Raid Gallacecia Expedition Race
Gathering for Raid Gallaecia
Rob Howard / 11.05.2015
The twenty three teams entered for the 500km Raid Gallaecia have been arriving in the village centre of the host town of Cuntis this morning for registration. This is set up in a spacious meeting hall in the gardens of the Hotel Castro, one of many here associated with the natural thermal spa baths the village is famous for.
Teams are staying in hotels around the village square, which is overlooked by a grand and imposing church with an ornate bell tower and has a ring which is more like a tune than a peel. All of the buildings in the town have thick stone walls and the streets are paved with flag stones with little to no traffic. The arrival of the race is making the streets busier of course, with teams carrying bags and kit around and race vehicles coming and going, but it’s a very relaxed and informal atmosphere.
The surrounding countryside is hilly with farmsteads in the forest and after a misty start the weather for the first full day of the event has been sunny and warm. However, the climate here has a strong Atlantic influence so it is variable and nothing can be taken for granted. The calm weather is a good sign for the sea state for the offshore kayaking though.
All the teams had a time slot for registration and testing, which ran throughout the morning and they arrived in their black race bibs, which have their team nationality written down the back.
French team Issy Aventure are here and Phillipe Chod explained they’d had to juggle team members ahead of the start, so they were just glad to have 4 racers here and looking forward to enjoying the Spanish countryside. “It is an easy race for us to get to,” he said, “with just a little flight.”
Reigning World Champions Seagate had a much longer trip from New Zealand but have been in the country for some time, getting used to the time change and exploring the countryside. They are racing with Albert Roca, who Nathan Fa’avae jokingly called “our local guide” and it will be an advantage for them to have a Spaniard on the race with them who also happens to be a World Champion.
Fa’avae has only raced in Spain once before, at the World Championships, and said, “Personally I favoured going to Tierra Viva, but I was outvoted and here we are! We wanted to race at time we could get away from the New Zealand winter, but ironically they’ve been having some amazing weather at home and its not been so great here!”
At that World Champs in Spain the winners were Team Buff, and another of that team is racing here as Fran Costoya is on Team Adventure Addicts. It is the strongest and most experienced Spanish team, including Monica Aguilera, Aureleo Roldan and Angel Garcia. Costoya said, “We all know each other very well from many races and I live nearby, so this is home territory for me.”
Another Spanish team tipped to race well are Team Sport HG, although for two of the team it is their first long, international race. The team captain has raced in the past two World Champs and for this race they are joined by top Chilean racer Natali Orellana. It is her first time racing with the team and outside South America and she said, “I wanted to get new experiences racing and move up to the next step, so have been looking for teams to race with outside of Chile and it is great to come here to Spain.”
Once the teams have finished with the formalities there will be an opening ceremony and teams will be given the maps ahead of the technical briefing this evening. Then they have a full night of rest before tomorrow morning’s start.
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