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Father-son team win first Reality TV challenge

Dan Dube and his son Simon won their first challenge for French TV show A Fond De Train, in the city of Toronto, and can be seen competing in Ottawa to see if they can carry on until the end
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Dan Dube and his son Simon competed in Ottawa after winning in Toronto on the French reality show A Fond De Train, airing this Saturday. Photo courtesy of Dan Dube.

There was an air of excitement when North Bay’s Dan Dube and his eleven-year-old son, Simon took the win in Toronto on their first day of French reality show ‘A Fond De Train.’

In the cross-country competition, two duos compete starting in Vancouver and ending in Halifax with many stops in between, Dube and his son landed their shot to compete, jumping on the train in Sudbury, and facing their first of potentially many challenges. The catch: the winners get back on the train to face a new duo, while the losers go back home.

But despite coming against a veteran team, Dan and Simon managed to edge the win in a stressful, day-long encounter in Toronto.

“We were certainly very enthusiastic about it,” Dube said. “It was a great feeling to come from behind and score the win.”

He said the whole day, being their first time competing together with these challenges, posed initially difficult, having to figure out the flow of the game under the pressure of losing as well as the cameras.

“The biggest challenge was the fact that we didn’t quite know what to expect, the other team had won Winnipeg and Sudbury so they knew what to expect,” he said. “We started and weren’t quite sure, but then things got rolling for us and we caught up with them.”

Dube said it all came down to a turning point when the other team got out of their car further away from the location than he and Simon did, giving them the opportunity they needed to snatch the win.

The next stop on their journey, Ottawa will be airing this Saturday morning on Unis TV—Cogeco 530/560, Bell Fibe 141/1141, Bell Satellite et Telus 150, Shaw et Shaw Direct 741—for those with French-language packages, as well as on their website Saturday afternoon for a week afterward.

Dube said going into their second challenge, with a win under their belts, there was a lot of pressure, but they felt a lot more confident in the location, as a team, and with the experience of knowing what to expect.

“To prepare for Toronto I did some studying of the locations, but Ottawa I had a better idea because I lived there for five years while in university,” he said. “We talked it over, to be more thorough with the clues and work on communication. While we in Toronto, it was mostly in a car during the day, dealing with traffic and construction, but in Ottawa, there was a lot more running on foot.”

The duo, originally wanting to win at least one city on the show, decided that they wanted to make their way all the way to the end, in Halifax, so the pressure was on to win Ottawa and continue on to Quebec City.

“We felt confident but you never know what’s going to happen and you never know what’s going on, on their side. I think in generally things went smoothly for us,” Dube said, without divulging the results of the competition. “It’s really awesome to see ourselves on TV, but the best thing is seeing people around us who are proud of us seeing us and getting excited to see us again next week.”

So make sure to tune in to see how far Dan Dube and his son Simon make it on the cross-country ride.