Raid in France Race Report
Well this
was it….. One year in the planning and
training that would lead up to racing at the World Cup level in a foreign
country with the very best of adventure racing teams…..
This goal
was formulated back after the National Championships last year and Summit
Adventure Racing/Team Commie Bar was able to put together a world class team
that could commit to an endeavor of this magnitude. Not only the physical training but the time
and money commitment needed to get this done.
I could talk all day about the year of training and prep but let’s begin
as we move enroute to France…..
The Team
Team Commie Bar team
consists of numerous athletes from around the U.S.. The 2015 World Cup Team consisted of:
Todd Copley/Team
Captain from Deep Creek Lake, MD
Todd Copley has been adventure racing for over 20 years
and was a former U.S. Army Special Operations Commander. Although he has completed numerous expedition
races many years ago this will be a new challenge for 2015 as he turns 53 years
old. Todd is also the coach of the U.S.
Collegiate Adventure Racing National Champions and helped host the U.S.
National Championships in his home of Deep Creek
Lake, MD.
Jon Gamm
from Denver, CO
Jon Gamm is an ex-Army officer as well and has competed in adventure
races up to 48 hours in length. Jon is a
Colorado ranked competitor in X-Terra and two time finisher of the Pike’s Peak
Marathon and the Panama City Full Ironman.
Jon also has experience in ultra running while under the influence of
alcohol.
Guillaume Calais - Lyon Rhone Alpes - St. Victor sur Rhins
Guillaume Callais probably brings the most expedition style racing
experience to the team. He’s finished
Raid in France 4 times and competed at the World Championships. We are counting on him to add great value to
the team and his knowledge of France and the region. Guillaume's English is pretty good but he can't understand Jon's jokes and Kim talks to fast for him!
Kimberly Owens from Grand Rapids Michigan is a remarkable endurance
athlete and competes primarily in ultra running. She’s completed numerous 50K plus trail
running events and has a great background in adventure racing. This year she completed the 70 mile Laurel
Highlands trail run and also the Trans Rockies stage race covering over 120
miles.
The race
itself would be a 4 day/4 night race beginning on Tuesday night September 15 at
midnight and ending on Saturday, September 20 at 6:30pm.
We had 94
hours to be on course…..
Past the 24hour
racing point, this style of racing is called Expedition Racing. We would have to carry EVERYTHING needed to
survive for 4+ days in the most remote wilderness in the region of L’Ain and
the pre-alp mountains. The packlist
consisted of individual gear including tents and sleeping bags and also
mountain bike gear, climbing gear, kayaking gear, canyoning gear and all of our
food and provisions. We had budgeted
around $2,000 in gear purchases for the race.
Ever heard of a kayak trolley? We
needed one. How about a World Series
approved bike box? We needed 4. Every time I turned around I was spending 200
bucks. My wife thought I was a
shareholder in Amazon.com….
The race
would take place in a little known area of France called the Haut Bugey of the
department of L’Ain. Coincidently I knew
this region fairly well after having lived for 9 years in the L’Ain near
Lyon. It is really wild and steep and
savage. Perfect for adventure
racing.
The race was a
qualifier for the World Championships and part of the World Cup/Series of
Adventure Racing.
A teaser for
the 2015 race is here:
Raid in France 2015 Teaser
The Logistics
The team
flew into Lyon, France leaving the U.S. on Friday 11 September and arriving
Saturday 12 September. Guillaume, our
French teammate, picked us up at the airport and we went to his house to begin
the 4 day preparation for the race to include gear packing and layouts and
inspections. We rebuilt our bikes there
and got all our gear together. His house
and family is in a beautiful area of the Lyonnais Mountains and we enjoyed the
French family touch with his wife and 3 children.
On Monday we packed
up and moved about 3 hours by car to race headquarters. On that day we stopped at the gear store and
spent more money and also the grocery store to load up on food.
For the trip
I had packed my bike in a pro bike case weighing 70 pounds. I also had two more bags with all my gear
weighing 50 pounds each. Plus carry on
to the max. Over 170 pounds on the
airplane.
On site we spent the
afternoon going through mandatory gear checks and inspections. We had to go through ropes certification and
bike disassembly reviews.
The next day
on Tuesday we spent finalizing the gear and packing the gear bins. We would have our individual bike boxes that
could weigh 28 kilos, a team climbing bin, two team kayak bags, a team wetsuit
bag and a huge barrel gear bin that could weigh 44 kilos. We stuffed them with extra clothes, food and
other stuff.
There was an
opening ceremony that night and race dinner but we were so stressed out getting
the final preps one we barely made any of these.
