D43 - Vivien Dettwiler at the finish

DAY 44 <-> DAY 41

It’s 5.30pm on 24 May 202, and Vivien’s family and friends are in place under the Fontaine des Eléphants in Chambéry, the finish line for this Sun Trip 2024. It’s raining hard once again, but the Swiss flags are out and the excitement is palpable. “He tinkered with his bike right up to the last evening before the start and it worked,” exclaims Vivien’s wife Liska, waiting for her champion to arrive.

The Swiss rider arrived at 6.15pm, at the end of a 150km day’s ride from Valence to the Savoyard capital. “This morning I took the time to recharge my batteries to 80% because rain was forecast for the end of the day. In the end, I arrived with only 3% battery power!” His arrival was just like his adventure: meticulous!

Completing the loop in 43 days and 6 hours, Vivien finished 7th in the Sun Trip solar race rankings. For a long time, he had been one of the contenders for the top 5, or even the podium, but “I wasn’t really thinking about achieving a big result when I set off, I was just hoping that my bike would carry me all the way to Morocco“. Up until Taroudant, Vivien was riding between the Germans Kilian & Jonas and the Belgians Géry & Baudouin, but then his engine broke the day after the break and the Swiss rider had to stop for 5 days in Agadir to get a replacement part. “I thought I was going to catch up with Vincent, Luciano and Bertrand, but in the end they were very fast and always had good weather, so well done to them”.

Among his great memories of the trip, his restart after Agadir holds a good place, and he spontaneously recalls “a small road leading to the Ocean invaded by sand, it was a short section but it really gave the impression of having arrived at my destination, of putting the wheels down in the Sahara”. He also had fond memories of his trip to the Dades Gorge… “the track above was really catastrophic… Paul Bermejo had warned us, but I wanted to try. At least I would have been the only one to get through”. As for regrets: “I would have liked to have met a few more participants on the adventure, but the concept of the great Sun Trip meant that I was virtually alone the whole time”.

As well as his performance, Vivien made his mark on this 2024 edition with the originality of his bike, “I slept on it a few times, but let’s be honest, it needs a few adjustments to make it more comfortable” and also with the beautiful images he sent along the way. Here is a small selection of his achievements.

Velo-camper, tuto :

Solar cooking, the new Swiss speciality :

The adventure will continue for him as far as Basel, his home town, with 300 km to cover with his wife. “We’re going to limit ourselves to 100 km a day, which won’t be bad!” warns his wife. We hope to see the Dettwiler family at the start of another Sun Trip, with their flags and their kindness.