Savignargues (France) (AFP)

The Tour de France in 14 days, nearly 8,000 kilometers on the odometer ... confined to its 14 square meter living room, the ultra-triathlete Pascal Pich pedaled like a madman to collect material for the nursing staff mobilized against the new coronavirus .

In Savignargues, a small Gard village halfway between Alès and Nîmes, Pascal Pich is not confined like the others. Five-time world champion in ultra-triathlon, extreme endurance sport combining swimming, cycling and running over very long distances, he runs for hours on a home trainer, a static bike installed on rollers.

"The mileage is quite monstrous but it is nothing exceptional. What is exceptional is to do it all alone and locked up. The idea is just to pedal", tells AFP Pascal Pich .

He does it for a good cause: one of his business partners has joined his challenges and provides caregivers with equipment (coffee machines, microwaves, ping-pong tables).

The more people "like" on his official Facebook page, where he keeps two to three "lives" a day, the more material there is for medical staff. "A hundred machines have been brought to nursing staff in 28 different hospitals," says Pascal Pich.

It all started in the first week of containment. He looked for ways to help caregivers on the front lines of the Covid-19 pandemic.

"Everyone does as he wants, and I want to pedal, so I pedal. What other people think, I don't care. It's also stupid to be in your living room watching your TV at sticking binouzes ", says the athlete, who has received the support of several TV personalities, such as Michel Drucker or Cyril Hanouna, and the singer Fabienne Thibeault.

- Veranda for horizon -

His first challenge: to run the equivalent of the 21 stages of the Tour de France in 14 days, without ever leaving home. Or 3,471 km traveled. After a short week of recovery, he returned to his stationary bike for 54 hours of racing over 6 days, the equivalent of a week of work for the doctors.

And since April 24, he has pedaled in "3x8, like the medical teams", or "eight hours of pedaling, eight hours of recovery".

By Friday, he will have reached his goal of 88 hours of cycling in 7 days, covering each session of eight hours between 250 and 320 km.

In total, he will therefore have covered 8,000 km, alone in his short stay with the only horizon being his veranda where his sports clothes are drying.

"I'm all alone in the apartment. It's super hard to manage because I'm locked in a room that's about 14 square meters. There is very little air," says the record holder. of the world, including that of the 6 days on a stationary bike (3,165 km) signed in May 2018.

Around him, a time similar to those that display records at major athletics meetings, a computer and a TV screen where he can watch movies.

"I hope for everyone that this will be the last challenge. Because I'm starting to get a little scorched, because that will mean that we will have progressed anyway with this virus. And that the medical staff is a a little more relaxed, "he hopes.

© 2020 AFP