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A Victory for Sportsmanship
Saturday, May 6, 2000

In Janakpur, the excitement of last night has yet to die down for team Nokia Adventure. The winners just can't believe their performance while their unfortunate rivals gave a lesson in sportsmanship one can't help but respect.

"I can't believe it! This victory makes me so happy," declared Sarah Odell, British model and member of team Nokia Adventure. Radiant in spite of the fatigue accumulated during the last few hours, Sarah explained that the final furlong of the race cost the team dearly. Everyone had to draw on his/her deepest resources in order to keep the pressure going until the end. "We were tired, dehydrated and we made so many mistakes," she admitted.

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But it's worthwhile to note that none of these errors could overcome the incredible determination of the Finnish team Nokia. And determination is what they needed, especially when it came to crossing the last four kilometers on foot in 17 minutes. Looking back at the incidents that put an end to team Salomon/Land Rover's hopes of victory, Sarah added, "I'm very disappointed for them, they had a perfect race."

After such a superlative race thrown away through a simple detail of timing (their mountain bikes arrived late), we expected to find team Salomon/Land Rover really down in the dumps. But the images filmed yesterday evening at the beginning of the mountain biking section showed an unexpected scene. John Howard's squad lined up at the start of the section with their "potluck selection," i.e. hastily acquired bicycles found in the local village. With their characteristic mental aplomb, the members of team Salomon/Land Rover submitted their boodled bikes to the technical controls.

"Your bicycles don't conform to the regulations," the team was told. "They're missing the front suspension."

This simple phrase caused Robert Nagle to laugh so much that he ended up rolling on the ground, overwhelmed by the comedy of the situation. On arriving at Janakpur, John Howard went over this episode without showing the least trace of bitterness. "I don't believe we made a mistake by taking the Nepalese bikes, at least it gave us a good laugh."

From a team that dominated the debate throughout the race and that now finds itself occupying 4th place, this lesson in sportsmanship is superb. We already knew that Howard's squadron was perfect on an athletic level, we've now discovered that they're also a team of irreproachable moral qualities.

On the French side, Karim Benamrouche's Intersport was satisfied by the 2nd place awarded to his team and paid tribute to his teammates. "I have a fantastic team and this 2nd place is the fruit of a lot of hard work," he said. It was a fine finish for this race and a fitting tribute to the spirit of sportsmanship.

— Provided by Raid Gauloises

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