Ertips Sleepwalk to Third

Chris/Raid Gauloises / 05.05.2002

Leading the race at CP36 (assistance point 3), Ertips gave up hard won ground in the final hours of the race to finish third. Feeling the impact of the accumulated fatigue, Ertips committed an orienteering error worthy of freshmen around CP42 which reduced any chance of winning the race to zero.

The huge experience of Ertips was not enough to help them win. “We’re very happy to finish and being in the first three is a bonus. This first experience has been full of pleasant surprises and some unpleasant ones too. I found the initial trek a bit too long and it became boring. But the real eye-opener was the lesson we learned about managing our sleep time�, said Jerome Dumoulin. “Victory was ours for the taking until yesterday afternoon, so naturally we feel a little bitter.

The end of the race was more than decisive for the team in yellow. Like the Finnish team Nokia Adventure, who pushed them into third place, Ertips made a fatal orienteering mistake on the final trek of the race. “Worthy of beginners. In fact we really weren’t with the program at all. Maybe it was the heat but we had no idea what we were doing and at CP42 the terrain got the better of us. We should have stopped, started from zero and found the right path on the map instead of carrying on and ignoring what was happening around us.� For some this lapse in lucidity bordered on delirium! “Suddenly I had this film playing in my head. My son was running in a field�, explained Jerome. Difficult circumstances to navigate by. “It should have been really simple. We were going downhill and in the lead. Everything felt so good, we were laughing and joking. We had no idea. We argued, lost about half an hour and couldn’t believe it when at the next CP they told us we were third!�

Veronique Chastel, the newcomer to the team, brought some order to the situation by telling each of the male members just what she thought of them. “The worst of it is she was right. We felt pretty stupid�, Jerome admits timidly. Setting off again, this time in the right direction, Ertips stole a one-hour sleep just before getting into the kayaks, in order to catch a more favourable tide… and accustom themselves to the idea of third place. “Anyhow, even if we were 2 hours ahead at the kayaking section, VSD-Edier are just so much better than us in the water�, explains Veronique Chastel, ex long-distance triathlon champion of France, as she drifts away for her anti-doping test…

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