who was doing poorly at the TA. They are about 11 hours behind Tecnu.

More gourmet French race food... chicken this time.

http://twitter.com/RaidInFrance/status/24843787909...

Raidlight in 5th place has been racing out of their minds, but are now extremely tired and have lost touch with the race for 3rd (Silva and a recovered Quechua). They (RL) have stopped for food and sleep about 75% through the bike in a small town where everyone has been stopping to [pig out. Word is that Thule spent 60 Euros on food and drink here. They might be caught by the teams behind them depending on how long they sleep and how much the approaching darkness will slow the teams on the bikes.

yup... https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1015123088...

By the way, if I may toot my own horn for a second, I'll be heading to Utah/Arizona to cover the Grand 2 Grand ultra which starts this weekend. It's a 6-day self-supported stage race in and around and along the Grand Canyon. The race website is http://g2gultra.com and the Breathe Flashblog coverage by yours truly - which I've already started - is at http://www.breathemag.ca/flashblog/category/grand-.... Please check it out if you want and then like, comment, share, tweet or whatever: the more numbers we get watching this the more likely it becomes that I can maybe make a living at this (it's sponsor-driven).
We now return you to your regularly scheduled program. - Thank you.

Tecnu should catch and pass Adidas Terrex soon for 7th place.

Thule seems to have 2nd place secured again, and there is an epic battle for 3rd that has been going on between Silva and Quechua.
Oh yeah...Seagate is still winning.

AXA has just finished the paddle, with Snowpants about 90 minutes behind them. If the extra sleep is going to manifest itself, it'll be during the next trek and mountainbike, as going dowstream in identical boats doesn't give much chance to close or open a gap.

Raidlight Canoe Evasion left CP27 @ 1910 after some food and sleep, which should help them holding their place against charging Vibram/Lafuma, depending on V/L state of zombiness tonight. V/L have managed to open a sizable gap over Adidas Terrex on the way up, so it seems they are moving well. Manu from V/L is a very strong/focused guy (raced with him at Raid Chamonix/TNF a few years ago) and it's the highest they have ever been in a race of this caliber (as Raidlight Canoe Evasion i guess) so they will be super careful.

Seems more and more likely that A/T are likely to be caught bu Tecnu, let's go Bob and Ula!

https://twitter.com/RaidInFrance/status/2484703243...

AT caught... Technu in 7th & Pentathlon in 17th !!!!

Loving all the coverage and analysis! Definitely the right place to follow along...thanks for all the effort!

Sweet! Way to go Technu! Pretty fun race to follow. Seagate and the Swedes are racing well too. Bash, you will need a vacation after this race!

Adidas Terrex are moving again, and are keeping Vibram Lafuma on a short leash (around 2k). Tecnu seems to be 10k behind A/T. Raidlight_LSN seems to be off course a bit and is now almost 1k east of where they are suppose to start the climb to get to Saint-Martin Vésubie . Thule, Silva and Raid Quechua are fighting hard for the 2nd and 3rd spot.

@ 2020
1. Seagate
2. Thule
3. Silva
4. Raid Quechua
5. Raidlight Canoe Evasion
6. Vibram Lafuma
7. Adidas Terrex
8. Tecnu
9. Raidlight_LSN
10. Ertips
11. Columbia Vidaraid
12. FJS
13. Team Switzerland
14. Berghaus Accom
15. Axa-Adidas
16. Pentathlon des Neiges Processia a.k.a. Snowpants

Seems Raidlight_LSN is trying a move... deliberately or not this is very interesting...

Pentathlon des Neiges Processia a.k.a. Snowpants is in AT12, from kayak to trek, roughly 2k behind Axa-Adidas

Carbon, now that I've got the thread going, I only have to take a turn once in awhile. This is awesome, everyone! :)

Jackson5, I love that receipt from the boulangerie for Team Thule... 4 sandwiches and 18 drinks!!

Just a reminder (because I realized I wasn't doing it enough) to visit the live Raid in France coverage, Sleepmonsters and EndorphinMag once in awhile to see the videos and beautiful photos. Many of us are map-oriented, and it's fun and addictive to follow the teams along the route. But the race looks amazing in the real world - jaw-dropping scenery and tough challenges. Andreas Strand, one of the official race photographers, is one of the best AR photographers in the world.

Raid in France - Live Coverage Photos

Sleepmonsters Photos

Endorphin Mag Photos

Andreas Strand Photos

Raidlight_LSN is definitely trying something, that's good racing.

Vibram Lafuma are at CP27 and Elisabeth says: "ca va nickel" meaning they are doing great.

@Bash: yeah they must have been thirsty! and took some for the road

https://twitter.com/RaidInFrance/status/2484960275...

Yup - Adidas Terrex did the same thing. It seems to be a significantly faster route.

I would guess that the boulangerie is closed now that it's 9 p.m. When the next wave of teams arrives in the village, they may have to do without poulet ou boissons.

Thule, Silva and Raid Quechua are within 3k, so it seems the night will be decisive for most of the top 10

Putting on the coffee maker... :)

Anything can happen after 100hrs...Narcoleptic rigor mortis poor decision surreal shit show!

There are chances that the organisation managed to keep the boulangerie open at CP27 as a few teams should pass by during the night...

Holy cow! It's kind of a shame that this is worth reporting... The leaderboard (at least the part of the field I'm watching) is almost up to date!! It doesn't record Snowpants' recent arrival at TA12 in 17th place around 20:50 local time but it has the teams' arrival times ahead of them. Note that AXA Adidas should now be 16th but their arrival time is correctly recorded - about 2 hours ahead of Snowpants.

Squatchy, would you mind if I borrow that phrase and use it as a team name? ;)

Adidas Terrex are now in CP27

https://twitter.com/RaidInFrance/status/2485053763...

the guy on the right on the picture has some belly...

Does anyone know anything about the penalties which teams have received along the course? There had been a few given out and I was wondering when they are applied. I seem to remember Seagate getting theirs at the end of the race last year so I am wondering if they would do similar this year.

Nice route choice, Raidlight_LSN! It also looks like Tecnu is cutting off a big switchback.

Little summary of what the top teams will be doing during the night:

Type : Trek 8 mountain
Distance : 26km
Dénivelé+ : 2030m
Dénivelé- : 1995m
Côté course
Un beau trek de haute montagne jusqu’à 2 680 mètres.

The race
An outstanding trek on the upper slopes climbing to 2680 meters.

The territory
At the heart of Mercantour Park, in the Tende district, the Vallée des Merveilles, appears as one of the main sites for rocks engraving with around 40 000 prints that you can discover in an outdoor, mysterious sanctuary: a place where we remember our origins. Prehistorical art, molded by the old glacier 10 000 years ago, which by pulling back, has left behind cleverly polished stones, lake chains and ancient history dating from 3000 years BC. Still in Mercantour, Fenestres pass, is the Madone-de-Fenestre chapel. In the 8th century, this was the first chapel to be built. It has been bought by Benedictine monks and remains since the middle ages a major place of pilgrimage. Also in the Park, the massif de l’Authion, you will discover fauna and flora. Royal eagles dominate the sky, while the chocards à bec jaune have settled in the old military stronghold. If you keep an eye on the ground, you will see thousands of anemones, bright blue spring gentian... From June, dozens of types of orchid will grow, such as lilac orchids and vanilla scented ones.

Ideally, the penalty time is served close to the time the penalty is awarded so that teams can race head to head later on the course. Snowpants served a penalty at an early CP for missing two sleeping bags, so it sounds like the race director thinks that way. The Tecnu team manager has mentioned that teams ahead of them have penalties, and he thinks that will move their team up - but I don't think there is any way he could know whether those teams have already served their penalties. Even Vincent wasn't aware until much later that Snowpants had served a penalty. Watching at home, we had no idea. But there could be surprises!

Okay makes sense Bash, thanks as always for the insight!

Re-posting the part of the race after the mandatory rest stop for reference:

Stage 11 11km Canyon
Stage 12 49km Kayak (Snowpants has just finished this)
Stage 13 8km Trek
Stage 14 52km MTB (6th through 12th place are on this leg)
Stage 15 26km Trek (Top 5 teams are spread out on this leg.)
Stage 16 58km MTB
Stage 17 2km Run
Stage 18 5km Kayak (sea)

From the Live site -

The Leaders Through AT14
The race leaders are approaching the finish line, but the challenges are not over yet and there is still a close contest for the podium places.

Seagate passed through AT14 this morning, about to start the last big trek of the race, and still holding a commanding lead. They left the checkpoint in a high mountain basin at 11.15, and it wasn’t until 16.37 that the second placed team followed them. The leaders looked in good spirits and barring major mistakes or accidents they will be racing ‘downhill’ to the finish through the night and all being well are expected to cross the line in the early hours of the morning.

Team Thule Adventure have held onto second place and have not given up hope of retaining their World Title, though they know it’s a slim hope. Team captain Martin Flinta was clearly having a lot of discomfort from his feet at the transition. When the team arrived he was pedalling with his feet on top of his bike shoes, and he subsequently ripped out the lining of his training shoes and cut them open so he could get his feet in. To make matters worse teams are not allowed to use trekking poles in the National Park, so he had to leave his behind as he hobbled onto the last trek of the race.

