The Grand Raid is a mountain bike marathon, of 125 km and over 5,000 metres of ascent, which starts in Verbier and finishes in Grimentz. For lesser mortals there are 3 shorter routes, though even the shortest, which starts in Evolène, is 37 km long and has 1,845 metres of ascent. Quite frankly, it doesn’t bear thinking about, as it must be torture !
My friend Kevin decided to come over and tackle the short route, while his wife Cristina and I, after seeing him off, set out on a more sedate walk. The walk took us up the Grand Raid route into Evolène before we headed further up to Lac d’Arbey and then along the valley to Les Haudères. As you can see from the photos, the weather was beautiful and, if you are interested, Kevin finished in 3h 51 minutes and was 86th out of the 251 male starters. Congratulations Kevin ! Next year the Hérémence start ?
Alittlebitoutoffocus 
What a gorgeous route? This looks like a lovely event, but I bet the legs are screaming at the end of it… so many climbs and descents! Super post, Mike 🙂
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Thanks Maxine. I once did the route from Héremence to Evolène on one day, then the section up to the Pas de Lona, like Kevin, on another day and I was absolutely shattered ! So I can confirm that the full route from Verbier to Grimentz must be a real test of strength and stamina! Almost unbelievably the winners take just over 6 hours to complete the 125km route and this year only 30 seconds separated the first 3. So it must have been an exciting and hair-raising finish.
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Absolutely! Perhaps I’ll be able to see it for myself one day! 🙂
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