Racing Bicycles

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Bicycle Racing

Gerald Fusil is a man who always puts his ideas into action 
 and others follow. The founder of the Raid Gauloises, The world
 is first true expedition race is always on the lookout to expand the
 sport. The cost of competing in adventure racing has reached a
 level that few teams can now afford. Organisers and adventure
 racers are faced with high travel and insurance costs. One way to
 attract racers is to offer large sums in prize money, and top teams
 can make a living, but what about the average racer.  Last Year,
 During the annual Reunion D´ Aventures race, Gerard Fusil added
 a bike and run discipline which required the four person team to
 share two mountain bikes during a couple of legs of the race. The
 trial was a success as teams were forced to think of tactics to
 complete the legs in the fastest possible way. Some teams dou-
 bled up on the downhill sections, others stayed, whilst the more
 successful set up a relay system with the rider going a set distance
 before leaving the bike at the edge of the track for their team mate,
 who would get on and then leapfrog them.  Gerard Fusil saw an
 opportunity to return once again to the basis of Expedition Ad-
 venture Racing. Providing teams the chance to explore a country,
 interface with the local population and race in exotic locations with
 out the need to transport large amounts of gear. Gerard Fusil an-
 nounced his ideas at the Reunion D´ Aventures prize giving and
 the world waited with bated breadth.  September 2005 saw Gerard
 Fusil Launch the Bike and Run Concept to the World with the
 Oman Adventure. Details were brief, two person teams to share
 one bike with only one person to be on the bike at one time. The
 race would be run in a number of stages including a night stage
 and teams had to be prepared to camp in the wild. Time was short
 so Gerard Fusil used the course notes from the 1992 Raid Gau-
 loises for parts of the course.  Gerald Fusil made one other depar-
 ture from the norm by pre-announcing the lengths of each stay
 and the names of the overnight camps. The race was to take
 place on the East Coast of Oman, however some of the place
 names were only known to the locals.  December 2005. A barmy
 evening camped by the sea saw Gerard Fusil briefing the gathered
 teams from France, Oman, UK, R¨¦union, Austria, Holland and
 Australia. Most teams had arrived in the morning so had little time
 to prepare. Support vehicles were shared by two teams, so comp-
 etitors spent the night poring over maps and packing gear into the
 vehicles by torchlight.  The following day at dawn a convoy of
 vehicles transported the team to the start line in a nearby Wadi.
 The first day included a section of running only along goat tracks
 and this proved to be decisive as the Australian and one local
 Omani team got lost allowing a French team to build an unas-
 sailable lead.  Later in the week Gerard Fusil had mapped out the
 course with a 17k twisting climb from the sea to 1500 metres and
 also a section of canyoning with a number of swims.  Gerard Fusil
 had arranged camping or bivouacs in a number of scenic areas,
 with the stages starting in the early morning most teams would
 finish around mid-day or early afternoon.  The terrain in Oman is
 varied from lush oasis to harsh rocky hillsides and of course seas
 of sandiness where the teams finished the race. Gerard Fusil held
 the prize giving in Muscat the winners being a husband and wife
 team Wilsa Sport Helly Hansen from France. Second place went
 to the Australians and a Local Omani team came in third.  Teams
 came from many different backgrounds, Adventure racers, tri-
 athletes, marathon runners, mountain bikers; the final count saw
 adventure racers however leading the way.  Virtually all teams ad-
 opted the general tactic of leap frogging, however there were at
 least a couple of incidents when teams missed the bike, including
 one on the long climb for an all female team which required an
 extra 4k to be covered to collect the bike!  The Inaugural race
 proved to be a success and now Gerald Fusil has announced the
 second race of the series which will return to a diffrent area of
 Oman at the end of November.

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