75.42km – 10H07’
Altitude : 137m
The stage for October 16: Montargis – Fontainebleau (the itinerary will be posted online later)
Finish October 17 at l’INSEP – Avenue de Tremblay, 75012 Paris
There will be no stage between cities
Serge will enter l’INSEP around 9:00 a.m. and will run on the track in the INSEP until 11:06 a.m. He will be accompanied by everyone who wishes to run these last two hours of the Around the European Union Footrace, and celebrate the 365 days of the race.
Is Serge a saint?
It would seem so, and what a surprise that so many of you consult and follow the calendar of saints. There were lots of e-mails and text messages on this day of Saint Serge. Many thanks.
We are entering a new department, the Drôme, but it does not keep us from crossing one last time, the Isère, which we have been crisscrossing for the past three days. Around noon, Serge loses power: “I’m going to fall asleep at the wheel” he says with humor. I will have coffee at the next refueling. It’s a topical issue because drowsiness at the wheel causes 1 in 3 fatal accidents on the freeway and new measures are being discussed to limit the problem. I have been listening to the radio a lot and I’m trying to find out what is going on, after long months of being disconnected. It is a way of taking my mind off things because I’m getting tired of this race.
All the more so as Serge is under pressure as we approach the finish and for the past two evenings he has finished the evening with rather vindictive remarks. Obviously, Serge is tired and he shoots from the hip, which is understandable. This evening after the finish and just as he is about to leave, he wants to run another 500 meters and asks me to pick him up on the road. I say no. I suggest he run 500 meters and return to the vehicle, because it is impossible to stop and wait for him on the streets of Valence. He tells me that it will make him lose time. That really ticks me off because for the past 11 ½ months I have been working so that he won’t lose a minute! But I remain abnormally calm.
So, here we are at Valence, with a windy finish (Serge ran against the wind for the second part of the stage and is exhausted). Thanks to the Valence chapter of CJD for their welcome on this beautiful Place du Champ de Mars.
Tomorrow the road goes on, and there will be a sensational program.