MEDIA RELEASE
THIRD TIME LUCKY IN BRASIL
Porto Seguro / Brasil - 10 August 2006
After two failed attempts during the Dakar Rally and round #1 of the Cross-Country World Championship that ended up with injuries and months ofrecovery, Christophe finished 4th in the Marathon Class and 18th in the above 450cc category in the 9-day/ 3,800 kms Sertoes Rally in Brazil, scoring his first 3 points in the World Championship as a privateer.
But not all was easy, Christophe, along with Chilean champion and race favouriteCarlo de Gavardo got stuck in the first deep river crossing filling their engine with water. Both managed to restart after 45 minutes with Carlo having to retire 15kms later.
Then during a liaison on the first day, Christophe got food poisoning when he ate "risole", a small piece of bread with cheese from a petrol station.
Day 2 started with vomiting and for the next 4 days, Christophe was unable to eator drink. As he fought injuries during the Dakar rally and Las Pampas, he fought food poisoning and complete de-hydratation in Sertoes making doctors wonder how itwas physically possible to continue racing without any food or fluid in the dry Brazilian heat of the Jalapao desert. With some doctors calling him "the Mutan."
Day 3 was the marathon stage starting at 6:30am in the Jalapao desert. Having to stop for almost 2 hours after being completely "dry", the coming night made it more difficult without a functioning light on his motorbike.
Christophe waited for another Brasilian rider, Giba, who had a broken road book andwas running out of fuel. Christophe gave some fuel to Giba, Giba gave a small flashlight to Christophe that he taped on his OneHelmet and together, in true rally spirit, helped each other with Giba lighting the way and Christophe doing the night navigation riding in parallel, and the usual 50kms vomiting-stop. They both made it to the bivouac at 2:30am, 20 hours later.
In the next few days, and after a series of perfusion at the medical helicopter, help from the local people in villages, Christophe began to find his form again in the last 3 days. Too late to do a better result, but proud to having made it through his first rally finish, carrying with him unbelievable memories. A special thanks to Marcelo and Gonzalo, the two mechanics from Laurent Lazard's team, and to the Dunas Sertoes Rally Organisation who did a fantastic job not only promoting the rally through the villages, but provided the riderswith an excellent "no-surprise" road book greatly assuring the riders and localpopulation safety.
Christophe's next race will be the upcoming Dakar Rally starting in Portugalon the 6th of January and finishing in Dakar/Senegal on the 21st of January.
CBV Racing |
