Patagonia Expedition Race

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La Clusaz Talk About Their Race

Jacqueline Windh / 23.02.2005

At 12:33 p.m. today (February 20), team La Clusaz Raid Aventure arrived at the finish line of Patagonia Expedition Race. They covered the 662 km course in a total of 109 hours and 18 minutes, and are the official winners of the race.

After they had eaten and showered, I joined them - Captain Jérome Daille, Frédéric Charles, and Laurent and Cathy Ardito - in the sun in front of the Hosteria San Isidro, looking out over the rippling waters of Magellan Strait.
Cathy’s first comments: “It impressed us, the beauty of the country, how savage! We saw nobody and nothing, not even animals (except in the park) – just a few little birds, and then at the end we saw whales and sea lions.

More than anything, it is the scale of it all. The scale of this race goes with the country. It is all too much, the land, the kilometers, all too much. It is marvelous ...

“We really wanted to participate together, we four – not with anyone else. I think we are strong. Now we can say we won because we like to be together, we are strong together. We never say anything bad to one another. If someone is tired we never say anything bad, because maybe tomorrow it will be someone else. Yesterday we were hungry and we had little food. Usually we divide equally, but yesterday Laurent was bad, he needed it more, so we gave more to him.�

Laurent looked at me. “You must think of the team before yourself.�

“Laurent wanted to go home. He wanted to take the satellite phone out and call. Frédéric had the phone in his backpack, so we told him ‘Watch out, if Laurent comes near you, you must run!’� See All Event Posts