Sand Roses Trophy | The Great Floods in the great dunes

They crossed Quebec together for six years. Now, they are going to travel the Sahara. In October, for a few days, the Great Floods will trade the scenes and the cups of wine for the dunes and a compass.

In interview with The Presson a Tuesday morning in September, Ève Côté and Marie-Lyne Joncas seemed sincerely excited to take part in the 22^e Sand Roses Trophy. On October 10, they will fly to Morocco to participate in this 100% female orienteering rally.

As spokespersons, the two comedians will play a listening and supporting role with the crews, 27 of which are made up of Quebecers. They nevertheless intend to experience the competition to the fullest, like all the other participants. Dragging your paw isn’t even an option.

“We’re going to chat with people, that’s part of the role, but we wanted to compete for real,” says Marie-Lyne Joncas. It’s really going to be about resting, being focused, doing the right thing to be able to win. We definitely want to win. »

In the past, the two friends had already discussed the idea of ​​registering for the rally as official participants. They therefore do not see this involvement as a task at all.

“I don’t yet know exactly what I’m getting myself into, but it’s a challenge that I wanted to take on,” says Ève Côté.

The Roses des Sables Trophy excludes any notion of speed. The 315 participants spend 48 hours in complete autonomy; equipped with a guide (road book) and a compass, they travel thousands of kilometers in the heart of the Moroccan desert. They must respect two imperatives, we can read on the Trophy website, namely “the tallying of the passage controls located on the route and the maximum limitation of the number of kilometers traveled at each stage”.

In the Grandes Crues, Ève Côté will pilot the side-by-side, while Marie-Lyne Joncas will be in charge of navigation.

“Me, the compass, it seems that the only thing I know is that I have to take off my belt, otherwise you can fucker the North ! », exclaims Ève Côté. “I don’t have a sense of direction, but Marie-Lyne is strong in that. Although we’ve already met on a ski-doo slope on tour. »

“It was the GPS that brought us there,” replies Marie-Lyne Joncas. It wasn’t my fault! »

New “lady boyfriends”

It’s often said that travel has the power to bring people together…or push them apart. It is, we guess, the same principle with a rally in the desert. It is difficult for anyone to predict how they will react once lost in the dunes of the Sahara. Ève Côté and Marie-Lyne Joncas are well aware of all this, but their friendship has seen other challenges.

“We are still strong from our six years of touring in Grandes Crues where we went from young women in the party, to established young women who learned to communicate together. […] We leave very confident that things will go well. »

The two women with very different temperaments know how to reconcile, or “re-seduce” each other, says Marie-Lyne Joncas.

“We went through almost the whole range [d’émotions]from being on the verge of never speaking to each other again about our lives to almost proposing to each other,” she lets slip.

“At the end of the matter, every evening, there is fresh rosé wine waiting for us, it seems. It’s still a good pay! », exclaims Marie-Lyne Joncas with a smile. To this, Ève Côté adds: “We are going to concentrate on real business! »

The Grandes Crues being what they are – “chatters, women of the people” – they are especially impatient to meet the participants, who all have their own reasons for having registered for the rally. Like these two sisters, Édithe Fréchette and Marilou Guévin, separated during their childhood and having learned of each other’s existence as adults.

“I can’t wait to speak with these two women! », says Côté. “We’ll definitely come back with at least 100 more Facebook friends and a couple of women’s boyfriends to have dinner with! »