Raid Gallaecia Expedition Race 2017
Raid Gallaecia 2017 - Race Start
Anne-Marie Dunhill / 08.05.2017
The 2017 edition of the Raid Gallaecia started precisely at 10:00 on Monday May 8, in the town square of As Pontes, Spain. International teams had been arriving since Friday and shuttles were constantly going back and forth from the nearest airport in Santiago; about an hour and a half drive away from the town of the race start.
The race briefing took place in the town municipal theater on Sunday night but no team maps were given until this morning at 09:00. Teams then scattered over the square to study the first four maps that the team captain collected from the race director, Pablo Lopez. There was quite a contrast between the classic rock music blaring from the loud speakers and the intensity with which the racers poured over the maps, highlighters in hand.
Team XTTR63 from France arrived 15minutes late to collect their maps. Steve Lecomte was wearing full make-up with lipstick, black eye liner, neon blue eye shadow and cats whiskers drawn in red on his cheeks. He explained that they were staying in a gite about 30km from As Pontes and had forgotten several items of race gear back at the gite.
After a quick count down in Spanish, the racers were off on the first section; a 11km orienteering stage that took teams directly up in to the hills surrounding the town. There was a large field of wind turbines planted among the bright yellow gorse and deep mauve heath buses and the hills were alive with color. The lead teams came through the wind turbines closely grouped together.
With temperatures of °27 at midday, the weather is unseasonably warm and racers were literally dripping with sweat as they collected the CPs on this first section. Tonno of the race organization explained to a photographer that in the mountains above this area it had been snowing last week. Observing the vegetation, the gorse bush is a prickly nightmare and all runners had at least the bottom part of their legs covered. Another consideration when racing in this area is ticks as the RD had emphasized during the briefing.
After the first section, racers transitioned to kayaks for 48kms. There were several sections of portage and many teams struggled with their tiny two wheel trolleys: precariously balancing their paddles and gear on the bumpy gravel road.
There are three referees at this ARWS race; Greg and Bette from Australia and Angel from Spain. Greg and Bette were observing carefully one of the portage sections as teams disembarked and the front team held up teams following closely behind on the narrow platform onto which they disembarked to portage past a dam.
Further along the course, teams emerged from the woods and crossed the main road leading in to As Pontes. One of the largest man made lakes in Europe is in As Pontes, created on the site of a former coal mine. Teams crossed the road and re-entered the water to collect several CPs on this lake. Leading to the lake there was a shallow drainage ditch hidden by plants and several racers slipped awkwardly into the ditch as the weight of the kayak they were pulling dragged them down. One fall that looked esepcially painful was Tom Gaudion from France.
Race referees Gregg and Bette noted a penalty at this point as the team members of team number 27 were much further than 100meters apart. Gregg said that all three referees would meet to discuss the penalties given and then inform the teams at the CP following the attribution of a penalty.
Although it is hot racing today, the weather is predicted to change in the next twenty-four hours, back to the wet windy weather that is typical for the Galicia region of Spain. Although it’s the early hours of the race, judging by the times seen today and the level of the teams racing here, it’s going to be an epic battle!
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