Hi all,
For all of you already on the Saga-Events mailing list, I'm sure you already recieved the notice today about the discontinuation of the Raid World Cup Series. It's truly a sad day in adventure racing and especially Northwest adventure racing, where during the last 4 years the North American stages were held in either Oregon or Idaho. The only silver lining might be the proposed 2008 Saab Solomon Mountain Sports Games in the USA hinted at in the announcement. For those of you who are not on the mailing list, I have copied the text of the annoucement in this post below.

Mike B.

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Dear sports friend,
We, Saga Events, have been organising 12 editions of the Raid Gauloises
between 1989 and 2003. Followed by the creation of The Raid World
Championship and its qualifying circuit, the X-adventure Raid World Cup, we
have continuously been aiming to evolve our adventure racing concepts.
Even though we are convinced that The Raid World Championship represents one
of the most beautiful adventure races in the world, over the last 2 years we have
observed a decreasing number of teams on our adventure races and we realise
that participating in this global qualification circuit is expensive.
In addition, the world of outdoor sports keeps changing and we want keep up
with new trends and respond to the demand of athletes and media.
Therefore and together with our partners SAAB and SALOMON, we have decided
to evolve the program of The Raid into a new international event open to 80
teams from all over the world that have a passion for outdoor sports.
The first edition of the Saab Salomon MOUNTAIN SPORTS GAMES will take
place in France from July 2 - 7, 2007 in the region of Savoie - Mont Blanc.
In 2008, we will be organising two events again: one taking place in Europe and
the second being hosted in the USA.
Our goal is to create a new concept which is: international, multi-sports and with
modern and spectacular technical sections which will bring out the best of the
athletes in outdoor sports during 5 days of challenges and passionate scenarios.
For the Saab Salomon MOUNTAIN SPORTS GAMES we will be producing a
52-minute TV programme. More than 100 TV channels have already agreed to
broadcast this programme representing more than 180 hours of TV coverage
worldwide.
Please find attached the brochure presenting the Saab Salomon MOUNTAIN
SPORTS GAMES containing all general information: event concept, program,
registration, etc...
We look forward to meeting you at the starting line on July 3, 2007.
With very best regards,
Alain Gaimard
CEO Saga Events