ITERA Ireland
FMR Are The First to Finish
Rob Howard / 21.08.2016
After leading for much of the race Team FMR of France crossed the line to finish ITERA Ireland just after 9am on Sunday morning.
Having paddled across Muckross Lake and Lough Leane in Canadian canoes on yet another misty, murky and wet morning the team had a final 1km walk up the road to reach the finish line at the Killarney Convention Centre where they were cheered across the line.
On the finish line Julien Moncomble said, “We raced very well together as a team in a very tough race. I think the hardest was the trekking and navigation in the mountains. It was always misty and there were no paths – they were really wild places. I did the navigation on the hills and Clement (Valla) did the navigation on the bikes so we shared it to not get too tired.
“The long paddles were hard too. We don’t do such long paddles in France so are not used to it. We all thought the coasteering was really cool. We have never done anything like that, jumping in the ocean! I live in the Alps so it was new to me.”
Asked if the team would go to the World Champs in Australia he said, “I’m not really sure – it depends on a lot of things, but mostly money.” The team have had a strong year as they are also French national champions so it would be fittingT if they could make the World Champs.
They were looking forward to “lots of food – any food” and finding somewhere to stay tonight as they’d not arranged anything. They did manage to get into the leisure centre at the Convention Centre soon after for showers and to relax in the Jacuzzi while reflecting on an impressive performance and their time exploring the west coast of Ireland.
After an adjustment for their time out at the dark zone before the final paddle and all the controls having been checked their final time was 90 hours 32 minutes and 21 seconds.
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