Cars & Boats

Pat & Pat

2006-12-06T17:58:00.000+01:00

For the 10th edition of the Rallye de Monte Carlo Historique, I start again with my friend since more than 30 years, Pat Poncin, and we started a common blog Pat2Pat which will also be the support for our sponsors. You will follow live our preparation, our ideas, ...
Go and visit it and come back with your comments!

Long time no news ...

2006-12-05T09:10:00.000+01:00

Here I am again ... Injuries are common for sportsmen and women but when you have one, it's always a shock! It's now more than a year that I didn't scull or row - soooooooooo hard. A surgery in April was supposed to allow my shoulder to work again but no, it's not the case and a new surgery is needed. But the Rallye Monte-Carlo Historique 2007 is approaching and has priority! I know, it can sound a little bit stupid but I've put my priorities and I really want to have fun!
So, you'll know more about it very soon ...
Nice to write to you again!

26/03/2006 - Spring Outing - Visite du pays de Chimay

2006-03-24T17:38:00.000+01:00

First outing of the Classic Club in 2006, a rallye in Hainaut.
Some 52 participants and I'll find back the Porsche 356 which gave me that brilliant result at the Rallye Monte Carlo Historique and will have my best friend Pat as co-pilot!
An idea of our day: start at the Distillerie de Biercée, Val joli, Eppe Sauvage, forêt de Macquenoise, abbaye de Scourmont, Rièzes, Cul-des-Sarts, Vierves-sur-viroin, Lompret, étang de Virelles and the old track of Chimay. To finish that day, Château des Princes de Chimay where we will be welcomed by the Champagne Ruinart!
Another "beautiful day" would say Queen.
More info: website of The Classic Club

Torino 2006 - Paralympic Games

2006-03-24T17:33:00.000+01:00

Thank you! Really an exciting experience for four main reasons:

thank you IPC for inviting me to share the emotions of the games and the opening ceremony
thank you Torino 2006 for enabling me to share the joy and excitment of kids and youngers at the different locations: paralympic village, Torino Esposizione, Sestrière and Pragelato
thank you Britta and Bruce - and congratulations - for sharing some very emotional moments as a "South African Fan"
thank you Olga (and Patrizia) for sharing evenings and conversations!

I really enjoyed every single minute.

An incredible Rallye Monte-Carlo Historique 2006

2006-02-10T10:52:00.000+01:00

Incredible, in very many ways! Some examples:

Weather: so cold the first night (and sorry Pippa, no heating in the car) and icy the last night (even thought the car had a problem as I could see anything but felt the rear slipping away when it wasn't foreseen). I really appreciated having followed the tip of two friends and great pilots (Gaby and Dirk) and go for some lessons at Philippe Ménages's school "Maîtrise du volant".
Rallye conditions: a tourist deciding to have a trip on a snowy "route forestière" and turn just in front of our car ...
Rallye conditions (2): the participants starting from Barcelona were not allowed to arrive at StEtienne by some "arrêté préfetoral" and couldn't take the first 4 zones de régularité.
Rallye conditions (3): the first 25 cars of the rallye being stopped by a car and loosing a lot of time, which puts us in a 23rd position at the end!
Radio follow-up: Classic21, who very kindly interviewed me during three weeks and gave the opportunity to share some moments with friends back at home.
Sponsoring: thanks to Vredestein , we had great tyres which enabled us to tackle in a safe and efficient way the winter conditions.

I could go on like this but just to finish want to thank Jean and Jean-Pierre, our assistance for their reconforting presence!

Pippa, we made it: 23rd and the "Coupe des Dames"

Paralympic Games Torino 2006

2006-01-06T16:34:00.000+01:00

The Winter Paralympic Games will take place in Torino from 10 to 18 March 2006. Thanks to the International Paralympic Committee I'll have the great honour to be a guest at the opening ceremony.
Furthermore, today I also received a very nice confirmation that I'll be a volunteer for TOROC in the educational twinning programme. It's really great to be part of these very intense moments and have the opportunity to be able to share it with youngers. If you ever have the possibility to enroll as a volunteer for great events like this, grasp your chance, you will certainly not regret it.

Happy, happy, happy New Year

2006-01-03T16:54:00.000+01:00

2006 just started, and I really look forward to it. It's like this since I started participating in the Monte Carlo Historique. It makes such a great start for each year. No time to think after the Xmas period or wonder what to do in the next year: it so nice to already have a goal just after the busy end of year period.
It's also a little bit stressy as there is less than a month to go before the start but this is what makes life so fascinating: always give yourself new challenges to meet!
I hope that you also have set your goals for 2006 and wish you to make your dreams come true (but maybe make sure to keep some or make up some new ones for the years to come ;-)

Monte Carlo Historique 2006!

2005-11-29T09:06:00.000+01:00

Ouf, we got a positive answer! It's always a little bit of stress, after the file in sent in and before receiving the official answer from the Automobile Club de Monaco. Although women crew usually are very seldom (4 again this year), there is still this "uncertainty" about the outcome. You can find a complete list on entrants on the web site of the ACM. Now the preparation phase really starts!

