Louise Bergeron: from Gazelle to Technical Director
She was part of the very first Quebec team to do this rally. She won the 2002 edition with Claudine Douville. Today Louise Bergeron in on the other side of the dashboard to transmit her passion for navigation.
Her first Rallye Aïcha des Gazelles in Mauritania
The year was 1996. Louise, a technical director for a sports network, discovered the Rallye des Gazelles on television. “I told myself, that’s what I want to do. My teammate, Sylvie Vincent, and I tried to find map and compass training. The day before the start of the Rallye, we received navigation training in Mauritania from Yvan Guillot, one of the pioneers of the Rallye.” Only 17 teams took part in the event that year. Louise and her co-pilot finished 4th: “The landscape is quite different from Morocco, with vast stretches of slate, strings of dunes and you don’t have a choice, you have to get through. There was a bit of danger, there were zones where there were anti-personnel mines. The rally director at the time told us to be careful so we didn’t take any risks.”
Fond memories
That first rally was 22 years ago. Louise went to discover the desert, off-road driving, navigation… She kept the 1:70,000-scale maps. On the map, there were circles like big plates; we had to drive across, up and out. After dinner, the other Quebec team explained that it was quicksand. You take risks when you don’t know better.” She returned to the Rallye in 2001 with her colleague and friend Claudine: “It had become more competitive. Since Claudine and I were in the business, we decided to report on the event, we did interviews at the bivouac, we stopped to film what we were eating; we were exhausted but we still finished in 6th place.”
2002: the year of consecration
Louise and Claudine won the 2002 edition by just half a point. “We were really well prepared, we knew what to expect and we wanted the pole position. We were there to give it everything we had, and it was all categories combined. The hardest thing was to hold your position because we quickly found ourselves in first place. We put so much pressure on ourselves that we calculated every turn of the wheels.”
The last day was something else: “We were last to leave with the draw, and we got stuck in the mud because it rained a lot that year. We had a flat tire and in 20 minutes flat we were back on our way. It’s impossible to do that at home; the adrenaline kicked in. We were almost the last to reach the bivouac. I often refer to that day in my personal life and my work, and I tell myself that I can do it, given what I managed to do that day… When we won, it took a week for it to sink in.”
A love of navigation
Louise was the driver in 1996, but she quickly learned to navigate. Her teammate was sick for the first two days and Louise had to both. Then she was the navigator, but by default at first because her teammate, Sylvie, wanted to drive. “In my opinion, the Rallye Aïcha des Gazelles du Maroc is at least 70% navigation. It came to me little by little. At the beginning, the hardest thing is to recognize the terrain in relation to the map. You make some good choices, and some less good ones. You need to know where you are at all times. Now I know which dunes to cross just by looking at the map.”
In 2003, the former Gazelle began to train others: “After winning, I told myself that I had more to offer than a male instructor who doesn’t understand what it feels like to look for a checkpoint for 4 hours.” Since then, Louise has been training future Gazelles in Québec and the USA and transmitting her passion for navigation. “Seeing their haggard expressions at the beginning of the day, the ‘fried halibut look’ as my friend would say, transforming as they begin to catch on, and then at the end of the training when they feel ready, that’s my greatest satisfaction. And on the terrain, they’re happy to be able to speak Quebecois.”
At the Rallye, Louise is also a rally marshal. She manages the start every morning and enforces the regulations. During the day, she makes sure that everything goes smoothly, that the Gazelles are looking after themselves mentally and physically and each night, the marshals get together to deal with penalties and complaints and discuss the day.
Helpful in her daily life
The Rallye Aïcha des Gazelles du Maroc, is something that has stayed with me. It’s part of me, of my life. I am what I am partly thanks to the Gazelles, because you’re always pushing yourself. That’s not something you do every day, but at the Rallye you don’t have a choice, you have to go forward. And today I know that helped me in my work and my daily life.”
What’s next? “Only the future will tell. I might do another rally one day but for now I am focusing on my role as technical director.”
