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Monthly Archives: August 2012
Food, glorious food
“An army marches on its stomach” some famous Frenchman is alleged to have once said (although it does seem an awfully slow way of getting around). Rowers have a pretty legendary appetite and cyclists are not far behind. Fortunately, the … Continue reading
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World famous in the Midi-Pyrennes – Part Deux
Speaking of La dépêche it’s the regional paper which interviewed us on Wednesday afternoon at Trebes. Here’s a link to the story, which includes the revelation that the NZ rowers had picked up three gold medals before France won its first gold.
Left to right:Chris W, Chris M, Georges K, Terry, Cynthia (holding the chariot), Tina, Anne and Georges L (missing are Liz, Pete, Chris B and Emile)
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Never mind the Black Strokes, who bloody won?
These guys: La dépêche (The dispatch) from the Toulouse Aviron Sports et Loisirs club. Their total time for the eight timed stages was 16 hrs, 46 minutes and 31 seconds, nearly an hour ahead of Stuttgart Green. La dépêche had a good mix of youth and experience and were dominant throughout, winning six of the eight stages (the Stuttgart crews winning the other stages).
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But wait…there’s more…
It’s not all over yet. More anon including another Mayor and a few presentations….
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“And now, the end is here and so we face the final curtain…” Capestang to Beziers
Only 19.9 km. But after four and half days and with numb bums and blistered hands, “only” is a big word. It was warm work in the unrelenting afternoon sun but with Liz at stroke the Black Strokes soon settled … Continue reading
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The Longest Day – Lunch at Capestang
It did indeed turn out be a hard morning’s work with 2 ¾ hours rowing to cover the 27.4 km stage. In the last hour after Stuttgart Blue overtook us (they would eventually have the fastest overall time for the … Continue reading
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The Longest Day – Friday morning Ventenac to Capestang
The good news was that were no more locks to cross, Friday therefore would be a straight-out row with brief stops for morning and afternoon tea. The bad news was that Friday morning’s stage to Capestang was the longest of … Continue reading
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M.A.S.H. du Canal du Midi
It takes a lot of people to run the Rallye smoothly. Arguably the most critical group are the nurses, Jeanine, Monique and Jeannot. As the week went on the wear and tear on bodies and hands mounted and with temperatures … Continue reading
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The Canal du Midi – A Velo’s view
The Canal du Midi is not only a popular location for boat cruises, it’s also well frequented by cycle tourists. The path beside the canal is very good near Toulouse and could be ridden by any bikes but generally speaking … Continue reading
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The Black Strokes – World Famous in the Midi-Pyrennes?
During our lunch stopover at Castelnaudary on Tuesday, a France3 tv crew arrived to film the equivalent of Close-up or Campbell Live piece on the Rallaye (only with more attractive camera-crew). Terry was subsequently interviewed (in French) later that afternoon and the piece appeared on TV the following night. You can access the video at
http://midi-pyrenees.france3.fr/info/canal-du-midi–le-plus-long-rallye-de-france-75167158.html?onglet=videos
On Wednesday Terry was interviewed again by a journalist for a piece which appeared in a Saturday paper. Both interviewers admired our distinctive T-shirts (more about the design later but first a quick thanks to Liz and her family), wanted to know why we were participating and how we were enjoying it. The TV also wanted to know more about the NZ equivalent, a proposed row along the Waikato from Taupo to Mercer.
Finally for a perspective on the Rallaye from another crew, check out this post by the French Servrir crew who are based on a lake near Chamonix, in what looks to be a spectacular venue. Unless my French is very much mistaken there are some very generous comments about us. Merci beaucoup Henri
(For our overeas readers the “World-famous” comment is a reference to a New Zealand advertising campaign for a soft drink only available in New Zealand).
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