Raid Quechua arrived at 17.23, just 4 minutes ahead of Team Silva, but it was the Swedish team who left the transition first, this despite Bjorn Rydvall and Robert Lindberg suffering from bad stomachs, though this might have been a consequence of them stopping for ice creams in Saint-Martin Vésubie. before riding steeply uphill to the transition!

This town had a checkpoint under the balcony of the mayor’s office, and Raidlight Canoe Evasion stopped here for a long rest, laid out and wrapped up in bivvy bags and plastic sheeting on the Mayor’s doorstep! This team had pushed hard in the middle of the race and briefly took second place, but have now fallen back.

The next team through was also French, Vibram Lafuma, and they took rested up in town and called into one of the towns top restaurants to see if they could buy a sandwich! They had passed adidas TERREX during the day and this means there are now 3 French teams in the top 6 going into the final day of the race.

Doesn't appear Adidas Terrex spent much time in town as they are still moving past Saint Martin and closing in on Vibram LaFuma. Tecnu hasn't moved as much 30 minutes and Raidlight LSN is on their heals.

Seagate has finished the last long trek and are at the final bike TA. Looks like alot of the bike leg is "downhill" but who knows how rideable it will be.

Well played, Raidlight_LSN! They are about 1 km behind Tecnu now in 9th place. The other 3 teams in the chase pack are well back.

It looks like Bob got tricky too though, and 8th Place Tecnu is about 5 km behind Adidas Terrex, who are about 1.5 km behind Vibram Lafuma.

Day 5 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJDztsYXUjI&fea...

Video and pictures always provide much interesting infos about top teams...

Wow- miss a day, and you miss a lot! Thanks for all the great coverage, that took me a long time to catch up on (love it). Tomorrow, I may have to take the iPad with me while I tour Normandy....
"oui, oui, je sais... Yes, yes, I KNOW we stormed this beach, yes I KNOW we then took Caen, but did we install ANY WIFI around here, s'il vous plait?"

Leanimal: feel free to post your "top 10 things from the boulangerie" list in case there is something I must not miss while I'm here...
(hey, my autocorrect tried to change it to "Le animal".... Maybe that's your French nickname.)

As I sit in the comfort of my desk chair and stare at the dots on the screen and ask "oh come on, why aren't you moving faster?" I have to stop and remind myself that that dot represents 4 very tired people on another continent making their way along the side of a mountain in the dark. The tracking map isn't a video game. I am in awe of all these racers.

Man, I'm almost nervous to go to sleep, for fear of what I might miss! Is there an alarm setting for "significant change in rankings"?

From Twitter -

#Seagate a AT15 à 21:55. Décident d'y dormir une heure.

Sounds like a well deserved nap.

CO, while you're sleeping, you may miss Seagate crossing the finish line 1st but there isn't much suspense in that. Rankings within the top 9 are likely to shuffle a fair bit though.

Speaking of which, I've gone back and changed my recent entry where I inadvertently promoted Tecnu to 7th place. Wishful thinking... they are, of course, still in 8th.

@Wilberto, very well said.

It appears as though Adidas Terrex is only about a km behind Vibram Lafuma! After it looked like they were slowing down, they've picked up the pace lately.

Raidlight resting earlier today. Love the jacket - pants! :)

https://twitter.com/RaidlightES/status/24852278713...

Tecnu passing through the CP in Saint Martin quickly!

#tecnu au cp27 repartent aussitôt pour vite terminer la section



They are approx 8 km from the next TA to Trek.

Pentathlon is moving well at the start of their trek and have caught up to AXA, a team that got past them while they overslept their alarm by 3 hours last night.
Next targets are Berghaus and Salewa (whose tracker stopped working back on the river), the 2 teams they were chasing before the rest stop.

When Tecnu hit the small town just now, they were about 7km of FLAT riding behind Terrex and Vibram.

There's a good chance Tecnu will see the two teams they're chasing in the next TA, which will give them an exact idea of the time gap and no doubt spur them on.

At the front, Silva has dropped Quechua on the final big trek and are making a last-ditch charge at their countrymen, Thule, for second place.

Thule's tracker is acting up again so although it looks like Silva is catching them for 2nd, they are likely a few kms further ahead.

hmm..I hope it's just a glitch but latest tracker has Tecnu heading west along another road. Fingers crossed it's incorrect.

Where is Benoit going on the 23:40 track? Hopefully just a GPS anomaly.

It's the witching hour for Canadians - yikes, let's hope it's the technology.

There seem to be a few that are "off" not just the two mentioned above. Hopefully it's just a small glitch.

Interesting. 2nd Place Thule's tracker just updated and it only shows them about 2 km ahead of Silva. The race for 2nd place is heating up with 4th place Quechua not to far behind.

Last night I'm sure there were GPS glitches. Tecnu wasn't even paddling in the river for awhile - they were off to one side, paddling through the fields. I'm betting their next track returns to the right road. They're only a few hundred meters down the road. There may be something there - an all-night convenience store at a gas station or whatever.

Site is acting up a little. Maybe I've refreshed it a thousand times too many this afternoon.

Yup, Tecnu's dot is back where it should be! Time 0:00 (midnight!)

I am getting a bluescreen as a backdrop for the map. That happening to anyone else?

Nope. Snowpants is back on route as well now, btw. I think 23:40 was just a bad time for Yellowbrick.

Solar flare activity, obviously.

A slew of nice photos just went up on the Tecnu Facebook page.
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Tecnu-Extreme-Adven...

Tecnu is about 20minutes away from the bike-trek TA. Both Terrex and Vibram are still in the TA. Raidlight is hot on Tecnu's heels.

Snowpants have closed the gap on Berghaus, who have just finished the trek. I guestimate the gap at just over 1 hour. They have also pulled away from AXA. C'est beau!

Tecnu done the bike and in transition for the last big trek. Terrex is definitely still there, and Vibram was 20 minutes ago as well.

Pantalons has almost finished their trek, having caught, passed, and dropped AXA on the way. They are back to chasing Berghaus and Solewa. No idea where Solewa is as their tracker conked out at 1130 this morning on the river.

But Solewa had a great paddle and started the trek about 1:45 ahead of Berghaus.

Just got word that Tecnu, Vibram, and Terrex are all together at the TA. Lots of sleepmonsters having a party, and Ursula has laryngitis and can no longer talk. I know that would drive some people nuts, but Ursula will be fine with it.

Snowpants is in transition and according to Vincent they will be leaving before Berghaus, moving them up to 16th. The next team ahead is likely the Swiss, with a 3 hour lead. Solewa must have put on some afterburners to have caught and passed the Swiss team - good on them. Still 2 days of racing left though...

The leaders completed the upcoming bike leg (for Snowpants) in 8-9 hours, except forRaidlight who were forced to stop and sleep and therefore took just under 12 hours.

Vincent reports that everyone on Snowpants is in good spirits, no major issues, and Benoit L was actually joking around with the TA staff. Clearly suffering from sleepmonsters.

Or he's suffering from too *much* sleep! :) That's great to hear.

Yay! Bash is here...I can go to bed soon. :)

Snowpants will be in 15th if they pass Berghaus since they already passed AXA, nest-ce pas? (Just trying to catch up after a break to do real life things!)

Pentathlons' feet are in remarkably good shape, thanks to lots of acclimating and climbing in the week leading up to the race.

Yes, Bash. Not sure if the Swiss or the Poles are the next team ahead of them. No track from the Poles since 1133 yesterday morning, but I know they are at least a couple of hours ahead of Berghaus. The Swiss have about a 3-4 hour lead on PdN.

Haha, and then we'll pass off to Leanimal and Weeanimal again for the night shift in our time zone, if they're around. Also, Hermes just arrived in France although her Internet access has been patchy so far. She and Bob's sister Laurie plan to go to the finish line tomorrow morning to see what's up.

Terrex has just left the TA to start the last big trek, about 80 minutes behind Vibram. Tecnu's tracker hasn't updated for the past 80 minutes, but I imagine they're out on the trek not far behind Vibram. Movin' on up.

Just to chime in (between event permitting calls -- seriously -- easy to be motivated for race planning with the ARWC going on!), that AXA team that Pentathlon just passed is composed of some amazing athletes . . . you certainly can't pass them without them putting up a fight.

I know that "16th" or "18th" place doesn't sound all that special in a race, but believe me teams in the top 20 or 30 or ??? at this race would crush most any 24-hour AR race course in North America. That's what impressed me most about the AR World Championships: the quality of the field is phenomenal and it's easy to lose sight of that amidst the "who is in what place" sort of horse race.

I guess my comment is generally that to compete at this sort of race requires a different level of mental/physical fitness than most realize, and we shouldn't lose sight of it for the teams further down the leaderboard. Huge kudos to Pentathlon and Tecnu for overtaking so many strong teams lately; and a more general kudos to everyone who has been racing since I was eating breakfast on Friday (is that right?).

