Amongst the 39 starters was a quintet
of ABP riders headed by France’s
Teddy Pons who won the Karujet in
2011 and countrymen Francois Medori,
Herve Partouche, Alexandre Barret and
America’s MacClugage.
The group faced an impressive and
formidable field of riders including
former winners Davy Vaitilingon from
Guadeloupe who lifted the title in 2007 &
2012 and France’s Jean-Bruno Pastorello
who won it in 2010.
Local rider Lucas Granger struck the first
blow to take an early lead after winning
the two-leg first stage from Viard to Saint
Marie, Ilet Gosier and back to Viard, with
Ugo Fidelin second ahead of the best of
the ABP riders, Chris MacClugage.
The Guadeloupe [Granger] rider moved
up from lying in second behind Pascal
Gounouman at the end of lap 1 to hit the
front and complete the 60kms in 44:51
seconds to finish head of Fidelin by 17
seconds, just 54 seconds separating the
top five. “I know the waters well which
is an advantage and I have a very good
team behind me,” said Granger. “This is
the shortest of all the stages but a win is a
good start but for sure it now gets harder.”
2004winner MacClugage recovered from
a terrible start, first having to take drastic
action to avoid a coming together with
a late starter and then tumbling from his
bike. But the experienced 18 time World
Champion recovered his composure to
fight back, moving up through the field
from running outside the top 15 at the end
of leg 1 to finish in third just 22 seconds
behind the stage winner.
Francois Medori who has a record of
breaking down in the Karujet was more
than satisfied with his opening showing
taking fourth place after a late close duel
with ABP rival MacClugage. “You can’t win
the event on the first day, but you can lose
it and the competition is very tight.”
Still in the mix after day 1 were three
former winners Teddy Pons, Jean-Bruno
Pastorello and Davy Vaitilingdon who
came home in fifth, sixth and eighth,
54, 79 and 115 seconds off the pace of
Granger. Last year’s Winner Marc Forbin
finishing 16th.
Two other ABP riders with it all to do were
Herve Partouche who had a 9:16 second
deficit to make up after finishing down in
25th spot with Alexandre Barret incurring
two penalties and classified in a time of
1:15:.09 seconds.
Stage 2 belonged to Teddy Pons winning
by 1:38 seconds from Lucas Granger with
Chris MacClugage coming home in third
spot for the second time in two days, just
five seconds behind Granger. The win
put Pons into second place in the overall
classification 16 seconds behind Granger
and ahead of MacClugage.
In the first of the legs from Viard to
Saint-Francois and back to Viard run in
difficult conditions with big seas and poor
visibility, Alexandre Barret led almost the
whole way. Behind him the battle was
between Pons, Jean-Bruno Pastorello,
Davy Vaitilingon and MacClugage.
Craig Warner picked up his pace and
at about 66km into the stage moved
into fourth behind Barret, Pons and
MacClugage, with Medori fifth and Lucas
Granger sixth. But Warner hit trouble, the
American rider eventually retiring.
Approaching the end of the first leg Barret
broke down, handing the lead to Pons
with MacClugage ahead of Granger and
stage 1 runner-up Ugo Fidelin.
Francois Medori was in the lead group for
most of leg one but then had an ignition
problem, his engine cutting out every time
he hit a wave, eventually finishing in 17th
place 27 minutes off the pace.
Pons was quickest in and first out after the
pit stops and never looked back, and went
on unchallenged to win by 1:38 seconds.
MacClugage looked set to follow Pons
home but Lucas Granger made a late
attack as the two went head-to-head in
the closing stages with Granger nabbing
second place by just five seconds, Ugo
Fidelin finishing in fourth.
MacClugage said after the stage that “his
age was catching up with him and that he
really felt all his 40 years of experience,
and his knees”.
Pastorello, who was running in the
top three in the early stages, then had
problems with his bike and struggled
ultimately retiring. Vincent Karam picked
up his best finish coming home in fourth,
with last year’s winner Marc Forbin right
back in contention after finishing in fifth
ahead of Fidelin.
The majority of the riders agreed that the
144km stage 3 was the hardest, especially
along the Canal Des Saintes and around
the Island with 1.5 metres waves coming
from both sides.
AQUABIKE
20 | H20 MAGAZINE - SEPTEMBER 2014
h2oracing.net