After all
that we headed back to the hotel and grabbed two hours of sleep and got up at
1100pm to head back for the midnight start.
Right at
midnight as we were lined up it started raining………. It would not stop for 72 hours.
The Race Sections and Transitions
Prologue: 3km
This ended
up being much more than 3km and we spent 1.5 hours on it.
Section A:
Trekking: 30km/20 miles
This was a
very long foot movement through the rugged terrain of L’Ain. We hit every point except B6 and we spent
approximately 4 hours looking for it knowing we needed it to be
classified. At the end we still didn’t find
it like some other teams and we missed the cutoff for the Section B
Section B: Stand Up Paddleboard: 2km
Team Commie Bar was
shortcoursed around this and the Section C short trek to the 1st MTB
Section
Section
C: Trek 2: 4km/2.5 miles
Shortcoursed
Section
D: MTB 1
After having
missed the SUP and the short trek to the Transition area we saddled up and got
on the bikes just about dusk on Wednesday/Night 2.
We would be
on the bikes well into the next day. The
rain broke for a short period of time and we slept for 3 hours on the side of a
mountain. We had been up for over 40
hours. As the rain recommenced we woke
up and saddled up and hit the trail. The
trails at this point were turning to mud soup and very difficult to ride.
At the end of the
section we needed to warm up as we were all suffering greatly. Kim was extremely cold so we made our way to
a small village to try and find a warm place to get some food and coffee.
We found out
that due to the weather the kayak portion had been cancelled at this
point. The team and other racers were
then transported to the kayak take out point 40kilometers down river where we
would begin MTB 2
Section
E: Kayak: 40km/25 miles
Cancelled
due to weather
Section
F: MTB 2: 17km/12 miles
This was
extremely hilly and muddy as we picked our way across the vineyards and fields
fjording many streams along the way. We
had a massive climb up to the mouth of a very large canyon where the canyoning
section was to be staged. We got there
and our climbing boxes were there with wetsuits but again the weather was
dominating and the section was just too dangerous to be undertaken. Section G Canyoning was cancelled and again
we were left to remount our bikes.
Section
G: Canyoning: 2km
Cancelled
due to weather
Section
H: MTB 3: 18km/12 miles
From the
Canyoning section we had to pack our climbing gear in our packs as we moved to
the next section. In already heavy packs
the load of additional climbing gear was really felt. This movement was a disaster. The trails were now obliterated and we could
barely ride. The last 5kilometers down
to the river followed a steep draw that was basically a mud river. See the videos posted to get a feel for how
it was to push your bike through 3 feet of mud for 6 hours.
At the bottom we
literally through our bikes in the river to try and get the mud and leaves off
them. We found drinking water in a small
town and it was around 11pm as we then tried to find the trail to the
transition area. All the trails now were
underwater as the river had overflowed its banks. Staying dry was impossible and again the cold
set in as the night temperatures dropped to 5 celsius/40 degrees
Farenheit. We finally limped into the
transition area and were surprised to hear that the climbing section was still
a go.
We tore down
our bikes and loaded them in the bike cases and put on our trekking gear and
harnesses. We left the TA at 1:30am on
Thursday.
Team Commie Bar in the mud on the descent to the river on Night 3
Section I: Trek 3 and Ropes: 5km
The estimated
distances were turning out to be extremely off.
The trek began with a murder climb that would not stop on 50 degree
slopes of scree and rock. We first
crossed a major stream using our climbing gear and clicked into a safety rope
that allowed us to cross using a log in the water. That led through a cave and upwards we
went. For every 2 steps forward we slid
one back on the mud and loose rock. Kim
was having a very rough go of it and we were all scared of falling and not
being able to stop. Finally after what
seemed a lifetime we made it to a point where we had to cross across a
waterfall area just below the falls. The
water was raging and there was supposed to be a guide there to help us. There was no one! We waited for close to 2 hours knowing that
there was no way we could descend the treacherous climb we just came up. Guillaume climbed further looking for a way
out but the cliffs stopped him.
We would
have to cross the waterfall just to get out of here. During this time while we waited on the
guides we pulled out the emergency blankets and tried to keep warm. Jon had some grappa in his pack and we all
took a couple pulls on the bottle to try and stay warm. Finally the guides arrived!! We crossed the waterfall area by hooking into
a fixed line and stepping in the raging water hoping your foot would catch on a
rock and you would stay upright. After
the stream we had another very long climb upward climbing via ferratta style
and hooking into a rope system that would prevent a disaster fall should we
stumble. Finally at the top we were
given the proper climbing gear for a real via ferratta and we began our journey
on the face of a wall high above the valley.