Really nicely said, Grant. It's humbling to see that when the leaderboard was last updated, only 10 of the original 64 teams had withdrawn from the race completely after 5 days of tough racing. There are (were) still 35 teams on the full course, 13 on short courses and 6 teams continuing unranked. In our sport, it's amazing that even at a challenging world championship, people love the experience enough - and are tough enough - that they often choose to keep going even when the competition is over for them. Kudos indeed.

based on how lng they were in transition, I'd say that Terrex and Raidlight LSN grabbed some sleep there. Vibram powered through and is making steady progress on trek as of 0440. Tecnu's tracker picked this time to go fubar - still has them in the TA but that's from 0200. For all we know they might be neck-and-neck with Vibram.

oh yeah: what Grant said.

seems Adidas Terrex are still not moving...

And neither is Tecnu! At 5 a.m., their track says they are still at the TA with Adidas Terrex. Raidlight_LSN has passed them. :(

Tecnu tracker is back and still at the AT, Raidlight_LSN is definitely moving, Vibram Lafuma too, seems they are gaining on Raidlight Canoe Evasion

It is still dark and Tecnu may be thinking this is a good time for a final nap before the push to the finish. But I suspect that someone isn't feeling well and they're giving him/her a chance to recover a bit.

maybe they somehow know that Vibram Lafuma will have to sleep on the trek during the night and maybe they have a warm spot at the AT so decided to bank some zzz for the final push

Let's hope that is it! It's almost 36 hours since they woke up from whatever sleep they got at the mandatory rest stop. Before that, their only long break was 11 chilly hours on a riverbank three nights ago. That describes most of the teams in their vicinity, so everyone must be really tired right now.

from Tecnu FB page: "We took as short nap in the ta after the bike and are just heading out for the last trekking leg. This is a pivotal point in the race with 2 teams fading badly in front of us. We sit in 8th, and 5th is a possibility if we travel fast, light, take some risks, and they pay off. Teams tired, great spirits, and VERY determined."

That's good to hear!

Seems Thule have been zipping it on the bike and managed to open a good gap between them and Silva, and in the process gaining back on Seagate

Looks like Seagate stopped for a nap as they have not been moving at all lately. Maybe they were getting funky on the bike and did not wanted to take risks ont the descent

I can't believe I have to go to sleep!
Are you guys able to guesstimate finishing times for Seagate and Tecnu?

Snowpants is chugging along about a quarter of the way through the bike section, with Berghaus and AXA Adidas about 5 km behind them. We don't know where Salewa is but Team Switzerland is about 5.5 hours ahead. It will be light soon, and Snowpants may be able to move more quickly over the next section as a result. We won't likely have much news from them for awhile. I hope Vincent is getting some sleep!

Seagate has about 30 km of mountain biking left - although Jackson5 says they seem to have stopped for now. Without knowing the condition of the trails (or lack thereof), it's hard to guess how long that might take. But after that, it's just a quick run and paddle - less than an hour - to the finish line.

When we wake up in the morning, at least a couple of teams should have crossed the finish line.

Been out for the evening. I assume Tecnu has been napping as it shows they haven't moved in 3 hours. Must be resting before the final push!

:) Thanks. I won't want to miss the big battles from all the tight-knit teams. But looks like that will be much later.
You guys are the best.
LosDobos, per your shameless plug earlier, have a great time working on G2G. I know blank-all about AR, but your Breathemag posts are very fun to read and really illuminating!

Tecnu is off the radar for now, hopefully they will show up again soon, they must be roughly 1k behind Raidlight_LSN

Seems Adidas Terrex have finally left AT to strat the trek, they have been stopped there for several hours, safe to say they were probably catching some good sleep. If they all feel good they could come back quickly in the game

Tecnu just tracked at 6:00, still at the TA. Adidas Terrex has just left. So Tecnu is in 9th for now.

Right on Bash... Thule is now only 10k behind Seagate and moving fast. Seagate really do not have the 6h buffer they used to have at some point

Seems Thule have pulled away from Silva and Raid Quechua, who probably have elected to sleep a bit before the last bike. Maybe Silva went away from the AT to play a mind game with Quechua

Tecnu still at the TA at 6:20; it's almost an hour since their FB page said they were "just heading out". How can I go to bed without seeing that they're OK?!

Glad Tecnu is sleeping. Plenty of racing and decisions left. Need the body and brains firing all cylinders. Ok, *most* cylinders. Ummmm...some cylinders?

No word from our DART team. Definitely a story to be told there...tough field, but that's an uncharacteristic performance this year. Hope they're all ok.

Thanks again everyone for these awesome updates. We (DART's Sean and Cyril) are watching here in SoCal and we appreciate your work!

Changing the subject, it looks like Dart has stopped for a nap at or near TA11, the start of the river kayak leg after the canyon trek. There is a 16:00 short course cut-off at TA13 (after the upcoming paddle plus the trek that follows it), and they are not going to make it.

I just posted that message about Dart before I saw your comment! Glad you're with us, Sean and Cyril.

At 7:00, Tecnu remains in the TA, and FJS has just left. So Tecnu is in 10th now and there's a problem. :(

Signing off and hoping our France correspondents can take over. The next few hours will be interesting.

Thinking of our friends - and of fellow adventure racers we don't know - as the sun rises on their 6th day of racing. Be safe and enjoy the experience.

Pentathlon des Neiges Processia


Photo copyright Vincent Fraser


Photo copyright Rob Howard, Sleepmonsters

Tecnu Extreme




Photos copyright Andreas Strand

Haven't had anything to add until now as the coverage from everyone has been awesome, but I got some good intel from my French connection Julien about the last bike leg. Sounds like no one knows much about it, but Julien says the trails in there are nasty...or can be. If they end up on single track in that area, they may be in for a world of hurt. Imagine little babyheads sticking out of dirt, rigidly held in place...supposedly this is what the trails are like for km's. Lots of little drops, steps, you name it. Lots of hidden traps. He says he wouldn't be surprised to see some big bike mechanicals. He 's spent some time biking in the area, so has some good knowledge of it. So, despite the easy looking flyover, could be a challenging last section. I'll try to get some pics, as I was having a hard time envisioning it, and words may have failed both of us.

Good scoop, Andrew!

Ahh I can't do my part, off to my first couple of hours of French lessons. Maybe I will just bring up the site and have the teacher go through it all with me!!!

I have a feeling once we see that Tecnu dot moving it will be moving fast.

Can't wait to hear more about DART and PDN.

Seagate cross the line at 1140 local time to become the 2012 Adventure Racing World Champions. Congratulations, and may I add a heartfelt "We're not worthy! We're not worthy!"

As of noon local time, Thule was firmly in 2nd, about 80% done the last long bike leg. Following in 3rd is Silva, with Quechua in 4th. Raidlight is in 5th, but moving much better than before.

No other teams have finished the last big trek, although Vibram and the other Raidlight are about 2/3 done.

Tecnu's blip may have just moved at noon! it's impossible to tell if they just moved to a different area in the village or if they've hit the trail. The next update will tell us.

Snowpants is nearing the end of the big bike and should hit the TA in the next 1/2 hour or so. They are followed by Berghaus and AXA, both teams stopped at the small town of St Matrin-Vesubie which is where everyone was stopping to pig out in the local shops and restaurants.

Confirmed that Tecnu just started moving on the last big trek at 1220 local time. Not sure if it was sleep or illness/injury that held them up. They have dropped back to 14th, just ahead of Pentathlon who is minutes away from finishing the bike.

Nice little slideshow of Seagate finishing here: http://live.raidinfrance.com/photosvideos/

Some Francais pour vous, Leanimal: "Mon aeroglisseur est plein d'anguilles."

1240 and Pentathlon is less than 500m from the TA. Tecu is continuing to move, no word yet on what happened.

Whhhaat! I go away for one lecons de francais and I missed all of this.
Allez allez les canadiennes!!! Dobos I have to look that up!

Thule is within sight of the end of the bike. Then it's a sprint down to the water and a 3km kayak to the finish for second place. Silva will finish 3rd, barring a major bike crash: too far behind Thule and well ahead of Quechua. Speaking of which, Raidlight has been moving up steadily on Quechua and we say see a tight finish for 4th-5th.

Tecnu continues the trek up to the pas de Mont Colomb, chasing the Swiss team (or maybe just hoping to finish...we dont' know at this point). Snowpants is in the TA about 1 hour ahead of Berghaus, who is still biking.

DART-Nuun is approaching the end of the paddle, with two teams close behind and one in transition ahead.

Lee, my guess is : My hovercraft is full of eels.
Bummer about Technu, hope everyone's good.

Didn't know you spoke French, Mr Rich. Kudos!

The only thing I knew of that was wrong with Tecnu was that Ursula had what appeared to be laryngitis and was unable to talk. Still no details on their FB page.

In fact, Tecnu's Facebook page in middle of our night (yeah, I was concerned so I had to look) posted a message saying not to worry, that their Yellowbrick wasn't working but they were progressing along the trek, and the race organization had been contacted to see if it could be fixed. It made me feel better - just wish it had been true. Their team manager is very enthusiastic...

