D13 - To the South - The Sun Trip

DAY 14 <-> DAY 12

At the evening of day 13, there was only one team left in Spain, and that was Miguel Letor, the young Belgian. Ahead of him, Vincent Lauga e passed checkpoint 2 in Portugal. And Jean-Louis Mérelle put in a magnificent performance: 265 km on the day, his record! But the Frenchman was still disappointed with his day: “It was a bad day for me. I didn’t reach the lighthouse objective… I didn’t take the best route and I got a bit annoyed in the town of Setúbal… I preferred to stop there before doing anything stupid, and what’s more, my batteries were out of juice… and so was I… and I hadn’t washed for several days… “.

At the rear of the group, we’re riding at around 140/160 km per hour, which corresponds to the pace required to reach the finish in 60 days maximum. At this point, only the last two teams seem a little short of the required timing, but there’s still time to pick up the pace a little.

Ahead of them, the teams are approaching southern Spain, and there are now 5 crews in Morocco, Vivien Dettwiller and Géry & Baudouin having passed through earlier in the day.

Kilian & Jonas had passed through the day before, “it’s hot, it’s a new world” commented Kilian before the two young Germans (19 years old for the record) passed the Rabat Checkpoint at the end of the day.m, just before the obligatory break.

The challenge for 3rd place remains open, and there’s no doubt that the Moroccan loop (over 3,000km) will be full of surprises.

The leaders’ crash!

At the head of the race, the surprise of the day was not a good one! After an obligatory 24-hour break in Taroudant, in a friendly atmosphere, Jack Butler and Jean-Marc Dubouloz set off together again at 3.30pm. It was they who decided to set off together, and not with the 1min55 gap recorded on the pass the day before.

Unfortunately, a few minutes after the start, a racing incident occurred. For technical reasons, Jean-Marc Dubouloz had to stop on the track, but Jack Butler was unable to see him and hit him at full speed. Jean-Marc’s bike was damaged, but he continued on his way. Jack had to return to town for repairs, before setting off again. By the evening of day 13, the Frenchman was in the lead, and the jury was asked to rule on the incident. The decision will be made on the morning of April 25.