Day: June 23, 2006

Last night when he went to bed, Serge had diarrhea and was sweating.  This morning he doesn’t look well and the diarrhea hasn’t disappeared.  Serge left with Mr. Feng.  After a few kilometers he asked to run alone because when he doesn’t feel well he prefers to be alone on the road.  There is a certain intimacy that one doesn’t feel like sharing, even if our Chinese friends having difficulty understanding it.
 
The profile hasn’t changed, it’s mountainous, with a succession of ups and downs.  The heat is stifling because of the high humidity. Serge tells me that it reminds him of Senegal.  He is soaking, as if he had just finished his shower.  It’s 39° Celsius and not one drop of rain has fallen today, which isn’t bad.

We are leaving the Shaanxi Province and entering the Henan Province.  Serge finished the stage in the small city of Xiping, where we will stay in a small pension which has modest rooms but at least they have air conditioning and above all, television.

At 3H00 AM, local time, Thomas, Maxime, Tom and François have their eyes glued to the TV.  What a relief! France has qualified, to the joy of our late night supporters, filmed by CCTV.