I am really bummed for them, and I also suspect that Ursula's illness may be the issue. She is a nurse and will know if she's sick enough that she needs to stop for awhile. In the photo above, she looked cold when the guys looked comfortable. :(

I just watched the last hour or so of Tecnu's tracker and it looks like it started moving back toward the TA. This could just be a route that they took but someone else have a look and see what you think.

Maybe they went too high but their tracker definitely shows them heading back toward the TA.

Oh, and GREAT RACE, Seagate!

Leanimal, my most recent track for Tecnu looks OK within the usual wonkiness of GPS tracks but they aren't moving as quickly as usual. The next track should confirm whether the little deviation is actually a turn-around.

They are definitely going back to the TA. Crap.

PDN is now east of them. They must have seen one another. What a crazy race it's been for these two teams (amongst everyone else).

Maybe they just forgot something.....(fingers crossed).

You're right. Back to the TA with the 14:00 track. :((

Their turn-around point was only about 500 meters from the TA, if their track is accurate, but they spent almost 2 hours going out and back if they left at noon. Not looking good for our friends.

This is getting tense.... Hope they are all okay!

Seagate crossing the finish line. Bob's girlfriend Shannon and sister Laurie were planning to be there this morning.

http://twitter.com/RaidInFrance/status/24872812780...

:(

Sure hope everyone in Tecnu is okay.

Whatever it is, it was something they hoped to fix with some extra rest, and they were eventually willing to attempt the trek. So the problem is not likely something that would be too serious in a non-race context. Assuming that only one teammate has an issue, I wonder if they will withdraw or continue unranked since they are so close to the finish line. Mentally, it would be tough to do either of those things but that may be the choice now. My heart goes out to them.

At 14:40, Dart has left TA12 (after the river paddle) and is a few hundred meters into a trek that took other teams 4-7 hours. They will have the benefit of daylight. There is a short course cut-off at TA13 at 16:00. The description of the short course refers to information in the road book that we don't have.

I hope the rest go on if the injured/sick is okay. They deserve to get to "la mer". Ahhhhh Weeanimal is up already. I didn't get a thing done while she was asleep...I'll be glad when this race is over.

I see Ecuador's tracker at the finish line, I wonder what happened to them. Another really friendly team!

Such a bummer. Hope they are ok.

According to Twitter, Ecuador has retired from the race. Nobody knows the reason just yet.

Me too! GO TECNU!

Pentathlon appears to be moving well out on the trek. They appear to be about 2.5-3 hours back of Team Switzerland.

This is killing me. someone unplug my internet....

Quechua's Tracker is the latest to go a little wonky unless they are making a move on a different route.

Very bummed for Technu after they worked so hard to move up over the course of the race. :( I can't imagine how bummed they would be. Nice to see snowpants pushing through...they are beasts.

On a side note, happy for Seagate. Part of what got me into AR was watching some of the older Eco-Challenges, and Nathan Fa’avae was super impressive back then. The fact he is in his 40s and still winning world championships is ridiculously inspiring.

Team Switzerland took a break before the big trek and asked for a doctor to check a team member's very sore feet. If Snowpants' feet are as good as we're hearing, they may make up some time here.

BugsinTeeth, the sport was dominated for several years by Team Nike which included Ian Adamson, Mike Kloser and Michael Tobin, all well into their 40s by the time they retired on top. Expedition adventure racers often peak later than athletes in other sports because experience is such a huge factor. Very inspiring!

Thule crossed the finish line in 2nd place at 3:17pm local time. Another great finish for them!

No update from Tecnu's tracker, which was just outside TA14 1.5 hours ago. If they do decide to withdraw from the race here, they won't bother pointing the Yellowbrick at the sky anymore so we'll have to watch other information sources like Twitter, Kyle's Mom on Facebook, Shannon and Laurie, etc. But maybe that tracker will still turn around... doigts croisés, as they say in France.

Quechua's tracker has them at the finish line now but a little too fast for it to be legit. Hopefully they didn't run into problems themselves and have to drop out so late in the race.

3rd place Team Silva is now on the last paddle and should be finished within the hour filling up the podium.

With Quechua's tracker acting up it's tough to know where they sit so right now it appears Raidlight Cano is 2/3's of the way through the final bike in 4th place. They are followed by Vibram Lafuma, Raidlight LSN and FJS who are all close to the Trek to Bike TA.

Finish line interview with Nathan Fa'avae. He's done around 1:20, then a French translation is provided. He described the course as "grunty" - full-on all the time without respite but very beautiful.

http://youtube.googleapis.com/v/yFgtaiwG_8c&hl=fr&...

8th - 10th (or 9th - 11th place battle depending on Quechua) is between Colombia Vidaraid, Adidas Terrex and Ertips who are about half way through the final trek.

Am I missing anyone in that top 10?

Berghaus appear to have left the bike to trek TA and are now behind Pentathlon. AXA Adidas and Tecnu remain.

That list of top teams looks right - depending on Raid Quechua. I hope it's a wonky GPS but usually the problems haven't lasted *this* long. Also, several of their recent tracking positions appear to follow a road route to the finish line that would make sense if they had to abandon the race during the last bike section. Remember they had a problem with a bike wheel much earlier - they were afraid it could break.

I can't recall when they last had issues with the bike wheel. Was it the previous bike section or before that? What a shame if they had to drop out that close to the finish line. Lots of unknowns right now ugh..

ARWC 2012: QUECHUA, Franck Salgues fell on the last mountain biking section. Big fear. He was taken to the nearest hospital. First reassuring diagnostics. The team is in shock and abandoned officially.

Team Silva crossed the finish line in 3rd place at 4:08 pm local time! Very impressive as well and only 51 minutes back of 2nd place.

Thanks for the update Eco. Thoughts are with the team and hope he is okay.

From Vincent: "De retour dans un monde avec internet. Beaucoup de changements. Quechua out suivi une chute à vélo ayant nécessité l'hélicoptère et Tecnu car Sam a eu besoin de soluté par intraveineux. On est donc 13e et la chasse continue. Ils sont encore fort!"

Tecnu seems to be out because Sam needed intravenous saline solution (soluté)

Quechua's Franck Salgues was airlifted out following a bike crash

That puts Snowpants in 13th

The skinny from Vincent is that Sam from Tecnu required IV rehydration. Maybe just dehydration, maybe persistent GI issues...don't know. Also don't know if this means that they're done or what.

Pentathlon is up to 12th now with the late attrition. This is assuming that Salewo is somewhere ahead of them, which they were the last time we had and tracking for them (way back on the river).

Thoughts go out to Raid Quechua. Not only were they close to the finish after a very challenging race, the 3-time Raid in France champions were racing in memory of their teammate Laurent Fabre who died in a mountaineering accident on Mont Blanc four weeks ago.

http://www.dynafit.com/news/news-overview/dynafit-...

http://vimeo.com/49444676

Raidlight_LSN is dangerously closing the gar on Vibram Lafuma and FJS seems to have had a very good trek and looks like they could be in striking distance.

Now that Raid Quechua is out the battle for the coveted 5th place is far from over, especially with the last technical bike leg

1st - Seagate (11:40 am local time)
2nd - Thule (3:17 pm local time)
3rd - Silva (4:08 pm local time)
4th - Raidlight Cano (3/4 of the way through final bike)
5th - Vibram Lafuma (Early stage of final bike)
6th - Raidlight LSN (Early stage of final bike)
7th - FJS (Final Trek to Bike TA)
8th - Colombia Vidaraid (2/3 of the way through final trek)
9th - Ertips (1/2 way through final trek)
10th - Adidas Terrex (1/2 way through final trek)
11th - Team Switzerland (1/3 way through final trek)
12th - Penthatlon (1/4 way through final trek)
13th - Berghaus (just starting final trek)
14th - Tecnu (at TA and not tracking currently)
15th - Axa Adidas (at TA)

Tecnu is officially out of the race.

Vincent: "S'ils repartent ils seront unranked. Reglement."

Means "if they keep going, they will be unranked, that's the rule."

Ugh. Thoughts go out to Tecnu. They were having a great race up until the last section. They will be ready for Costa Rica in 2013 no doubt.

I think Vincent is saying that accepting an IV causes a team to be unranked, which is not the rule in every race. Or maybe he means that Sam cannot continue. I've asked him to clarify. He spent 2 hours with them at TA14 today.

Team Switzerland seems to be moving very well on their trek as they continue to close the gap between 9th and 10th place Ertips and Adidas Terrex.

Berghaus now appear to be heading back to the TA after leaving about 45 minutes ago.

Incredibly, in the topsy turvy way expedition races work, Snowpants is in 12th with a realistic chance of making the top 10. When they had so many troubles in the first two days and fell many hours back of the leaders, that goal seemed out of reach. But they recovered *during* a very tough race. Chapeau! (As professional cyclists say...)

Agree Bash that's what Vincent meant, for this particular race accepting IV means you cannot go on on as a ranked team, so either they will continue (3 or 4) or stop, all means unranked.

