Aix les Bains in the sights of the leading teams

The race has left the Tarentaise valley and is now crossing the Beaufortain and the Bauges regions, middle mountain ranges with forests and pastures.  The « parc naturel régional du Massif des Bauges » is actually classified by Unesco as a world heritage site.  The racers will now do a chain of shorter, easier and playful sections.  On the program : canyon, an aquatic walk, discovery of the Prérouge cave. 

The day following a day of difficult weather conditions has seen the time differences enlargen. The french team 400Team Naturex prance ahead of the others.  On the Grand Revard plains, during the third section of mountain biking, they covered 31 kilometres across pastures and the cross country skiing area.  In the middle of the afternoon, Sébastien Raichon’s team continued with, as from Cusy, a small section of trek to the Croix de Saint-Gras, with the aquatic walk in the Chéran gorges. Due to the lack of water in the river the organisation had to cancel the packraft section, initially planned, by a progression on foot and on mountain bike.

With approximately 9 hours behind the leaders, AbsoluRaidsaventure keep up their rhythm and at the end of the afternoon were at the pont du Diable canyon, then the Prérouge gorge for the canyoning and caving section. Behind them are three teams led by Bim Bim Team, Seiklushunt-HoneyPower (of whom the feminin member participated in the Olympic Games in Sotchi and Pyeongchang for the Estonian biathlon team) and 400Team Naturex 2.  Further behind, the 29 teams still in the race, had all passed Saint-Vital (AT5) at the end of the afternoon, this being the the arrival point of the packraft section on the Isère river.  They are now progressing on foot in the Bauges mountain pastures heading for Bellecombe-en-Bauges (AT6).

Tired due to the ardent race conditions, the mountain terrain, coupled with some bad weather, Nantes Aventures (2), the Belgians Antipanique (24) and the Polish team SnowdogTrailteam (38), decided, last night, to give up.

To see the teams tomorrow : meeting place : Esplanade du Lac, port du Tillet, Aix-les-Bains at the start of the afternoon in order to see the first team arrive.
Other points to view the race : Grand Revard, la grotte de Prérouge and the Pont du Diable canyon.