Ecuador Photos Crawling for First Photo: Nathan Bilow [Click for Photos]

The 9th annual Raid Gauloises, called the grand daddy of adventure races, has come to a close and competitors and organizers alike consider it to have been one of the longest and most difficult Raids ever.

Team Salomon-Presidio, who, according to Raid Gauloises organizers, said "they had come to win," did just that in eight days, seven hours and 51 minutes securing its place in Raid history as the first US sponsored and registered team to win the race.

"It was a neck and neck with second-place team Spie Batignolles over the eight days, and it seemed almost cruel to have a winner between them," organizers reported.

	The mass start [click] Photo: Nathan Bilow

Teams, armed with 1:50 000 maps and two altimeters forced their way over brutal terrain, with each leg's goal being to make the next checkpoint where they would have their Raid passports stamped. The 593km course traced a semi-circle around Quito before heading to the coast.

Race organizers didn't even know how hard a race they had created. In fact, competitor Sylvie Goyet explained from her home in Switzerland, organizers were forced in the first three days to institute a new ranking format just so the majority of teams wouldn't have already been disqualified.

	Why organizers revised the race format: REALAUDIO WINDOWS MEDIA

The weather was brutal, dense fog and rain pounded the 200km hiking and orienteering section, and the teams were far behind schedule. Organizers were forced to unconventional methods.

"What happened was it took a lot longer at the beginning, especially the first 3-4 days, to get through the first checkpoint," said Goyet. "Pretty soon they found out, at the first door, which is the maximum time a team is allowed to go by a certain checkpoint, they found maybe just about five to 10 teams would be able to make it. So in a couple of sections they allowed for transfer. They transferred some of the teams to a later checkpoint to allow them to continue the race; basically to gain some time otherwise they would not be able to do the whole thing."

	Weather challenges: REALAUDIO WINDOWS MEDIA

Called the "Trans-Ecuador" ranking, this allowed teams to continue to participate and place in the final results despite the slower than expected pace during the first few days.

After the hiking and orienteering section came a 35km "ride and run" section (3 horses for the 5 riders), which moved into a 24km ice-trekking and high mountain section, which included the summit of Cotopaxi, the highest active volcano in the world. For Goyet and her team, Team Peugeot Sochaux, Cotopaxi was the best part.

Considered a relatively easy climb under normal circumstances, Goyet said, reaching the summit after having raced for four days, changed the playing field and "that easy mountain became very difficult — very difficult to climb."

	Goyet talks about her favorite part of the Raid: REALAUDIO WINDOWS MEDIA

"Going up that mountain was definitely the dessert part of it even though it was in the middle and we were all exhausted. But, it was my favorite. The weather was great, very windy but very good visibility and going up that mountain was really a treat," she said.

After Cotopaxi came the 60km Indian biking section (so called because of the local bikes) and finally a long water section of 151 km, including raft, canoe and sea kayaking, which Goyet called "boring," saying that she fell asleep a few times and was woken by the splash of waves.

Just before the start, Alain Gaimard, course director, spoke about the new line of the thinking in the Raid Gauloises.

"We want to ensure that the Raid Gauloises never becomes an event where the teams with the more expensive and specialized equipment have a greater chance of winning. That is why, this year you will be using the local Indian bikes, supplied by the organization. In addition, we hope this helps you with your budget. Our event is a personal and team expedition," Gaimard was reported as saying.

	Taking a Break [click] Photo: Nathan Bilow

This was a different race than previous Raids, a fact highlighted by those "indian bikes" and for the first time included the one-extreme-to-another sections of high mountain climbing and sea kayaking. For second place Team Spie Batignolles member Eric Cassaigne, this was a bonus.

"We’ve never had this before," he said. "The teams who are strong on the water will love this [sea] section, while the high mountain section may present a couple of surprises."

The format obviously worked for Cassaigne and his team. According to Raid Gauloises reports from Ecuador, Steve Gurney, member of winning Team Salomon-Presidio, dubbed Team Spie Batignolles "the Terminators, because we'd put on a surge to burn them off, but they were always there."

Team Salomon-Presidio, have almost 20 years of experience in adventure racing both with and against each other. Team member, John Howard, has won all four of the Raid Gauloises he has entered, including those in 1989, 1991 and 1994 and is considered, the Raid reported, "one of the essential characters of adventure racing."

Steve Gurney who just a month ago replaced original captain Duncan Smith, has competed in three Raids and, with Howard, won two. Smith, owner of Presidio Adventure Camp in San Francisco and former Navy Seal, was unable to race due to a serious neck injury. However, he was still there though to support the team and work on a documentary of the Raid, organizers said.

The lone woman on the winning team, Robyn Benincasa, was selected after she wrote a letter to team members Robert Nagle, a professor at Harvard, and Ian Adamson, a sea kayaking champion, declaring herself a "free agent and looking for a team." Contacted in mid-November, Benincasa promptly did two races with the team, which finished first and third.

"Ecuador is extreme," Benincasa said of the terrain. "Straight up or straight down, changes in weather conditions, it was gnarly." And the team seemed to have again worked well together, "with these guys I didn't feel separate...and they did carry some of my stuff on the tough uphills," she was reported as saying.

Adamson, Raid organizers reported, attributed part of their success to this good teamwork and the number one rule, communication.

"You can't rely too much on one person, everyone needs to know what is going on, five minds working together...[this is] not a sport for egos, throw it aside."