CORSICA RAID 2004... REPORTS OF JEROME DUMOULIN (TEAM VIA)

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Friday 28th May 2004 (Golfe d’Ajaccio– Piana – Porto)
The arrival at Corsica by the seaside - that is already an extraordinarily exotic trip. But if you see the snow-covered mountaintops, you feel carried to a country faraway. The Corsica Raid Adventure appears!!!
After having picked up our two sea kayaks near Ajaccio, we g right to Portu. About an hour later, the roads were sinuous like often in Corsica, so we could already discover a thousands of facets of this continent island. Everything is magnificent here: the nature, the sea, the sky and the mountains, together they constitute a splendid picture.
We make a short catering stop in Piana which gives us the possibility to admire its amazing creeks and then we reach Portu, a port village situated in the centre of a gulf with the same name. There is a breathtakingly beautiful natural setting. The competition has not yet begun but the trip is already prodigious!!

The official start of the Corsica Raid Adventure is tomorrow, but the organisation is brilliant: the road books and the maps were handed out at Friday afternoon, so that each team has enough time to comprehend the route.
Although we are not even there, we can at least see what we have to expect. Therefore, we read the road book very thoroughly. It is necessary to put the data (azimuths and distances) on the maps. This is a boring work for the Corsica Raid Adventure proposes a full raid week with a multitude of activities over a distance of about 500 km and 20 000 metres of difference in height!! Furthermore, the least mistake of calculation or positioning on the maps would have enormous consequences especially on such a long course in such a difficult terrain.
The organizers of the 1st European Raid say: they try to propose an authentic adventure concerning the human as same as the sportive aspect. After some hours of marking out our route, we begin to understand this Adventure philosophy (with capital A) … the route of the 10th Corsica Raid resembles a magic Adventure, a racer’s dream. Can not wait for the beginning!!

Saturday 29th May 2004(Porto)
A meeting at the Marina of Portu in the morning. The place is sublime. We are welcomed with a drink and a tasting of of canistrelli and frappe, corsican cakes whose different variations we get to know along our route later.
The Saturday morning is dedicated to the check of the whole (!!) equipment. It is done very meticulous and thorough. That is necessary and it is good to have tailor basic knowledge … Some teams are on the run to find shoes suitable for the mountains or other forgotten or non-fitting equipment. A good preparation is proved to be of major importance.
We already feel the penalties coming down and we are warned that a profound knowledge of the rules is essential to be successful.

Briefing in the afternoon. The organizers take as much time as necessary to present us the course and to give us instructions for it. We know that this is necessary and that there is no fault allowed during the raid.
At sunset (the sun goes down into the gulf of Portu – you have to see this !) we take an aperitif. The legendary Corsican hospitality has been confirmed!! Finally, we have time to meet the about fifteen other teams, which have the luck to be chosen to be here out of hundred applications, enjoying a glass of Muscat and a slice of coppa (the island delicatessen is divine). The atmosphere is international since the 17 teams taking part belong to 12 different nations!! We are all there, very excited, waiting for the beginning like kids. Our last resting night is full of wonderful dreams of the assault of a raid which is known as “beautiful, extreme, unforgettable”. A dream of the reality is what we will find during a crazy week.

Sunday 30th May 2004 (Piana – Porto– Evisa – Albertacce)