Yamaha Girls Maroc Raid 2005

2005-10-21T09:45:00.000+02:00

I wonder how Sylvie Delcour, great Belgian car pilot, is doing in the Girls Maroc Raid 2005. She started on 18/10 to Agadir, high Atlas, to go through Tiznit, Sidi-Ifni, Guelmin, oasis Ait-Bekkou and Izerbi, to finish after 6 days in Agadir. She was dreaming of this for years and trained to be fine-tuned to discover Marocco on this Yamaha 250TTR. You'll find more info and photos on www.sylviedelcour.be
Hope to have some news when she's back!

Sensations ...

2005-10-18T19:20:00.000+02:00

Needed some time to recover after the "Internationaux de France à la mer" on the 10th of October. For the French championships the Atlantique was very smooth but on the Sunday of the Internationals, waves of 1.5 to 2.5 meters high!
Needed some time to convince myself to pass them but that why I was there, to surf the waves on a rowing boat, isn't it? And it is really worth it! Great sensations when you take the waves correctly! Fortunately, I didn't see some boats rolling down the waves, I'm not sure I would have gone for it otherwise...
In the evening, beautiful memories to share with the team from the Martinique and great moments with friends. It's a pity we live so far away from each other! Hope to see them very soon again.

Internationaux de France à la mer

2005-10-06T08:32:00.000+02:00

Another challenge ... On Sunday, in Hendaye, in the waves (announced to be 1.5 to 2 m high!) I'll participate in solo. Although I sweared after the first time in solo in Martinique, I would never do it anymore, no choice! Last year Guebli joined me in a double but she couldn't make it this year and here I go ... The motto is: go, have fun and make the best out of it. How will it be to surf in a rowing boat? I'll tell you when I'm back!

Belgian Rowing Championships

2005-09-26T08:44:00.000+02:00

As usual, last week-end of September is the Belgian Rowing Championship in what is called the long boats, that is to say fours and eights. We participated in both 4- and 4x.
4- was really though, no training in that combination and not used to row; 4x was better and wasn't it for the waves the umpire did manage to make for us from the 1.000m onwards, we could have raced a good 2.000m. We kept with the very strong boat of GRS for more than 750m but ... finished second again. Thanks to my clubmates, Kris, Leen and Guebli!

The Classic Club

2005-09-09T09:23:00.000+02:00

Yesterday evening, mechoui and pancakes at the Classic Club. It is a quite unique club which owns oldtimers. Being a member allows you to use the cars for a certain amount of days a year. Once a month we meet at the clubhouse (l'Atelier) and there is always a surprise: it can be some cars to test, some pilots to meet, an art exhibition, ... Yesterday we had the pleasure to test the Alfa 159 and the GT. The second one is really a great car to drive!
You'll hear more from the Classic Club in the near future as I will drive one of the cars for the Rallye Monte-Carlo Historique in January 2006.

Mini Cooper

2005-09-08T12:06:00.000+02:00

I've got a new toy: fun, nice, safe, ... a Mini Cooper! Not a brand new one but a one year old which looks like new! I really enjoy driving it and thank the sales person at the BMW garage for their wellcome and great sense of humor. By the way, one of them, Sébastien Delmotte, is a pilot on ... Mini!

Congratulations!

2005-09-05T09:08:00.000+02:00

The Belgian rowers in Gifu really made it happen! Tim finishes 4th in the A final, Stijn and Christophe 6th and the lightweight quad, Christophe, Wouter, François and Justin take the silver medal! Last medal in rowing at World Championships goes back to Tampere in 1995! And what a race.
Melissa Bray reports on the FISA website: "Italy has dominated this event for the last three years and Filippo Mannucci, Luca Moncada and Daniele Gilardoni return as three-time defending champions, joined by Gardino Pellolio in bow. Italy took the lead over Austria and moved out to a boat length advantage by the 1,000 metre mark with Canada taking second. Italy continued to stay in front and it appeared that only a disaster would deny them of the gold. That disaster looked like it was coming in the form of Belgium. Sitting for most of the race in fourth the Belgians suddenly came alive and in the last 500 metres had swallowed up Canada and were challenging the Italians. Rating 40, Belgium ran out of race. Rating 36, Italy had held them off. Mannucci, Moncada and Gilardoni make it four consecutive World Champion titles. Pellolio makes it one. Belgium wins silver and Canada takes bronze."
Congratulations!

FISA World Rowing Championships GIFU

2005-09-01T10:32:00.000+02:00

What a week for Belgian rowing for the moment: three boats entered, three boats in Final A and with some fantastic performances already.
The 2x, Christophe and Stijn qualified directly for the semi-finals and there finish 2nd, taking a fine qualifying place for the A final.
Tim, olympic finalist in Athens in 1x, rowed in the repechage only within a quarter of a second of breaking the world best time set by German's Marcel Hacker in 2002 and qualifying for the semi-final. In this semi, which was the fastest of the two, he came second, behind Olaf Tufte.
And finally the LM4x Justin, François, Woulter and Kristof qualified for the A final in breaking a 13 year world best time record!
We really look forward to the finals ...

New challenges

2005-08-30T00:00:00.000+02:00

Cars & Boats ... What a name for a blog! But two words for two passions I want to share with you ...
Why do I start this blog today? To follow up on an challenging conversation I had at lunchtime with a friend, Gaby, and also because several events are in preparation: Belgian Rowing Championships, International French Coastal Rowing regatta and Rallye de Monte-Carlo Historique.
I'll keep you "posted"!
Cheers