Temperature at 12h00 : 38,8°c – 9% hygrometrie,
strong winds in the afternoon
6 check-points (CP) (km 9.5 - 22 - 33 – 44 -55 - 65).
749 competitors at the start of stage 4
General rankings at the
end of stage 3 Men
1. Lahcen Ahansal (Morocco 1) 08h18m58 – average 12.93 km/h
2. Mohammed Ahansal (Morocco 2) at 2m43 – average 12.86 km/h
3. Lhoucine Akhdar (Morocco 5) at 54m23 – average 11.66 km/h
4. Mustapha Ait Amar (Morocco – 4) at 1h12m11 – average
11. 29 km/h
5. Marco Gozzano (Italy – 489) at 1h17m10 – average
11. 20 km/h Women
1. Simone Keyser Diederich (Luxembourg - 785) 12h38m12 – average
8.51 km/h
2. Virginie Thevenot (France - 190) à 17m – average
8.31 km/h
3. Sophie Satrin (France – 9) 1h38 – average 7.53 km/h
4. Emiko Maeda (Japan – 435) 1h42 – average 7.49km/h
5. Chantal Langlace (France – 269) 1h56 – average 7.38km/h
It took the Ahansal
brothers just 6h30 to get the 76 kilometres under their belt, respecting
to the letter the times they’d
fixed themselves at the start of the stage. Once again, the brothers
showed the extent to which they dominate this course. With an
average of more than 11.5 kilometres an hour they led the race
from start to finish, crossing the finish line as the sun went
down. Lhoucine Akhdar (Mor) and Samuel Bonaudo (Fr) were next
in and came in side by side. The Frenchman is taking part in
MDS for the first time and put in an excellent performance. He
superbly defended the colours of his team who have suffered the
blow of losing their captain Gilles Diehl, forced to pull out
yesterday.
On the women’s side this seemingly endless stage served to
confirm the running order established so far. Simone Keyser increased
her lead and crossed the finish line more than an hour ahead of
her immediate rivals : Virginie Thévenot and Isabelle Degrand
from France.
Virginie Thevenot had a tough time to being due in the top five
women at the end of stage 3. She therefore had the dubious privilege
of joining the second group and set off at midday rather than 9
a.m. : « I was alone for most of the race and all the
competitors I passed by were walking. It was tough for the morale.
I don’t
usually walk and had to really fight the temptation to walk like
them. Luckily at CP5 I teamed up with Bernard Magnan (D84) and
he was happy to start running. He was chatty and that really helped
to pass the time. We stayed together right til the finish line.”
Great relief today: the 4 competitors who got lost during the night
after leaving CP4 were found this afternoon safe and sound after
several hours searching by the organisation in helicopter. Having
left CP4 at 4 in the morning, they went off in virtually the opposite
direction from the planned route. Jean Accoyer (D57) and Jean Vallon
(203) from France and Cheng Uyen Yee (504) from Hong Kong were
found in their survival sheets at around 13h30. An hour earlier,
the other lost runner Englishman Adrian Bird (562) was found alone
but in good spirits, some 10km from CP4 completely off track. He
remained phlegmatic about his misadventure telling the doctors
he hadn’t got lost but had just gone for a walk.