From Alex P on Twitter. Quechua was racing in memory of teammate Laurent Fabre who died in accident on Mt Blanc 4 weeks ago. They dedicated this video to him.

http://vimeo.com/49444676

Man, I feel bad for Bob, Urs and K, but sure hope Sam gets better.

Tecnu has been at or near TA 14 for 15 hours. Mentally and physically, they'll be out of race mode now, and they will be terribly disappointed because they were doing so well. I don't imagine they will choose to continue unranked.

@Double_Downon11: I actually took this from Bash on this discussion ;)

Agree Tecnu is off race mode now for sure. Still a long way to go to the finish, so I also doubt they will go on

erratum: it's Franck Gorry who crashed from Raid Quechua, not Franck Salgues is not racing this race.

After a few hours in the TA Axa-Adidas has left the Bike-Trek TA behind Berghaus. Penthatlon continues to move along the trek well. Team Switzerland who are ahead of them are getting very close to Ertips to seem to have stalled half way through the trek.

Raidlight Cano is getting close to the end of the final bike section and look like they have 4th place locked up. Should be a tight battle between Vibram Lafuma and Raidlight LSN for 5th place.

Tecnu's Sam Clark is a new name to most North Americans. The New Zealander is only 22 years old but he has been challenging veteran Richard Ussher in multisport races since his teens. When Jack Van Dorp and I were training on the Coast to Coast race course in 2011, we kept running into Sam and his Dad, and we really enjoyed our chats. Jack and Sam did a training run together on the 33-km Goat Pass race leg. Sam ended up placing 5th in the 1-day C2C.

He is relatively new to multi-day adventure racing. He did GODzone in NZ with Richard and Elina Ussher earlier this year, and they were challenging Seagate for the lead at first but the team had to pull out because of an injury to Elina. Richard had been away from expedition AR for awhile and wrote an interesting race report. He says that even if they had stayed healthy, Seagate would have won because of their superior navigation skills. Richard had been doing races without nav for the past 5 years.

http://www.sportzhub.com/site/index.php?option=com...

Here's an example of why Nathan Fa'avae called this race "grunty" but beautiful. These are some of Vincent Fraser's pics from the final river kayak leg. You can see others on their Facebook page.

Thanks for the infos about Sam Bash, very interesting.

Still lots of race left and it seems Pentathlon des Neiges - Processia has a shot at catching Team Switzerland, Adidas Terrex, Ertips, and possibly Columbia Vidaraid.

They are known for epic comeback, no doubt that's what they have in mind right now.

Allez la gang!

Raidlight Cano has just arrived at the final bike to short trek TA. They should be at the finish line soon for 4th place!

Vibram Lafuma appears to have pulled a little ahead of Raidlight LSN for 5th place but they still have quite a bit of bike remaining. FJS are a few km behind in 7th place. Colombia Vidaraid appears to be about 2 km away from the Trek-Bike TA in 8th place while Adidas Terrex continues to put distance between them and the still Ertips. Team Switzerland continues to close the gap on 10th place. Penthatlon is about a 1/3 of the way through the trek in 12th place. They are ahead of Berghaus and AXA Adidas by about 7-8 km.

Still in shock over Tecnu. Sucks for them after battling back...

I will have to check on the next group of teams to see if any of them are on a shorter course but Lafuma Vibram is getting close to the little town of St Martin-Vesubie where many of the top teams stopped for a bite to eat. Behind them are two more french teams Arverne Outdoor and Vaucluse Aventures. Also on that bike leg is Team Mountain Hardware.

Oh a stab to the heart for Tecnu. Glad the teammate will be okay. Amazing fight up the ranks in the last couple of days, they made it so exciting.
But happy for PdN that they have moved up far as well. And congrats to the fantastic people already at the finish.

No tracking from Team Switzerland for the past hour. They may have overtaken Ertips who haven't moved in a while for 10th place.

Team Switzerland's spot just updated and they are right with Ertips now for 10th place. Still lots of race left for these remaining teams. 5th and up are all up for grabs...

I checked the race rules and there isn't a rule saying that accepting an IV disqualifies a racer. In other events, I've seen racers continue after getting IVs. But there *is* a rule that race medical staff have the authority to prevent a racer from continuing. So that may be what Vincent meant by the rule that caused them to be unranked.

Raidlight Canoe heading towards the water for their final leg. 4th place should be theirs soon.

pic.twitter.com/4tOKZ4w4

And I just heard from Vincent when he got Internet again. Apparently, if a racer gets an IV, medical staff automatically remove him or her from the race.

Team Adidas Terrex is moving really well in the late stages of the last long trek and putting ground between them and Team Switzerland and Ertips. They are moving closer to the TA and Colombia Vidaraid.

Curious to know if it's the same four team members racing for Adidas Terrex that won in Stirling last month?

Tecnu's Facebook page suggests that the team is automatically unranked because of the IV but that Sam may still be permitted to continue if he feels better...?

There is some overlap on Adidas Terrex.

At the Sting in Sterling it was:
Bruce Duncan
Chris Hope
Nicola MacLeod
Tom Gibbs

At ARWC it is:
Nick Gracie
Tom Gibbs - Chris Hope - Sonya Clarke

Okay thanks Bash!

Some Canadian connections to Adidas Terrex...

New Zealander Sonya Clarke raced with Bob on Team Supplierpipeline at Primal Quest 2004, back when that race had the biggest prize money in adventure racing. I was on the support crew and she was the racer assigned to me. A very tough, talented, fit woman!

Her sister Sarah Fairmaid was on Bob's Team Wildernesstraverse.com when they won last year's Raid The North Extreme.

I'm feeling sad for Bob's girlfriend Shannon and his sister Laurie who travelled to France to see him cross the finish line after cheering him from afar in so many races. And I'm sure Bob was looking forward to sharing that experience with them too. :( One silver lining is the nice apartment on the French Riviera where they are staying.

Not sure what has happened with Ertips but they haven't moved in a few hours. Penthatlon is just about two km away and should pass them soon for 11th place.

At 19:40, Dart is almost at TA13 at the end of the trek. They missed the 16:00 short course cut-off and now we'll see what happens next. There are a couple of teams ahead of them in the TA who also appeared to miss the cut-off, and they haven't moved for awhile.

Allez allez allez Snowpants!

Raidlight Canoe Evasion has just crossed the finish line in 4th place at 7:42 pm local time!

Further clarification on the rules from Vincent: When a team member gets an IV the team is automatically unranked and only the doctor can allow the racer to continue the race with his team (but still unranked). Tecnu called the race director and he confirmed this. When Vincent was with them at TA14, they still wanted to finish the race with Sam, and if not, the three of them would like to finish. The only constraint is a cutoff at TA15 that they must reach tomorrow by 20:00. Serious mental toughness!

Really hope Tecnu goes on to the finish, whether as 3 or 4 people. That takes the mother of gut checks to get back into a long tough race after racing long and hard and then being stopped for most of a day.

I was impressed when Tecnu were moving up in the top 10 with a chance at the top 5. But if they were to carry on and finish the course after dealing with illness and major disappointment, I would be *beyond* impressed. Sending them good thoughts and lots of strength.

Tomorrow's 20:00 cut-off at TA15 is a short course cut-off. There is also another cut-off at TA15 on Saturday at 4 a.m. which takes teams on a shorter short course. There doesn't seem to be an absolute cut-off, and there are no cut-offs currently posted that apply to later legs of the course.

As a reminder, Tecnu is at TA14 and would be trekking to TA15, a leg that took top teams 10-11 hours. The cut-off is now 24 hours away.

Penthatlon has passed Ertips (still no movement for a long time although tracker seems to be updating) to take 11th position. They are about halfway down the last long trek and about 4-5 km behind Team Switzerland who holds 10th spot!

Allez Allez. What a great comeback for Snowpants. I really hope Tecnu is able to cross the line with their entire team.

1st - Seagate (11:40 am local time)
2nd - Thule (3:17 pm local time)
3rd - Silva (4:08 pm local time)
4th - Raidlight Cano (7:42 pm local time)
5th - Vibram Lafuma (1/2 way through final bike)
5th - Raidlight LSN (1/2 way through final bike)
7th - FJS (1/3 way through final bike)
8th - Colombia Vidaraid (1/4 way through final bike and seem to be moving fast)
9th - Adidas Terrex (almost finished final long trek and moving well passing Ertips)
10th - Team Switzerland (2/3 way through final trek and moving well passing Ertips)
11th - Pentathlon (over 1/2 way through final trek and moving well passing Ertips)
12th - Ertips (1/2 way through final trek but haven't moved in hours)
13th - Berghaus (1/5 way through final long trek)
14th - Axa Adidas (1/5 way through final long trek)
15th - Lafuma Vibram (close to bike - trek TA)

Gonna be quite a battle for 5th place. 7th place FJS seems comfortable right now but anything can happen during night riding after 5 days of racing. 8th thru 11th place are all charging hard for the top 10.

Raidlight_LSN and Vibram Lafuma are racing neck to neck as of 2030, incredible

After a 5 hour, 15 min stop it appears 12th place Ertips has headed back out behind Snowpants.

