Mathieu Brulet and Julie Chuberre-Dodé, members of SA Toulouse UC and A3 Tours respectively, were the last winners of the Seresville national cross. This event, which opens the great cross-country season, will move next fall. Under its new name, “Cross of November 11”, the event will take place at the Jacques-Couvret stadium, on the site of Grands-Prés which has in the past hosted regional cross championships.
At the start, Parc des Vauroux
The race will therefore have its third change of location to be completely accurate. The origins of this cross date back to November 1970. Fifty years ago, the CS Mainvilliers launched its first cross, in the city center, in the Parc des Vauroux. Reserved for young categories, the event became emancipated and, in 1973, due to lack of space, the organizers emigrated to the Seresville plain. This small hamlet in Mainville will see many high-level athletes parade and will register as a reference when receiving the national label.
2019 … the last cross
This cross, organized on Day of the Dead, lived long hours in this Mainville plain, sometimes beaten by the winds, sometimes snowy or sometimes bathed in a spring sun as in 2014 when Tourangeau Florian Théophile stole the show from the Nogentais Saïd Lazaar .
Rigeard, theater of the next duels
So this is a page that will turn and another that will open next November for the first “National Cross of November 11” of the name in the majestic site of Grands-Prés. Goodbye the undergrowth of Seresville, hello Rigeard, hill overlooking the Eure and the football stadium and theater of future duels of athletes at the edge in these tortuous and muddy paths. In this heart of the Chartrain town, and for this test which will blow its 49 candles, this promises beautiful fights. As was the case during the regional cross organized in 2019 under the viaduct and which had seen in particular the successes of the Hanchois Sylvain Dodé or even the youngest (now junior) of ES Jouy / Saint-Perst Agathe Chavigny. At the next All Saints’ Day, these athletes will not be too disoriented by the change of location.
Mathieu Brulet, who takes Sylvain Dodé and Loïck Chuberre in his wake, will remain the last winner of the Seresville cross Ace race.
Let the nostalgic reassure themselves, Seresville will not be forgotten. The trail (18 km), which opens the day of cross country, will leave from Chartres to join, via Lèves, the hamlet of Mainland, before returning to Grands-Prés.
The explanation of the change of place
Alban Cherry, president of Aclam, organizing club of the Seresville cross, explains why the change of place became imperative: “Seresville welcomed each year more than 3,000 people (athletes and guides) and for us, organizers, from a security point of view , it became too cumbersome to manage. There was also the hygiene side that was lacking, because in Seresville, on the site, there is neither water nor electricity, everything had to be imported. On the Grands-Prés site, which has already hosted regional cross-country races and which receives the Chartres half-marathon every year, it was the ideal place to relaunch the event while keeping this magical date of November 11 which starts the cross season. “
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Jean-André Provost
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