"Eat bread and run well."
On the large t-shirt distributed to toddlers at each stage of his race, the former baker André Sourdon, 68, has not changed his slogan for ages.
Original character, former local elected, still president of the Norman Federation of bakery and pastry-making until next year, he is also at the origin of "La France en cours".
This team or relay race is rather unknown and yet, it is not a piece of cake!
2,500 kilometers are thus on the program for the 32nd edition, which begins on July 17 and ends on July 31.
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To better understand this race, we need to take a step back.
1984. His bakery eats up all his time but André Sourdon is his own boss and, as soon as possible, the running enthusiast swallows up a few dozen kilometers.
A hundred even every week.
After participating in the Nice triathlon, he left to run in Siberia and embarked on a Paris-Dakar pedestrian.
Departing from the Eiffel Tower, teams travel up to 300 km per day in relay.
"We take people who do not know each other and as they do not like to give up, they are doomed to get along," he recalls.
Friendships forged along the way
Back in France, “Dédé” understands that he has contracted the competition virus: “I went to see the boss of bakers in Évreux to explain my idea to him: to create a Tour de France on foot and in relay, copied from the Tour de France cycling route, being hosted every evening by bakers ”. A communication operation for bakeries in France that is inexpensive and works, even if some in the business do not understand the link between these two worlds.
Today, there is no longer any question of running the entire cycle tour.
Too exhausting.
A stage of La France running is between 150 and 200 km with a start at 3 am.
This year, the start will be launched from Crouy, commune of the Aisne between Compiègne (Oise) and Reims (Marne).
The race, labeled since 1991 by the French Athletics Federation, is still subsidized by the National Confederation of Bakery and Pastry.
Corporate sponsors and registrations, i.e. 380 euros per runner, also fund the competition.
And the race always ends in Bernay, the Norman town where everyone knows the Sourdon bakery, taken over by André's daughter ...
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A stage is often the certainty of finding a runner loyal to the race among the inhabitants, or a partner company established there. “For the thirty years that we have been racing, we have acquired knowledge all over France. The people who receive us know us. This is how we choose the towns and villages where we stop, ”explains the former runner. And because the man deplores the “decline” of bakeries and crafts in the countryside, at each stage, the volunteers set up a village of craftsmen where a potter, a woodcarver or even an ironworker officiate. Needless to say, they also make good bread there ...