The village Piana was chosen for the start of the tenth Corsica Raid Adventure. And we thank them. The environmental nature of Piana is a digest of the American Grand Canyon hanging between sea and sky. It is amazing!!!
We start with a pedestrian trip through the village Piana. Then, we return to the entrance of the canyon over a small trail. That causes inevitably stops, in addition one team needed the help of the guides because it took the wrong way. In fine, the last teams had no time for their recovery before the night trail started what demobilized some of them. Shows once more, that you have to be really psychological fit on a big raid …
In the canyon, the organisation had summarized the presentation of the thing on hapiness... And we have to recognize that the event exceeds our hope : we are in the heart of the extraordinary Calanche de Piana to reach the sea. To find a canyon which leads to the sea here : it could not be better. To continue, the organisation takes us by boat to a bay where our assistants have put down our kayaks.
We moved on with an amount of incredible successions of “little” sections of the race. First, ten kilometres by kayak to return to Portu, then a pedestrian trip through a village to reach the cap and its génoise tower. From there, we continued with abseiling and passages of handrails, everything above the sea … to do again sea kayak … that is magic!!
Now we are going to the mountains. We have to go by MTB to a place not far from Evisa. We are surrounded by a beautiful landscape and cross a wild forest with huge laricci pine (endemic in Corsica). The magic is still there when with the turning of a path we see mouflons only a few tens of meters (thanks to the organizers whose very precise instructions and an attitude very responsible for safeguarding of the environment enabled us to live these moments). But the things change... The very successful MTB race extended to 40 kilometres over 2000 metres difference in level and a long portage. We understand that we got to the heart of the matter now.
At the arrival, the first teams got the chance for some hours of recovery, but the last ones arriving at nightfall had to continue with the night trail immediately.

After a day with temperatures about 30 degrees we are in fog in the height of 1600 metres with winter temperatures now. Fortunately, the trail was rather short: stress was coming up, because the climatic changes were very hard and some teams tried to use the road. Arriving early in the night, we are brought to the basic camp by our assistants in the centre of the region of Niolu where we will start tomorrow.

Monday 31st May 2004 (Lozzi – Corscia – Casamaccioli – Restonica)
We started early in the morning to spend the day on the mountaintops of the island. The organisation told us that we enter in 2500 metres altitude a universe of high mountain, but we did not really believe … This day, we found out why the island is called “mountain in the sea” …
The test goes on very fast on a gradually hardened slope and the announced weather is here. It is cold and fog rises up over the crests. Reaching the roof of Corsica, the Mount Cinto, we are in 1,50 metres of snow in a temperature just around zero degrees. What a contrast after the day on the seaside yesterday. Now, we are under winter conditions!! The organisation has set up a succession of rope skills sections over hundreds of metres of snow covered crests. There were around twenty guides for our security. That is quite incredible!!! And we are a lot of racers to discover the level of engagement which the 1st European Race conceals. Some teams make half-turns because of a lack of ability or even fear of the difficult progression in the snow and over the rocks. After several hours, everybody feels much bigger, stronger and humbled leaving the mountainous centre of “the heart of Corsica”. The word “adventure” has got its whole signification!!!
When we arrive the village Corscia, we have to see that several teams received penalties. Some of them have not read the road book who indicate to go to Capu Pardatu and got a penalty of 1,5 hours. That is not to much regarding the height which they have to climb. Others will bail out penalties for defect obligatory material.
The sanctions are always badly borne, especially after so many efforts, but it is force to recognize the preoccupation of justice and equity which motivated the organizers throughout the week. The Corsica Raid strives to be an authentic adventure, which requires, as each Adventure in natural environment, not to make an error.
The check-point of the night test opens at 7 p.m. in Casamaccioli, and certain teams will miss the time window which closes at 9 p.m. profiting one night of rest at the price of a worse classification. This trail of night is longer than that of the day before and leads us to rub us with the Corsican maquis which completely held its promises: a true course of combatant, where it was necessary to crawl and clear passages through very dense bushes. Thick trousers, gaiters, sense of direction and tenacity of rigour.
After 48 hours of raid and this first decisive night, the classification starts to be divided into three parts: teams already neutralized on CP, those which were lost in the night and whose objective will be to preserve the acquired place, and four to five teams which will play the podium and the victory.

Tuesday 1st June 2004 (Venachese – Vezzani – Ernella Tavignanu)
At this first day of June, it is still night and snow falls in Corsica !!! The organizers, who are already there, initially decide to shift the departure after the enormous day and night of Cintu. Then at 7 o’clock, the second large mountain stage is cancelled because of the bad weather in altitude and large flagstones dangerous to enter in time of fog. So we benefited from the few hours of recovery before going on with the rope skills section to the end of the mountain section. There the magic came back immediately: the organisation concocted us a splendid rope skills section between the villages Venacu and Vivariu. Hanging on a oscillating abseil in the height of 100 metres, the Corsican mountains appear. During this raid, the magic is present each day !!
After a road link towards the region of Vezzani, a nice loop by MTB follows. There remains to us a little time (but only some minutes for the last) to benefit from information about Corsica Raid at the arrival.
Everyone consults the classification. It is published once per day what is a true challenge considering the complexity of the race and the deviating arrival times. We also use the time to read the Newspaper of the Raid, a daily newspaper of four pages which the COM of Corsica succeeds to publish and to diffuse on the spot as on the Web each day. Well done!!!

