Tour du Teche is having a flood sale on one-day races

Tour du Teche is having a flood sale on one-day races during the 2016 series of paddling marathons in October.
Entry fees have been reduced to $40 per paddler. Anyone who has already paid up can take a refund on race day or apply the overage to any of the 2017 races.
The one-day races are:
Oct. 7 – the Crawfish, 30 miles down Bayou Teche (includes a section of Bayou Courtableau) from Port Barre to Poche Bridge; and the Acadian, 49 miles Teche from Port Barre to St. Martinville.
Oct. 8 – the Hot Sauce, 25 miles from St. Martinville to New Iberia; the Sugar, 59 miles from St. Martinville to Franklin; and the Black Bear, New Iberia, to Franklin, 35 miles.
Oct. 9 – the Oil & Gas is 27 miles from Franklin to Berwick (includes a 2-mile section of the Atchafalaya River).
All these races start at 7 a.m. For more detail, go to www.tourduteche.com, “Race Info,” “Schedule.”
These races, each a marathon in its own right, are for Voyageurs, a category that includes weekend paddlers, fitness paddlers, and racing-oriented paddlers who want to work up to the full multi-day events in the future. Winners are awarded medals. All racers and registered coureurs de bois (one per team) get Tour du Teche performance-style T-shirts.
To register online, go to www.tourduteche.com, “Race Info,” “Registration.” Click on the green stopwatch icon, which brings you to the Webscorer site. Beneath the map is a dropdown menu labeled “Search Events By.” Pick “Event Name” and fill it in.
Voyageurs in the one-day races may register through Sept. 30.
The one-day races are held in conjunction with Tour du Teche 135, a three-day staged race down the entire length of Bayou Teche, plus stretches of Bayou Courtableau and the Atchafalaya, for a total of 135 miles.
It starts on Friday in two waves, the Voyageurs at 7 a.m. with the Crawfish and Acadian paddlers, and the Racers, vying for cash prizes, at 9 a.m. Both fields restart in St. Martinville on Saturday and in Franklin on Sunday.
On Oct. 1, in Bossier City on the Red River, the 275-mile Tour de la Rivière Rouge begins. This is a round-the-clock adventure race with electronic checkpoints, ending on Bayou Courtableau at Port Barre in the week before Tour du Teche.
Any paddler who wants to do both races may combine the courses in the 410 de Louisiane or enter the Rivière Rouge and Tour du Teche separately.
Paddlers with the fastest combined time in all three races over three years, winners of the Triple Crown of Louisiana Kayak Racing, will have their names will be inscribed in stone at Berwick’s Everett S. Berry Memorial Lighthouse Park, the ultimate finish line for Tour du Teche.
For more information about prizes, go to www.tourduteche.com, “Race Info,” “Awards.”
Races in 2017 include:
Top of the Teche – Leonville to the Arnaudville, April 1, 7.7 miles.
Chitimacha – New Iberia to the Chitimacha Indian Reservation, Charenton, May 20, 20 miles.
For more information, go to www.tourduteche.com, “Races.”