It is 7 p.m. this Thursday, January 16, at the Shubaytah bivouac, in the immense desert of the Empty Quarter, when Xavier de Soultrait finally gets out of his Polaris. “It’s dark and we’re still in our wetsuits… That’s not a good sign!” »
The driver from Neuville-lès-Decize and living in Moulins (Allier) has not lost his usual smile, but the hard blow of the day is nevertheless for him. Second in the general classification in the SSV (light vehicle) category, he lost his place during the penultimate stage, this Thursday, January 16.
The buggy was no longer moving in the dunes
The fault was the breakage of the front axle of his vehicle at kilometer 185, out of the 275 to be covered. “We found ourselves in two-wheel drive with the SSV. We were in soft dunes, we didn’t manage to cross them, we took out the shovel, we had blisters on our hands, we weren’t moving forward…” So we had to face the facts.
The first to offer the option of leaving the stage was his navigator Martin Bonnet. The Nivernais insisted on continuing. “We even got a little angry, a first in three years! », joke the two men, quickly reconciled. “I perhaps had a little more perspective than him, who was still thinking about going there,” continues the Lozère co-pilot.
-We had gone 200 meters, we were spinning our wheels, night was coming… I told myself we had to stop. We called the manager to decide.
“Finally, the organization told us that for security reasons, it was better to go out. And it was indeed the right decision. »
Who says abandonment means loss of the podium for crew no. 400. They will also not have the medal reserved for those who complete the entire course. The two men are disappointed, obviously, but “there is something more serious. We would have liked to win again, but this year, it didn’t please us as much as last year. Our team should still win with Brock (If), who had a great race. And we avoided a night in the dunes! “.
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