“We lost with €100,000 and Axel and Papy JC won with €0,” summarizes Émeline Pichon. Defeated, the Guingampaise, who works in a sports store in Lannion, does not however have to be ashamed of her journey in the 19th season of Beijing Express. An “all-stars” edition in India, with the candidates who have most marked the last editions of this reality TV show in which more or less improbable pairs must hitchhike to a destination as quickly as possible.
The final, broadcast this Saturday, October 19, was played out in three races which could allow candidates to accumulate up to €100,000, to be won in a final sprint. “The first race, we lost it by 15 seconds, so we lost €100; the second, we win with more than an hour in advance, so we eat into our competitors’ prize pool. And the third race, everything is stolen from them, they are repatriated,” says Émeline.
“All the problems that never happened to us”
Then comes the final sprint: “It’s super stressful, it’s dark, there are horns honking, there are traffic jams, our drivers get lost. All the problems are happening to us that have never happened to us in two seasons. Whatever we did, nothing happened, no matter how hard we tried to change cars, etc. It was horrible, I felt helpless,” confides Émeline, who ran the 36 km Trail des Causses from Millau, this Saturday, before going to join her sidekick Clément, in Béziers, for the broadcast of the emission.
For the Guingampaise, if this lost final is “a bad moment, it cannot erase all the magnificent adventure we experienced. We met so many people, did lots of incredible challenges. I wanted to surpass myself and I did it. We were incredibly lucky to go all the way, to walk the red carpet, we only keep positive memories,” says the Guingampaise for whom the most difficult is yet to come: finding other challenges that will allow her to experience such intense emotions.