They've been racing now for almost 133 hours. Why not have a little sprint? ;)

Snowpants, nous sommes fiers!

Seems Pentathlon des Neiges should be able to reel in team Switzerland before the end of the trek... They want the top 10 for sure.

Vibram Lafuma seem to have broken away from Raidlight_LSN at the moment with about a 2-3 km gap on the bikes. Doesn't seem like much but first time they've been separated for a few hours. Great race for 5th!

Just a note on Adidas Terrex team. Chris Hope was a last minute replacement for Warren Bates who injured his leg days before the race.

Don't forget about the Poles - team 70 Solewa Something. They are most likely ahead of the Swiss but behind Terrex. Snowpants needs to catch and pass 2 teams for a top-10 placing, and based on reports about the Swiss team's feet, that one sounds feasible. Allez! Allez!

LosDobos - I forgot all about Salewa Trailteam as their tracker hasn't worked since 11:33 yesterday morning local time. Thanks for the reminder.

From Vincent: "L'équipe 64 Adidas Terrex du UK vient d'arriver. Ils sont abimés. Deux des gars ne portaient pas leur sac et je crois comprendre qu'ils veulent dormir un peu. Rien n'est joué!"

So it seems Adidas Terrex just punched in at AT15 and are in rough shape and apparently wants to sleep. Two of the guys where not carrying their backpack.

Still all open for our Snowpants guys

Could be a glitch but FJS's tracker has them on a weird path to the northwest. Colombia Vidaraid is only a few miles behind them on the bike.

I bet their tracker is just off by a bit and they have made that turn northwest that is just south of them on the map. But maybe not.

Hmm...not sure what's going on as the last track has FJS going even further NW. It appears as though they are following a road that way. Colombia Vidaraid is now just two miles away.

Oops, totally forgot about Salewa Trailteam! Although they haven't tracked for ages, the last leaderboard update showed them at TA13 (before the 2nd last bike leg). 25 hours ago, they were an hour behind Team Switzerland and 5 hours ahead of Berghaus. Lots can happen but they are certainly in the mix.

Team Lafuma Vibram has just checked into the Bike - Trek TA. They may be one of the last full course teams to come through this TA.

Text from Shannon... Team Tecnu has withdrawn from the race. :((((( They are safe and sound but two members are under the weather. She and Laurie will pick them up.

That sucks to hear but understandable given how hard they raced till the injuries. Watch out for Team Tecnu in Costa Rica next November at the World's. They won there this year and will be a force once again!

Looks like it was just a glitch for FJS's tracker. The only problem is they haven't moved very far in the last hour while Colombia Vidaraid is right on their heels for 7th place!

Vincent reports that the elusive Salewa Trailteam has arrived at TA15 (end of trek) so they are still ahead of Snowpants. But the final bike section is crazy, as NormalAndrew warned us. Although it is only 58 km, it took the top four teams 8-10 hours to ride it, and except for Seagate, they mostly rode in daylight. It is now 10 p.m. so the next group of teams will take longer.

Good to know Bash, thanks to Vincent for the update on Salewa! They must be at the TA15 with Adidas Terrex.

Go Polish team! Dawaj! :D This is getting crazeee

Team 13. Lafuma Vibram is unranked, altought probably still on the full course.

http://live.raidinfrance.com/marc-balaskovic-contr...

Updated standings as of 10 pm local time

1st - Seagate (11:40 am local time)
2nd - Thule (3:17 pm local time)
3rd - Silva (4:08 pm local time)
4th - Raidlight Cano (7:42 pm local time)
5th - Vibram Lafuma (3/4 way through final bike and extending lead over Raidlight LSN)
6th - Raidlight LSN (Almost 3/4 of the way through final bike but losing some ground to Vibrama Lafuma)
7th - FJS (1/3 way through final bike but either stopped or nav error lost them time)
8th - Colombia Vidaraid (almost 1/3 way through final bike and catching FJS quickly)
9th - Adidas Terrex (At TA15 and apparently very tired considering rest)
10th - Salewa Trailteam (At TA15 after being off the grid for over 24 hours are right in the thick of things)
11th - Team Switzerland (Almost done final long trek and appear to still be moving well)
12th - Pentathlon (over 3/4 way through final trek and appear to be moving well)
13th - Berghaus (1/5 way through final long trek)
14th - Axa Adidas (1/5 way through final long trek)
15th - Arverne Outdoor (Getting close to TA14)

Thanks for the reminder Jackson5!

Update from Vincent:

Ertips is unranked. One of their team members got an IV.

Apparently, Bob is "sad but in top form".

"So it seems Adidas Terrex just punched in at AT15 and are in rough shape and apparently wants to sleep. Two of the guys where not carrying their backpack."

Despite the team wanting sleep it appears they continue to push forward as they are now out on their bike and already a few miles out on course.

Thanks Bash. The full course teams are dwindling unfortunately.

Maybe Adidas Terrex didn't want the teams behind them to have the psychological advantage of seeing them in the TA so they will sleep on the course. Nothing worse than getting sleepmonsters on a bike - ouch!

Imboden Bikes Switzerland (Team #7) was ranked in the top 12 at one point a while ago when the leaderboard was last updated. I can't even find their name on the tracker but am wondering if they are still on the full course.

Imboden Bikes Switzerland is Team Switzerland. Not too sure why the mismatch but it's the same team

Full course as far as I know. They are close to the end of the trek, a little ways ahead of unranked Ertips and Snowpants.

In the leaderborad/team list it's Imboden Bikes Switzerland but on the live tracking it's team Switzerland

Some mixed signals regarding Tecnu: their FB page says they all want to continue and finish the course. They will try to get Sam recuperated and then head out on the trek. Take with a pinch of salt.

70. Salewa Trailteam is now in AT15

Ah ha! Okay thanks for clarifying!

Vibram Lafuma appear to be hammering the bike leg and putting a big distance between them and 6th place Raidlight_LSN. Only a few miles remaining till they hit the bike - trek TA (I believe it's TA16)

It also appears that Colombia Vidaraid's tracker is doing the exact same thing FJS's did in the same area. Not sure if this is a glitch or a missed turn but they had been gaining ground on 7th place.

Snowpants is getting very close to Team Switzerland and could overtake them by the TA15!

Powerbar Inov 8 appears to be taking a short course route across from the TA13. Looks like it would have them skip a bike and trek section and maybe have them follow D32 to D2565 to D73 and eventually join up with the last bike leg. Just speculation but might make sense.

There was just a twitter post that the tracking system is currently down. You mean I don't have to hit refresh for a few minutes?!?

As of 2320 it seems Pentathlon des neiges passed Team Switzerland on the way up the last pass before AT15. Great job guys!

Awesome work Pentathlon!!! Thanks for the update!

You don't have to hit refresh at all! At least I don't. Mine refreshes automatically every couple of minutes.

There may be mixed signals regarding Tecnu but Shannon just texted a second time to confirm that the team is not continuing, and she and Laurie are picking them up at "the refugee camp" tomorrow morning. (Keep in mind that it's 11:30 p.m. in France and the mountain roads aren't much fun to drive in the dark.)

DD, Powerbar Inov8 is on a short course. There is a cut-off at TA13 (the end of the short-ish trek after the river kayak). Dart was caught by it too but they are on the move once again. Teams finishing this short course are still going to be high in the rankings. The farther along the race course the team starts its short course, the higher the ranking.

I know I was kind of kidding although I hit refresh too just because I can't wait a couple of minutes sometimes. ;) And yes, I know that these teams are moving relatively slow compared to my mouse clicks!

Hopefully Tecnu have warm beds to sleep in tonight.

Looks like 3 fench teams are going to get 4-5-6 place. We expected Seagate, Thule and Silva to fight for the podium, but for those 3 teams it's a phenomenal achievement.

Re: Shortcourse. That's what I figured. Seems like a logical route for them to take.

If you scroll up in this discussion, you'll find a link to the cut-off times for the various short courses. Unfortunately, the short course descriptions refer to CPs and road book info that we don't have on the tracking map so we don't really know where they're going for sure.

I'm not sure if "refugee camps" have warm beds. But it looks like TA14 is near a hotel if Tecnu wants to splurge. If they do, they may need to get money from Shannon and Laurie tomorrow.

http://www.routard.com/photos/cote_d_azur/47908-la...

Pentathlon has clearly passed the Swiss, who may have been forced to stop. Bothh teams are 90% done the trek.

Yes, looks like the Swiss have stopped, whether to treat feet or sleep or both.

From Tecnu FB page : "Team Ertips abandons the race in the top 10 due to dehydration. Get better soon!"

FB here does not refer to our the one and only FB attackpoint user....

Next up is the Polish team #70 Solewa who finished the trek about 1 hour ago. It looks like Snowpants has maybe 2 hours of trekking left...