At 8 p.m., the check point for the night test opens after a very short road link. This course of orientation between undulating plains seemed short and rather easy as it is written down. But once arrived, we were confronted with a ground filled with traps. The maquis in the mountains is sometimes completely impenetrable. It rips the clothing to prick and lacerate the skin. Those competitors who have chosen a light outfit will be bitten into their fingers … While adding to paths existing only on the charts some new ones (we then understood the insistence of the organizers on this point in the briefing), the best left shortly after midnight, whereas others were neutralized in the morning after one night spent to search on less than one square kilometre!!! The Adventure is here in all the meaning of the term.

Wednesday 2nd June 2004 (Côtes des Nacres : Solaro– Conca – Sari-Solenzara)

We tackle the day discovering the region of Côte des Nacres on a small trail around the village of Sulaghju (Solaro). The inhabitants purposely traced it for us, friendly!! The emulation between the racers let them go quite too fast. That resembles the rhythm of marathon over a raid of 500 kilometres!!! Moving on a second trail, the first teams even reached the check point before the commissioners of the course.
The rivers of the valley of the Bavella massif offer marvellous descents suitable to water excursions. Everybody benefits from the system of time assigned to decompress and to be given some joy through the succession of toboggans, jumps, and basins to be crossed.
After a road link towards the sea, we return for a ATB test crossing a landscape worthy of the Indian territories. An hour later, we reach the village Sari before setting out again by foot. Its inhabitants have prepared a route for us first proposing us a phenomenal sight on the sea and then leading us through the centre of Sari, a village with splendid houses built of ochre granite. Now we return to the sea by following the path (those who does not find it will see the Corsican maquis once more …). Finally, a short coastering test brings us to the port of Sulinzara, term of this first stage.
The Côte des Nacres has prepared an aperitif where the whole caravan, participants, organizers and the numerous medias following the raid, got the chance to taste the savours of the island products. At the falling night, we join the base camp for one night of rest during which we revive in our dreams these last 96 hours on Corsica Raid: a magic Adventure!!!

Thursday 3rd June 2004 (Porto-Vecchio– Ospédale - Zonza)
The organisation promised to us a total discovery of the territories of the commune of Porto-Vecchio.– they did not lie to us … Today is the day of the big sea kayak test. Damages should be limited, because it’s not a speciality of all adventure racers... Approximately 60 kilometres and six to nine hours of sea kayak. That is enormous, especially since it started to rain … During these hours, we went along the coast in a distance of less than 100 metres (lawful, and some checked that the game had “to be played”). The handles, the bays, the beaches, the splits, all on this littoral invitation to stop and profit. By this week of the Corsica Raid we were programmed to spent our holidays here for the next ten years!!
But after a road link to Ospedale, the small maritime rain is transformed into the beginning of a storm in the mountains. The cancellation of the two envisaged courses of cords is a pity. But that gives us additional rest in preparation for the long night.
At the beginning of the evening, we leave the Ospedale village once more. The night test shows 32 km of maquis ... One thinks reasonably that it will finish in the middle of the night.

But the course is difficult to comprehend and the orientation proves to be essential. At the end, a very long test which will be completed for the majority of the teams around 8 o’clock in the morning or even much later. Only three teams could find all their beacons. In this night, it was once more essential, like all the week of the raid, that we could support us on a road-book very clearly and very well done, suffering from no error. The beacons have been systematically positioned with a total exactness on the ground. The race can take all its scope under these conditions.
The Corsica Raid Adventure is not offered easily. It is necessary to have the physical ability and the endurance for. But sometimes it does not help to be only quick and strong. Then it is better to preserve much clearness to be able to reflect and make the good choices of navigation. That will be for many of the participants the great lesson of this raid where the Adventure takes all its dimension.

