Update from l'Argentiere-La-Bessee

Quick update from the alps. Most of our gear is sorted. Briefing is in a few hours when we hopefully find out the course. Tomorrow morning we'll pack the gear bins, tomorrow evening is the prologue (we are guessing its about an hour of orienteering), no story straight to bed then up for the official start (rumored to be 4am).

We are all feeling good. I am now keen to get on with it. The last 24hrs are not usually my most enjoyable mentally. I'm just keen to get out there. Weather looks good, hot during the day with cool nights.

Top teams expected to take 5.5 days to complete the course and will finish some time on the 20th. There are 2 x 4 hour compulsory stops during the race and the possibility of a dark zone (where teams are stopped at night, usually for safety reasons on certain sections). If a team is dark zoned they can drop one of the compulsory 4 hour stops.

As I have mentioned to a few, the gear check was entertaining to say the least. Very strict and plenty of heated discussion to ensure our gear passed. We now have a medical inventory that will rival that of Te Kuiti Hospital (2 x supermarket bags full). There is enough eye drops to use as drinking water should the need arise, enough betadine to take a bath in and enough bandages to make the Egyptians jealous. Should we need all of this it will be something of a cliff hanger meets Freddy Krueger type scenario. If you see pics online of us all bandaged up don't fret, we've just found a more creative method to carry the stuff.

Anyway, for those who are interested you can follow the race live on the following link:

www.live.raidinfrance.com

Time for me to sign off. Next update will be after the race...now there's a nice thought.

Above: Chris shows us all how to conduct an in depth discussion in English with the French on whether in fact we should take 2 or 3 pairs of gloves on the mountain section.