Terrex is still moving forward on the bike, they haven't stopped to sleep yet. They are in the middle of a monstrous climb and likely won't want to stop on the exposed ridge section at high altitude that follows, so they're going to be forced to ride at least another 90 minutes or so before being able to stop.

it looks like Columbia has turned back on the bike. either that or its another glitch, but one that falls exactly on the route back...next spot should be interesting

OK..here's the Dobby theory: Columbia has made a nav error on the bike. Their tracking for the last 4 - 5 updates have looked "wierd", and maybe it's just positiong data glitches. However, looking closely at their tracking reveals that each update came from a road or trail. Also, at least one team ahead of them started down that same incorrect route before turning around.

At midnight, Snowpants is 1.5 km away from the trek/bike TA, and they're coming along a ridge, probably on a trail, so it won't be long now. Vincent and I have been e-mailing back and forth, and I've just let him go so he can get ready!

Yeah, that was FJS - the livht green track - who went the wrong way briefly at the same point that Columbia have gone off the route.

Btw, Ertips may be unranked but they are coming into the TA right behind Snowpants. So they may not have abandoned the race just yet.

Tell him that Columbia ahead have made a very big and costly navigational error, and that they are now catchable.

Will do!

Looking at the map some more...Columbia can recover onto the proper route without having to backtrack - which would involve a massive climb - provided they know where exactly they are. If they continue south along the rad/trail that they're on, they can make their way through a maze of intersecions and get back on track. If they do that, then I don't think they'll fall back enough for Snowpants to catch.

Updating as I discover things here...maybe it was a tactical decision to take a longer route than the "rhum" line. It looks like the path they took/are taking is 90% paved.

More news from in front...it appears that Terrex has stopped before reaching the top of the climb on their bikes.

Los Dobos, that's what I was thinking about Columbia too. I guess there weren't any CPs along that particular "rhum line".

Terrex's spot is updating and moving around, but they hav made virtually no progerss at all since 2300 local, as of the 0020 update.

Vincent sees Snowpants' lights now as they come toward TA15!

It doesn't appear that Columbia's route is dramatically faster or slower than the rhum line, but it's likely safer riding. Might be an option to consider.

They can absolutely catch Terrex, who has been going nowhere 1/2-way up the first big climb. Like I said: it's been over 90 minutes since Terrex mad any forward progress. But it doesn't look like theyv'e stopped to sleep, more like they atre navigating while asleep.

Columbia is back on the rhum line, and they've mad up a bit of ground on FJS. That's definitely a route choice to consider, assuming they don't miss any CPs doing it.

Another update and no movement from Terrex. However, Snowpants has slowed to a crawl within sight of the TA...maybe they are having trouble locating a CP. Ertips will be with them any minute, so if that's the case, then it will go better with 2 teams looking.

From Tecnu Facebook page: "After 12 hours in the transition area [it has actually been 23 hours now] and receiving IV fluids, the medical staff of the World Championships have decided NOT to allow the team to continue on. The team was determined to let Sam recover, and they all wished to continue on un-ranked to the finish line, and finish off the race. Race officals are transporting the team to HQ right now..."

Ertips has been doing so well in this last section that Vincent began to doubt the information he had been provided by a race official about them being unranked. But they're coming into the TA (or there already) and he says there are only 3 teammates still racing.

Snowpants is now in the TA and grabbing 20 minutes sleep before putting the bikes together and going after Terrex. Who still hasn't moved. Hope they set multiple alarms.

Snowpants will soon head out to try to catch Adidas Terrex, who have been stopped for 2.5 hours about 8 km into the bike leg. Snowpants said that Team Switzerland is sick/hurt which explains why they haven't moved in hours.

And there goes Columbia Vidaraid with another interesting bike nav decision. (Since I don't know where the CPs are, I don't know whether it is clever but it probably is.) It looks like they may have bushwhacked over a ridge - or taken trails we can't see - to hit a paved road and cut off a little more distance.

Columbia has caught FJS - nicely done.

Vibram Lafuma has crossed the finish line, 5th place. Super perf Manu!

14h19m between 1st place Seagate and 5th place Vibram Lafuma.

Ertips spot in now back at AT14...sounds glitchy...

What's the alltime record for comments on an Attackpoint thread? 570 and counting...

Ertips is racing unranked as a team of three so their glitchy GPS track doesn't affect the results.

Wilberto, I don't know. I'm worried Ken may want to kick us off AP after this! ;)

Ah, now I see where the short course from TA13 goes. Dart and a couple of other teams are heading over to join the final bike leg behind Adidas Terrex. Snowpants will have some company out there tonight!

Pantalons is back on the move!

What's the alltime record for comments on an Attackpoint thread?

I don't know, but if we also work in some comments on a Rogaine name change, this thread will be untouchable.

"Like"

Snowpants left TA15 on their bikes at 02: 38 a.m. According to Vincent, their nap helped a lot since they had sleepmonsters when they arrived. They ate hot freeze-dried foods (it's chilly) and left with the plan to race perfectly to the end to take 10th place.

Sounds like a very good plan.

WHOOO HOO SNOWPANTS!!

... but soo crushed for Technu!! Going to go open a beer for them :(

Hopefully Tecnu will recover soon, both physically and mentally. What an epic race they have had!
Keeping fingers crossed for Snowpants to finish the race safely.

Does someone has any visual about Team Garmin, Finland? As their tracker is not working, and leaderboard is out-of-date again.

Tuomas, if you don't find anyone here, you could try Twitter with hashtags #raidinfrance and #arwc2012. It looks like they're having a good race - or at least they *were* back when we were getting information about them.

As Wilberto pointed out, we are approaching 600 posts in this thread, I want to thank Ken Walker Jr. for providing us this forum where people around the world can watch a race together - and log athletic training too, if we're so inclined. Attackpoint isn't Ken's day job but he provides much better support than most online services I've paid for. He covers the costs of operating this site through voluntary contributions. If you feel you are getting value from Attackpoint, please consider making a donation. If you donate $25 a year, you get access to extended functionality and as a bonus, the advertising will disappear!

It looks like Snowpants may be taking the same route as Columbia earlier. Unless Terrex has to sleep again, I doubt they can catch them up.

Bash, I will ask from someone who is actually in there.

"They are pushing on and is coming. But I dont know more.
Sorry. They have been shortcoursed." - Andreas Strand

So, they arrived 23:07 to end of section M and are currently on 18th place.

It looks like PDN tried the same route as Columbia but they have been at a bit of a standstill and the short course teams are blowing by them on the regular route. Maybe a cat nap was needed. Hope they get moving soon.

Phew, just go the latest update. Back on track.

Yeah, Terrex had to stop for 2+ hours for a nap early on the bike, while Snowpants only grabbed 15 minutes in the TA.

AXA and Berghaus are not that far back. This race is killing me (maybe not quite as much as the competitors).

Wow, wow, wow.

I've been dragged in so many directions this week I have not been able to follow as I wanted, thanks to all for the updates.

The Goats are feeling for Tecnu as well, but have been cheering Snowpants and others on the side!

Bash - thanks for that note on the donation.

I may be about to enter an Internet-free zone for a couple of days - not 100% sure. Just in case, I'll say "Go Snowpants!!" as they ride toward the finish. Thanks to everyone for making it so much fun to watch this event with like-minded people. When the racers finish, I hope a few of them will stop by to share their experiences.

What? You can't leave Bash, your work here is not finished. How are we going to get the best "potential reasons" for what is going on?

Okay, go if you must. A huge thanks for helping to provide the best race analysis out there.

Dart should pass them any minute and Berghaus and AXA are still coming. Ahhhhh

I'm guessing a bike mechanical since NormalAndrew warned us about the rough conditions on this leg. LosDobos is busy flying to Las Vegas today and will only be online sporadically, so when it comes to guessing "potential reasons", Leanimal, I guess you're on duty! No sleep for you tonight! (But as the Mom of an almost-2-year-old, you should be OK with that.) ;) And there are other good guessers out there...

Thanks Bash, awesome work!

Toi aussi - merci!

More about dehydration and Tecnu in the news section:

"... Another top French team to pull out near the end of the race were Ertips when David Barranger needed medical support for severe dehydration. This is becoming a problem for many teams, who, according to the medics, are not drinking enough when cold in the night – then in the day time it is cruelly hot, even more so now teams are coming down to the coast. Sam Clarke of Tecnu Adventure Racing was in similar problems on the last big trek in the Mercantour National Park.

“He was sick and throwing up all the time,” said Kyle Peter, “and we stopped for almost a full day to try and allow him to recover. We did set off again, but had to go back and he was put on a drip, so we were out of the race. As we came here to be competitive, aiming at a top 5 place, the rest of the team decided not to finish the race.

“His race food didn’t arrive and I think he wasn’t looking after himself well enough and maybe lacking experience and not asking for help from us enough. He’s young … and a bit hard headed.”

http://live.raidinfrance.com/celebrations-and-comm...

Thankfully PDN has started moving again because Berghaus and AXA are not that far behind them. This could be a sprint finish yet. Hopefully they just caught a bit of shut eye to get them to the end.

Some great videos of day 6.

In the first one we see 47.Pentathlon des Neiges Processia at 2:29 in a canyon.