By this time it was 4am or so and I was not looking forward to this part
of the race. The via ferratta (see the
video) was a steel cable system bolted into the sheer wall of rock that we
would navigate using foot and hand pegs.
The one thing in our favor was it was pitch dark and you actually could
not see how high you were dangling on nothing but a foot peg. The entire traverse took about 1.5 hours and
it was white knuckle all the way. I was emotionally and
physically drained. So was the
team. On the last pitch/climb out we
could not shimmy through the narrow rock slit and had to secure our packs into
the wall and then hang on the sheer cliff as we pulled the packs out using a
rope system. Tensions ran high as we all
wanted to be off the wall. As we all
resurfaced from the via ferratta we were spent.
From there we moved into another trekking movement and we were the
walking dead. As we neared the valley
floor we had to strap Guillaume to Jon and give him some trekking poles as he
was falling asleep with every step. We
nailed the final points and made our way back
to the transition area where we would be
forced by the organization to go into a dark room and sleep for 3 hours before
continuing.
When we hit the Transition
area it was 1000am on Thursday. We had
been up for 51 hours with 3 hours of sleep.
Team Commie Bar on the ropes and via ferratta at 0300 on Night 3
Main RACE Transition
Area:
When we got
here we first had to drop our gear. Then
we all grabbed some food out of our gear bins and were led to a room in a big
gym. Once entering the room we could not
leave for 3 hours. We all climbed into
our sleeping bags and fell immediately to sleep. After 3 hours we were awakened and moved back
outside to build our bikes. Coming into
the transition area we had missed the cut off to continue on the regular course
so leaving this transition we would begin on mountain bike for a modified
Section N. We missed sections J,K, L,
and M. One of these sections was an old
fashioned boat on the river that I had been looking forward to. So again on bikes.
Section N
alternate: MTB 5
From the
sleep transition we hooked up with a French team that had been shortcoursed as
well. They were a nice group and we hit
it off with them as we moved into the mtb section. This was a beautiful section that took us
across the ski areas of the Haut Bugey.
Section O/Kayak had again been cancelled so now we were trying to pick
up points and complete the sections to remain classified in the race.
When we hit this
transition area they had a roaring fire going!!
We all huddled around the fire to make our plans for the final night of
racing. We desparately needed some sleep
and knowing we would still be classified if we made the final cut off time at
the finish by 6:30 on Saturday we decided to make use of the time we had to get
some real sleep. We laid out the tents
and sleeping bags and crawled in. We had
planned on about 5 hours of sleep but did not count on the extreme cold. I shivered all night in our little lightweight
sleeping bags and miserable little tents.
Although we were down for 5 hours I know I had no more than 2 hours of
sleep. We awoke at 6am for the final
push to the finish. We had 12 hours to
make it and although it looked that was certainly doable you never know in
adventure racing.
Section
O: Kayak
Cancelled
Section
P/MTB 6
We put together a
plan that would take us over the Col de la Biche mountain pass and get a point
there then down, down, down into the valley through a series of small
towns. As we took off on bikes it was
cold and we were still shivering. Kim
was extremely cold and was finding it hard to maintain the pace. We were still moving with the French team and
we had to keep up. Finally she got into
the swing and at the bottom of the valley in a small town we found they were
having what could only be termed a church bake sale!!! They had hot pizzas and sugar cake and water
and wine!! We stopped and had pizza and
a glass of rose!
At the top of the
climb we hit a point then began a long road movement towards the finish. Just about 5k from the finish we diverted off
on a trail climb to get a point on a ridgeline and then to a hike a bike
section to a final point before descending to the finish. The hike a bike was so hard they only allowed
teams to be on it spaced by 5 minutes.
Believe me I wasn’t in a mood to go through more suffering knowing we
were only 5k from the finish but…….
We made it
up and over the mountain.
The Finish:
As we
cruised down towards the town of Hauteville Lompnes it was great to reflect on
the race. A team of 4 people had
completed a 4 day/4night expedition race in the heart of France. I was happy and tired.
The only
mountain bike crash I had the entire race happened on the road about 1k from
the finish when I hit a curb and went over the handlebars. At the finish we were greeted by hundreds of
the townspeople and volunteers and sprayed with champagne as we crossed the
line.
We had raced a total of 87 hours straight. We had been up for over 108 hours with only 10 hours of sleep or so....
Team Commie Bar navigates the flooded trails
THAT WAS RAID IN FRANCE 2015
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