France's Didier Raboutou swung his left leg over the ledge, quickly climbed to the top of the Cliff Lodge and pumped his fist in the air. Moments later, he was on his way to an isolation area, waiting to see if anyone would also scale the wall and force a superfinal climb-off in Sunday's men's difficulty finals of the International Sport Climbing Championships.
Nobody did.Californian Ron Kauk and Britain's Simion Nadin came close, but slipped on the overhang.
"For me, the roof was no problem," a surprised Raboutou said later. "I was prepared in my head for a superfinal."
Instead, Raboutou had to come back to the wall only to collect his $5,000 first prize. Nadin edged Kauk for second place and kept his World Cup standings lead over Raboutou, although the French dominated the meet. Francois Lombard finished fourth and Robert Cortijo was fifth, following France's 1-3 finish in Saturday's women's difficulty finals - not even counting speed-climbing victories by Jacky Godoffe and Catherine Destivelle.
The other American finalist, Jim Karn, was seventh. "The French are tough," noted Kauk. "We've got to work harder."
Kauk and Nadin, who had scaled the wall on the other side of the lodge to tie for first in Friday's qualifying, certainly tried hard to match Raboutou.
Even though he was isolated before his climb, Kauk knew by the crowd's reaction that the Frenchman had reached the top. Kauk had less trouble than Raboutou for most of the route, but was hung up on the underside of the overhang, 85 feet up. He slipped, just as he tried to go over the ledge.
"Once my left leg was up there, I was dead, because I couldn't reverse it," he said.
That left Nadin, who climbed effortlessly to the ledge and ended up trying several times, with the time limit fast approaching, to make the move that would carry him to the roof. "The hold was at a distance where I could just get my fingers to it," he said. "I couldn't reach any further. That's one of my main weak points--I'm not very good at roofs."
With light rain beginning to fall and the crowd chanting for Nadin and reacting to every little move, he kept reaching above the ledge and then resting. Could he have used another method? "You try the first way you think of climbing," he shrugged.
That's on-sight climbing, the challenge of taking a route without being able to study the holds. The real winners were course-setters Antoine Le Menstrele and Fabrice Guillot, who designed a route that provided excitement but was slightly too difficult for the world's best climbers--except Raboutou.
And while Nadin has a solid lead with three World Cup events left, he's uncertain whether he'll have the financial backing to attend upcoming World Cup meets in Bulgaria and the Soviet Union. Look for Raboutou--and the rest of the French--to make their move.