In the second Silva mentions "...so dry course, really hard to find water..." at 1:24

Day 6-1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3tIwgCed-s

Day 6-2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCUBxgQnNvo

DAMN, Berghaus is RIGHT behind them.

Ahhh Berghaus is past them and AXA is up next. They must be right out of it or have a bike mechanical as Bash said. So close yet so far.

PdN are back on the move, managed to put some distance to AXA, still time to reel in Berghaus Accom...

Just heard from Shannon. They picked up Tecnu at 4 a.m. Tecnu didn't know about the "IV = unranking" rule until after the IV. They had expected to continue ranked with Sam once he was rehydrated.

Shannon said Bob seems to be in pretty good shape (after a much-needed shower!) and, as a longtime racer, is philosophical about the bad things that sometimes happen in AR.

She said that it was very hard to get real race info onsite unless you were traveling with the media. The race organization was reluctant to answer questions from family and friends.

AXA is trying to pull something by cutting the loop on the east side of a mountain... don't know if any other teams did it, but seems to make a lot of sens... probably involves a bit more climbing but it's shorter for sure... again hard to call without knowing where th CP are...

Not sure what happen but anyway Berghaus is pulling away on the descent and AXA is back on the green track in front of Pentathlon...

Clarification re the IV: Tecnu was taken by surprise when Sam went for the IV and doctors explained the rule to several team members while Vincent helped with translation. But obviously Sam's health was paramount so there was no choice but to go ahead.

Yeah it did seem like AXA was making a good move to try to get ahead but why are they headed back the other direction. I wonder if they passed berghaus?

Weird... unless some shit happen and there are heading straight to the finish...

It looks more and more like AXA realized at some point they forgot a CP and had to turn around to get it, which would make sens as the logical way would be to skip the loop if there was no CP there, so there must be one and they passed it.

Good point. I was also thinking that maybe their tracker was just off a bit but a missed CP is a more likely scenario. Bummer, that would have been a sweet move.

AXA are now back on the right path, so must have been a forgotten CP issue type.

Again some criss cross for PdN and AXA... seems Pnd went through a village... and were passed by AXA... maybe a forgotten CP story again.

AXA has put some distance on our Snowpants...

Are we looking at a sprint finish on the paddle for 13th place? Go Snowpants.

Come on Snowpants!!! So close...one final push after 6 days of pushing. Incredible!

And Pantalons has turned on the afterburner to over take AXA again...

Any idea how many full course teams remain out there? I see Berghaus is on the final paddle.

Curious to know who will win the LosDobos Red Lantern award. :)

Mountain Hardwear? Looks to still be moving at the top of the last bike and their track looks full course.

As of 2301 AXA is about 500m behind Snowpants. They are going to take it to the line... they must be exhausted, espacially at the end of the day...

AXA missed 5th place by mere cm last year in XPD Australia racing to the line with adidas Terrex: http://teamadidasterrex.com/wp-content/uploads/201...

Seems they are back for some more.

From Vincent about 30min ago: "L'equipe arrive a AT16. Aucun blessé. Aucun vélo brisé. Manque d'eau, erreur de nav. Le moral est pas top. Plus à venir..."

"Pentathlon arrivent at AT16 around 22:50. No injuries. No mechanical problem. Ran out of water. Nav error. Spirits are a bit low. More to come".

Team 32. AXA is about 20min behind them. Let's hope they can hold it.

Seems Snowtpants stormed all the way down the city to the last AT and are now ready for the last section. AXA is still in the early part of the trek. Looks like they will be able to hold, but water section can always be tricky at night, especially ocean paddling, let's keep our fingers crossed.

From Raid in France: "47. Penthatlon des neiges vient d'embarquer pour la dernière section de kayak avant l'arrivée."

They are in the boat for the last section.

Apparently some bug knocked Tecnu at some point.

From Tecnu FB page: "Just talked to Bob, teams feeling good. KP's hanging with his mom today, and they got a good sleep, and are feeling good, watching some of our friends come across the finish line. There's a bug that's kind of knocked the team out, first Sam, then KP, now Bob a ltitle, and that was a major player in the teams demise, and eventual withdrawal. Apparently alot of the teams have come down with it. Other than that, team feels great, enjoying not having to move, enjoying spending time with friends and family. Sorting through nasty gear, and getting ready for tonights post race awards banquet. in the mean-time all the short course teams are still out there racing heading home. Bring it home guys! Tecnu's proud of you guys! We already see the amazing silver lining here, and are amped about 2013, and what that looks like for us. Don't count us out in Costa Rica. We would like to give our amazing friends over at Seagate a run for their money, and will be training hard to do just that. A heart-felt congratulations goes out to Seagate for their amazing win. Congrats to Nathan and team for running an amazing race. We are bummed we were not there to battle you more. In the mean-time we have a National Championships back home in the states we need to hopefully go win in 3 weeks, so we will recover, then let the dogs out once more."

Not too much further for PDN!! They should hold their heads up high after a great race!

Last track has PdN a few hundred meters away from the finish! They will cross just before midnight local time!

It's official! Penthatlon crossed the finish line just minutes before midnight local time. Congratulations and thanks to Jackson5 and Bash for all the updates throughout from Vincent! Now enjoy some rest!

Good luck to the remaining teams on the course. It's been a long number of days for them.

Yeah Pentathlon!!!!! ;)

And I'm back online in time to have missed the grand finale. Oh well, at least I got to catch up on some sleep. Congratulations to to every team that finished, whether full course or short course.I think in the end only 14 teams finished the full, with Snowpants 13th and AXA 14th. Stoked for Karen form Sole - one tough lady on AXA. There was a photo out there of her asleep inside her bike box at one of the TAs.

Really crushing what happened to Tecnu, but they ran a hard, fast race and can hopefully take a lot of positives out of this going forward into next season. Hoping everyone gets fully recovered soon.

Full course Lanterne Rouge to Mountain Hardwear at 175 hours, but there might be some short-course team that's been out there longer, and that's still an official finish....yes, Haute Jura Aventure at 176h17min takes the coveted Lantern Rouge. Way to tough it out!

Congratulations Pentathlon des Neiges on finishing the full course! Bravo!

Awesome job by all!
Epic race!

So...... Now what?....
:)
What are we supposed to do? What are we supposed to talk about? Or are we supposed to get back to work?...

I should probably just go outside and do some exercise!

Racer reports are starting to appear. Here is a good report from 3rd place Team Silva with beautiful photos by Andreas Strand. Silva was frustrated to hit the dark zone on the first river paddle only 2 km from the end after losing time searching for a misplaced CP on the previous trek. Still, they managed to keep their sense of humour:

Halfway through the stage we had caught the two French teams when we were forced to spend an hour with them searching for a control that was set in the wrong place. Robert exclaimed “oppsy daisy” (although in Swedish) as he was well aware that the next evening there was a critical cut-off on the course that we all wanted to pass.

http://www.arsweden.se/adventure/index.php?post_id...

Wow... Nice work on on providing insight!

quick DART recap/highlights to fill in some blanks:

With the 2 "restarts" (min time on mt and dark zones) built in we were not particularly interested in trying to be up front out of the gates. Then the alternative trek section was inserted, we were without running shoes and missed the memo on using other peoples shoes. We did the 20k 1b trek in our mountaineering boots and crushed our feet, which basically kept us from ever getting to a speed that we wanted throughout the rest of the trekking sections (a lot of the biking too since we were constantly pushing bikes). We also mis interpreted/understood the cut off at the via feratta and shared the dark zone with snow pants. Along with every team we had 1,000 fun obstacles like getting caught in a hole on the white water rafting, Aaron getting sick, etc. to add to the fun, but that's the nature of an expedition AR. On the last long paddle one of our boats got a hole in it that caused it to basically sink and we speant 2 hours on the shore repairing the hole with a carved out seat cushion, gorilla tape and a water bottle...love racing with engineers! This was the short course hump and we missed the cut off shortly after (made to skip the last trek)...after we got short coursed we stopped at a pizzeria for pizzas, beers, cappacino's ice creams...hmm what else. Pushed to the finish afterwards and had fun with my friends.

we got some great pics and lots of video, will post this weekend on our FB page.

props to Tecnu, Pantalones and all who toed the line. Raid in France upped the ante on technical racing in an expedition AR...no joke.

Thanks for sharing that background info, DARTvg. We were watching and cheering for you! Congrats on a great result with sore feet on a very tough race course.

Wow, sorry to hear things went poorly for you, especially the messed up feet early on. Impressive that you kept pushing despite the frustrations and lots of things working against you.
Thanks for sharing the info, always great to get the full story.

Thanks for sharing DARTvg. Glad to hear that you were able to cross the finish line and love that you stopped for pizza, beer and ice cream!

I agree with Dartvg, unbelievable job tracking the event! It was really fun to re-read and note all the times we were messing up, but you guys were all so positive! Thanks so much for all the support, I could really feel that reading this thread. I finally posted a race report for Team Tecnu on my log here:

http://www.ar.attackpoint.org/viewlog.jsp?userid=7...

As usual, lots of ups & downs, but an incredible course and experience!

Video, in case there is someone who havent seen this...