This year again, the Grand Raid was very difficult and physically testing. Following the fall of rocks a few weeks before the Grand Raid, the organizing committee had to change the itinerary to make it longer and increase the altitude difference. 150 kilometers and over 9000 m altitude difference, that is what more than 2,200 raiders from different backgrounds came to experience with year.
Vincent Delebarre, sponsored by Petzl, his associate of last year Christophe Jacquerod and this year's phenomenon, Marco Olmo, double winner of the UTMB, were all there.
With a departure at midnight, all raiders who could not get enough sleep before the competition had to fight against tiredness at an early stage. Robert Chico, the association's president, started the race which saw 40% of participants failing to finish and thus not having the satisfaction of receiving their medal.
Once again, Petzl was chosen by over 80% of the raiders: a multitude of lights lit up the long itinerary. Our representative, Vincent Delebarre, had to abandon this raid he likes so much, following a calf injury. Like many favorites, he did not make it to the Redoute stadium. But for Petzl, even if Vincent did not succeed, the MYO XP was well positioned on Thierry Chambry's head, this year's winner for the first time. Thierry, who lives in La Réunion, was the pride of the island and its inhabitants.
As for the ladies, the extraordinary Marcelle Puy won the Grand Raid for the third time, despite the presence of Karine Herry who won last year's edition. It is with the Salomon team that Karine managed to finish the race with a scratch ranking that lots of men would dream of, especially with knee tendonitis that bothered her so much during the last 30 kilometers that she had to walk. Still, she arrived 21st.
We are now all looking forward to the next edition of this incredible adventure that all the people from La reunion support intensively.
