Friday, 11 April: Local rider Lucas Granger struck the first blow in the 17th edition of the Karujet in Petit-Bourg, Guadeloupe to take an early lead after winning yesterday’s two-leg first stage from Viard to Saint Marie, Ilet Gosier and back to Viard, with Martinique’s Ugo Fidelin second ahead of the best of the ABP riders, America’s Chris MacClugage.
The Guadeloupe [Granger] rider moved up from lying in second behind Pascal Gounouman at the end of leg 1 to hit the front and complete the 60kms in 44:51 seconds to finish head of Fidelin by 17 seconds, just 54 seconds separating the top five. “I know the waters well which is an advantage and I have a very good team behind me,” said Granger. “This is the shortest of all the stages but a win is a good start but for sure it now gets harder.”
2004 Karujet winner MacClugage recovered from a terrible start, first having to take drastic action to avoid a coming together with a late starter and then tumbling from his bike. But the experienced 18 time World Champion recovered his composure to fight back, moving up through the field from running outside the top 15 at the end of leg 1 to finish in third just 22 seconds behind the stage winner.
French rider Francois Medori, who has a record of breaking down in the Karujet, was more than satisfied with his opening showing taking fourth place after a late close duel with ABP rival MacClugage. “You can’t win the event on the first day, but you can lose it and the competition is very tight.”
Still very much in the mix are three other former winners of the Karujet, Frenchmen Teddy Pons and Jean-Bruno Pastorello and Guadeloupe’s Davy Vaitilingdon who came home in fifth, sixth and eighth, 54, 79 and 115 seconds off the pace of Granger. Last year’s Winner Marc Forbin finished 16th.
Two other ABP riders with it all to do are Herve Partouche who has a 9:16 second deficit to make up after finishing down in 25th spot with Alexandre Barret incurring two penalties and classified in a time of 1:15:.09 seconds.
Today’s 140km two-leg stage from Viard to Saint-Francois, Gosier and back to Viard starts at 14.00hrs (local / 18.00hrs GMT).
Karujet – stage 1 results
1. Lucas Granger (glp): 44.51s
2. Ugo Fidelin (mtq) + 17s
3. Chris MacClugage (usa) + 22s
4. Francois Medori (fra) + 36s
5. Teddy Pons (fra) + 54s
6. Bruno Pastorello (fra) + 1:19s
For the complete classification go to results section in aquabike.net
For further event information go to karujet.com