Discussion: Raid in France

Did anyone follow this race? Did Vidaraid get hosed, as they suggest?

For those who aren't familiar with it, Vidaraid outlines their complaint in detail on their FB page. It sounds like a very unfortunate situation with a missing control late in the race.
https://www.facebook.com/vidaraid?fref=ts

There are other views on whether this caused their 2nd place finish, e.g. this comment on their FB page:
If you look at the time on the last three sections, you will see that Columbia lost time compare to 400teamRaidlight (even before and after this check point) and FMR. On the last section the difference with 400team is 3h30! Dixit Columbia it seems that they lost 1h10 to search for the missing checkpoint, why in this case they did not fight for the victory, perhaps they cannot? Anyway, it seems that there was another check point during the race and 400Team lost time to look for it, does it means that the organization need to credit time to 400team also? The race rule is clear, take a picture if the check point is missing and follow your route. The missing check point in this case was due to organization but it can be stolen. Just consider the facts and not only the Columbia point of view which can be altered by the deception.
And anyway, we will see with great pleasure the new battle in Brazil !!

My uneducated opinion is that the race organizers are not capable of making an unbiased decision in situations such as these. There is an AR World Series director, could he not step in and make the call or create a review panel to decide on these issues? Maybe that's not practical.

This matter seems to have big implications - the winner got a paid entry to the world championships ($6000USD), maybe prize money, but also there's the reputational issues for the sport, no?

I think a good organizer/RD has no problem making an unbiased decision, particularly if the rules are well thought out and stated ahead of time.

This situation is a black eye on the sport no matter how I look at it.
1) race issue poorly managed?
2) issue brought to race officials and not dealt with effectively?
3) one of the sports top teams publicly disses world series event (warranted or not)

I only have partial picture/facts, but it's 'brutal' no matter what the truth is and somebody(ies) deserves a wedgie!

I was a participant in the event and witnessed this all go down. First of all I thought they were very tactless to criticize the organization and RD in front of everyone involved with the race including all the teams. They looked like fools up on stage crying and complaining in the manner they did. Also as mentioned above the rule states to take a picture and continue on with the race! If Vidaraid is a top team there should have been no doubt in their mind that they were on the checkpoint in question and the control was not there. The team that won realized they were in the correct spot, did not see a control point, took a picture, and ended up passing Vidaraid. In my opinion there is no question to the final results. They didn't follow the rules and unfortunately it cost them first place.