This is the story of two friends who challenged each other for a joke a few months ago. Kevin is 35 years old, he lives in the Hautes Pyrénées and is a socio-educational animator in Tarbes. Canaris supporters since the early 2000s, he is member of the “Canaris Sud 44” association. Originally from Château-Thébaud in Loire-Atlantique, Jorisis 33 years old, he now lives in Cugand in Vendée and works in human resources at the CCAS in Nantes.
The “Nantes Joke”
“With Joris, we often call each other after games to debrief and this year we started talking about the Coupe de France” says Kevin. The two men follow the course of their favorite club and begin to believe in it. “We said to ourselves: if they go (note: in the final) we’re going too! And how do we get there? Well, we’re going there by bike.” This is how this challenge called “la Joke nantaise” was born, a play on words between Joris’s “Jo” and Kevin’s Ke.
So they started to training from semi-final last March, two to three times a week, to be able to achieve their objective: to link La Beaujoire to the Stade de France, i.e. 410 km in four real stages, preceded by a small “warm-up lap” of 25 kilometers on Tuesday evening departure to sleep in Oudon.
Yellow and green throughout their range
The two buddies have known each other since 2009 and bonded while doing two-seater canoeing together. So off they went for another challenge, not in tandem, but each on their own bike. They do not go unnoticed : “yellow and green on bikes, helmets, outfits, flags, there’s everything you need to see us”, describes Joris who hopes that on their way “people will give us a little smile, a little encouragement to go all the way.”
Challenges along the way
To spice up their journey, some of their supporters offered them additional challenges, such as singing “In the prisons of Nantes” with a policeman. A Rennes supporter also asked them to put up the Stade Rennes flag at the Stade de France, in exchange for singing the Canaries anthem. The Nantes Collective, through which they were able to get their tickets, asked them to pose with the collective’s T-shirt under the Eiffel Tower. They also have blackmails the president of the county council of Loire-Atlantique, Michel Ménard.
Finally, the two Nantes supporters will also return tribute to Emiliano Salathe Nantes striker victim of a plane crash, saluting him at the ninth kilometer of each stage (he wore number 9).
A challenge to follow on social networks
A Facebook page and an account Twitter were created to follow the adventures of these two passionate
Their journey in five stages:
After a first “small” stage of 25 km between Beaujoire and Oudon on Tuesday evening,
- Wednesday: Oudon (44) / the Ponts de Cé (49)
- Thursday: the Ponts de Cé (49) / Le Mans (72)
- Friday: Le Mans (72) / Chartres (28)
- Saturday: Chartres (28) / St Denis (93)