In May 2011, some of the world's best adventure sports specialists will descend (and ascend) on France for the first Red Bull Eléments event. Let us break it down to the basic elements for you…
Elevation
Around 48km of lateral paddling, running, flying and cycling along adds up to 3.7km of elevation (ie going up and down hills) during Red Bull Eléments. Well, they do say that what goes up must come down…
Location
Talloires, host of Red Bull Eléments, is a small, picturesque commune on the shores of Lake Annecy, in south-eastern France. Though it’s close to both the Italian and Swiss borders, it’s still only three and a half hours away from Paris by high-speed train. That’s European efficiency for you.
Equipes…
… de quatre: Or teams of four, in other words. Each of the 50 teams that will participate employs expert athletes for four disciplines, which are detailed below, and are a challenging….
Mix…
…of sports: This is a relay race like no other. To begin with, each team will pilot a skiff across the Bay of Talloires. Part two of the race is a gruelling trail run. Part three involves piloting a paraglider, landing on a barge in the lake. Finally, athletes face a twisting up-and-down mountain bike track at high speed.
Extreme
It pays not to be a weakling or lacking in skill and common sense. To expand on the challenges previously listed, we should also point out: part of the boat section involves lugging it across land, namely through Talloires' narrow streets; the run is 9km – uphill; the paragliding also involves hulking the glider across land; the biking includes some apparently vertical drops to contend with on the rough tracks. You also get some nice views of Lake Annecy, though, we hear…
Novelty
This is the first edition of this multi-sport relay, but probably not the last.
Timing
There’s no hanging about in Red Bull Eléments – it’s a single day of time trials from 9am CET to 2.30pm, with an expected average of five hours and 10 minutes for each team. There’s also a reserve day scheduled on May 22, in case of poor weather on the 21st.
Specialists
Red Bull Eléments brings together the world’s best in each discipline – how they handle the special baton transitions between each section will be fascinating to see.
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