Friday 4th June 2004 (Ospedale – Levie – Porto-Pollo – Porticcio)

Some teams begin the following stage without having slept. It is a fabulous MTB mountainous course with innumerable panoramas on the sea, from four to six hours on forest tracks surrounded by pines and maquis. One more time an environment and an extraordinary area of the island of Corsica. One more a MTB test of any beauty. But a portage slowed down our progression and made us feel our tiredness.
The canyon which follows is a fantastic site even if it remains exhausting. The Piscia di ghjallu is a “tube” which was cut by the water in a granitic vein. The power of the water is omnipresent inside. Engagement is really present and this natural beauty is as bewitching as frightening. To finish, one swims in a natural swimming pool with sight on the sea and the gulf of Porti-Vechju, it is sublime. But always committed since one leaves there by a abseil of 70 meters sprinkled by tons water!!!
The MTB following a road section will be shortened. One team is lost on the first MTB test and the organisation has set up important means to find it. The thing is made and we set out again to the impressive village of Livia with a lag of only two hours. The profile of this second MTB test of the day is downward, the tracks are like often passably but technical. And once more the traditional portage (the network of tracks is not complete) only consists in crossing a large river. But we need three to five hours of strong effort which is very hard after one week of raid. We start to feel that the arrival approaches and our tiredness increased. That is how a raid like the Corsican one is different: it makes everybody touch and taste an extraordinary Adventure which makes it possible for each one to understand oneself.
After a road link in the gulf of Valinco, the night check point opens at 8 p.m. for the first two teams whereas the last teams arrive at 11 p.m. Indeed, we all have considered this trail by far since it did not seem to be of much difficulty compared with that of the day before. But this trail is very long and we do not advance quickly. We are tired and there is a is a beacon with a time barrier which is absolutely necessary for us to cross to hope to rejoin the arrival without suffering a compensation time (for the undone part) which can still upset the classification. At the beginning of the trail, that CP Time door seemed to be unfeasible. But as we progress we swallow the kilometers and it seems to us feasible now. Tiredness is there, one feels it in every moment. One thus arrives painfully at the base camp at Purtichju, glad to have put an end at this interminable night which gave many emotions.


Saturday 5th June (Porticcio)

We are almost there, the feeling prevails. We have just crossed Corsica again!!! And we are in Porticcio, on the Southern coast of the gulf of Aiacciu. There is everything which friends of the sea and of sport-nature could demand in this seaside resort. That is true, we had the privilege to get a small tasting.
9 a.m ., Viva beach in Porticcio : white sand, blue transparent sea and a sight on the mountains , the Mount Cintu is snow-covered … we have been there four days ago!!!
With a departure in groups for a section of coastering (race on the edge of the sea, on the sand of the beaches and the coastal rocks). It is a rather short section whose difficulty to progress proves to be very testing.
A quite long MTB section which combined pleasure and difficulties follows. There are difficulties caused by the distance, the difference in height and the difficult navigation which is complicated by the multitude of striking tracks. Moreover, the tracks are always stony and we have repetitive technical troubles. The tension goes up on the ground because each team tries either to preserve its place at the classification or to pick one, even two places. But the beautiful Corsican nature with its plant diversity and its geological multiplicity gives everyone a little serenity.
A pleasant wink of the organizers: the last test of the 10 ° Corsica goes in the kayak, along the Mare e Sole beach, that is the same one where the departure of the 1° Corsica Raid Ventures took place!! The classification was published right before the departure and despite of the 20 km of this last test on an agitated sea, the decisions are made. It only remains to benefit from the Corsican ground of adventure and this extraordinary Corsica Raid Adventure a last time.
Congratulations to the fifteen teams on the arrival. We experienced, sometimes together, sometimes in brawl, “beautiful, extreme, unforgettable” moments (as the slogan of Corsica announced it). It is an Adventure, true, sporting and human, including the discovery of a chosen ground!!! It is one of those who remain in the memory for a whole life.
Thanks to the organization. The Corsica Raid Adventure is a sacred raid. The organizers gave everything for us. Thank you!!!
Conclusion: Roll on the next year…