Alexandre Barret became the third different stage winner and
saw a reshuffle in the standings with title hopefuls Lucas Granger
who won stage 1 and led the standings after stage two and
third-placed Chris MacClugage both having problems, Granger
breaking after 20 minutes in, MacClugage going out at the start.
Fidelin moved out to an early lead ahead of Francois Medori and
Barret but conceded position to both, with Barret hitting the front,
Frederic Roussel running in fourth.
At around the 85km mark Barret dropped to fifth with engine
issues, Medori and Fidelin taking advantage to run one –two
ahead of Cedric Ramassamy, Teddy Pons running strongly in
fourth. But Medori’s lead was short-lived breaking down and
going out, Lucas Granger suffering the same fate, followed
almost immediately by Jean-Bruno Pastorello’s exit.
Pons hit the front and led briefly before Barret stormed passed
him to lead into the pit stop ahead of Kevin Carlini, Pons, Fidelin
and Yann Ponama.
Barret was first back out on the course followed by Pons with
Carlini stranded in the pits and retiring, and never looked back
carving out a 4km lead to take the win from Pons by 6:52.146
seconds.
Fidelin made a late charge to pass Karam to take third with
Roussel and Ponama completing the top six.
Going into the final days stages Pons led the overall standings
and was within sight of second title with an 8:51.785 second
advantage over Fidelin. But there would be a dramatic twist
and with it huge disappointment for the Frenchman [Pons] who
broke down in both stages and failed to finish, ending his Karujet
in seventh place.
Francois Medori grabbed his first win on stage 4 ahead of
countryman Jean-Bruno Pastorello with Karam in third, with fifth
spot for Ugo Fidelin moving him to the top of the leader board
with one stage to run.
The fifth and final stage win went to Alexandre Barret ahead of
a resurgent Medori and Pastorello, but all eyes were on Fidelin
who eased home in seventh place to take the overall victory over
Vincent Karam and Alain Tarzia.
Overall final classification – top six
1. Ugo Fidelin (mtq): 07:12:26.065s
2. Vincent Karam (glp) + 1:36.490ss
3. Alain Tarzia (fra) + 21:19.332s
4. Vincent Thomas (glp) + 26:22.382s
5. Franck Arnoux (glp) + 59:09.201s
6. Lionel Espinet (fra) + 1:03:53.305s
7. Teddy Pons (fra) + 3:06:12.08
10. Francois Medori (fra) + 3:27:08.01
11. Herve Partouche (fra) + 3:49:17.55
15. Chris MacClugage (usa) + 5:39:14.61
24. Alexandre Barret (fra) + 6:38:05.93
H20 MAGAZINE - SEPTEMBER 2014 | 21
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