Defi De L'Ile De Montreal Report- Including Video & Photos

Defi De L'Ile De Montreal Report- Including Video & Photos: If you translate the words Defi De L'Ile De Montreal from french to english, you get the Montreal Island Challenge.

The most basic explanation for this event is as follows; start at 6am, follow the little yellow arrows that take you on the bike paths for 128km around Montreal island, don't slip on the leaves, and finish in one piece.

Here are just a few things about the event that I'd like to mention;
- Ed Leung fell twice in the first 10km- once thanks to the slippery leaves and then due to a big branch
- A couple of young Colombian brothers (13 and 15 years old) who live in Montreal took part- they had no food or water! We stayed together for about 3 hours. I was speaking with Martine Charbonneau, and she told me that they fell a couple of more times later in the event and they also got lost! She event lent them money to buy food!
- I managed to set the course record by 1 minute- it was 5:06 set by Mehdi Cherif in 2002- now I have the honour of holding the best time which is 5:05
- Nicolas Ratthe skated the whole 128km's backwards in about 8 hours 30 minutes; he found it very hard due to the wind! He has already skated the Defi and A2A backwards
- There was a lot of wind lots of leaves on the path during the start, it also rained during the Defi
- Martine Charbonneau- this year's A2A winner and course record holder for A2A & the Defi didn't participate today. Instead, she volunteered her time, driving a support vehicle and working at the 4th check-point
- There was basically no hills except for a couple about 1 1/4 hours into the event
- How the event developped; Jonothan Royer skated away from the chase group right from the start. Over the first hour and a half, he took an 11-minute lead. Meanwhile, the chase group formed with about 10 skaters; one by one, skaters fell off the pace. When Ed Leung fell for the 2nd time, I waited for him, and tried to help him back into the group, but his skate was broken. At the 1 hour 15 minute mark, the two Colombian skaters and I left the chase group and made an effort to close the gap. The younger Colombian skater fell, so his brother and I waited for him. From the 1:40 mark onward, I did most of the pulling. We were stopped by the police, and I had to explain what we were doing. He seemed somewhat angry, but he let us go on. We caught up with Royer at about the 2 hour 45 minute mark when he was sitting on the grass resting. We stopped, chatted for a bit, and then I skated the rest of the Defi solo. Royer came in about 20-minutes after me, and 3rd place Joel Stitt outsprinted 3 other skaters at about the 6-hour mark.

I won't spend more time writing about the Defi because I've got a video that captures the spirit of the event (click here for my video or press play below) and I have a few pictures (click here for my photo gallery (77 photos) and check out some pictures below).




2007-10-20 Montreal Defi De L'Ile De Montreal- 77 photos

Early on at about 6:10am- bright and early. To think that I had to get up at 4:30am for this event, ugh!

self-picture about 1 hour 30 minutes into the race- the chase was one; the lead pack skated a fairly easy pace for the first part of the event, which allowed Jonothan Royer to build an 11-minute lead. When these two Colombian kids and I learned that the gap was that big, we hunted him down. About 2 1/2 hours into the Defi, my two chase-mates had 'fallen' off the pace and I caught Royer, who was sitting down on the side of the road. We chilled out for a while...

...and here we are; the Colombia skaters caught up, and I think they were happy to be stopped but they also found it strage that we were stopped. It's fun when the whole lead pack stops to talk and take photos... sadly, the two Colombian brothers got lost later in the Defi

These arrows painted on the road were the skaters' life-lines; as long as you saw them once in a while, you knew you were on the right path

The downtown Montreal skyline; a very very welcome sight!

Post event drinks thanks to Joel Stitt!

Early finisher times

Ed Leung's bloody leg- 2 falls, 2 sets of skates, and 128km's later

The joy of finishing in a group!

Friendships are formed while supporting each other is critical

Sherbrooke's Nicolas Ratthe after skating the Defi backwards

This whole group finished together- I assume they skated together as well

While I was driving back to Morgane Echardour's place to sleep and shower and eat, I spotted some more skaters navigating Montreal's streets