- The Semnoz White Trail will take place on Saturday evening in Haute-Savoie.
- Like this race taking place in a festive atmosphere, trails on snow are appreciated throughout the winter by escape lovers.
- 20 Minutes explains to you how running up to 30 km on snow, most often at night, is an experience that is as "magical" as it is painful.
The spectacle of a human garland is not only reserved for the legendary SaintéLyon. A long line of horizontal flamps will thus tackle a snow-covered course, from 5.30 p.m. Saturday, at the Semnoz resort (Haute-Savoie). This will allow a peloton of 850 runners to discover the sunset by covering a white trail with a superb panoramic view of Mont-Blanc and the Alpine massifs. Three months before the 13th edition of the event, the registrations were already full, which speaks volumes about the popular craze for this particular racing format.
Before sharing mulled wine and Savoyard soup in a festive atmosphere, these trailers, fans of the extreme cold, will reach 1,700 m above sea level and cross 11.5 km of snow-covered paths (460 m of elevation gain). "It is hard to prepare for such races as best as possible because you do not really know what type of snow you will be dealing with," explains Thibaut Baronian, runner of Team Salomon, who has won winter trails on several occasions in Ubaye (Alpes-de -Haute-Provence) and in Mouthe (Doubs). Most of the best trailers prefer skiing to these races to prepare for their season. "
"We feel that we wear out faster"
Follower of these white trails "sometimes requiring chains so that the feet hang a little more on the icy parts", Thibaut Baronian particularly appreciates the physical dimension of these tests. "Muscle-building doesn't brew the same way as on earth," he says. We feel that we wear out faster and it is nice to work proprioception rarely in this context. "
However, "these races are much less dangerous than summer trails," said Pascal Charrat. Since the launch in 2009 of the Trail of the Fireflies which he organizes in Riotord (Haute-Loire), he only remembers one serious injury among the runners, namely a broken ankle. On the other hand, the conditions are regularly dantesque, with a peak at -18 degrees during this semi-nocturnal trail, the 12th edition of which will take place on February 1 (8, 15 and 30 km). “You have to be a little cracked to get started, the organizer laughs. But above all it is an atypical race, during which we hardly cross any road. "
"The surpassing of oneself is necessarily there"
A white escape that Jonathan Rouquairol also offers with the sixth Winter Trail (700 participants), on February 1 and 2 in Saint-Pierre-de-Chartreuse (Isère). He is aware that the snow factor is decisive for a successful edition: “The presence of snow always brings a magical atmosphere. And then surpassing oneself is inevitably there as it is trying to solicit usually inactive muscles, like on the sand, and to have receding supports ”.
How to combine intense work and high-level trail running? https://t.co/K6ZQrkc7XP via @ 20minutes
- xavier_hollandts (@xavierhollandts) June 28, 2019In addition to three formats of 8, 15 and 26 km (with 1,440 m of D +) on Sunday, the Winter Trail offers the formidable test of the vertical kilometer (900 m of D +) the day before. A special race, special strategy. Thibaut Baronian slips a pipe like this: “I remember being alone in the lead for a long time during a white trail. But as I was exhausting myself in making the tracks and the second took advantage of them, he melted my five minutes early in no time, it was really frustrating ». You are warned before your first quest for the coronation in the heart of the powder.
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