• At 29, the Ligérienne Camille Bruyas is already one of the best ultra-trail specialists in France.

  • The athlete Salomon will participate, from this Friday (5 p.m.), in his first Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc (UTMB, 171 km and 10,000 m of elevation gain) from Chamonix (Haute-Savoie).

  • Between basketball, yoga and VW California van,

    20 Minutes

    presents this "free electron", physiotherapist in his professional life.

Would Camille Bruyas be on the start line of the Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc, this Friday (5 p.m.) in Chamonix (Haute-Savoie), if she had not grown up in Saint-Denis-sur-Coise ? Listening to the 29-year-old ultra-trail runner, probably the best French luck over the 171 km (10,000 m of elevation gain) of the UTMB, growing up in this town of less than 800 inhabitants of the Loire triggered her taste for l 'physical effort. “My father was a farmer and I lived in the countryside, 10 miles from the first real village,” she says. I always ran around the house, just like that, and had no choice but to move around a lot on my bike. "

So much so that in the summer, at the time of the dreaded physical preparation before each basketball season in Feurs, Camille Bruyas stands out.

“For me, it was easy, I still had the cash register in mid-August, unlike my friends,” she smiles.

I was even bored on the land and the coach quickly put me on the ground because I had to work more on skill than cardio.

"

Our dossier on the trail

“I was wondering what the hell was on my mind!

"

Uncomfortable with the “competitive atmosphere” of basketball, the indoor player refuses to try her luck at the France pole in Lyon. At 18, his studies in medicine, then physiotherapy, will gradually encourage him to focus on athletics. “I started with cross country, 3,000m, then 5,000, 10,000, and I gradually lengthened the distance,” she recalls. Up to a small 160,000 m around Mont-Blanc 11 years later.

For Camille Bruyas, the discovery with the world of trail running really takes place during his two years spent in Reunion Island (from 2016 to 2018).

“There are few athletic tracks there.

To discover the island, the ideal is the trail.

"She had a lot of fun on the unmissable running event of Reunion, the Grand Raid, where she attacked by the Mascarene Islands (65 km, 4,040 m of D +) in October 2016." At the time, it was tis the first time that I have embarked on such a long format.

I was wondering what the hell I was doing leading the race!

"

On the Diagonale des Fous, she "just wanted to end it"

It went off to snatch a prestigious success in 9:32, just like a year later on the Bourbon Trail (111 km, 6,200 m of D +) in 18:51.

Something to catch the eye of Salomon La Réunion.

Before returning to the metropolis, she dared to embark in October 2018 on the monument that is the Diagonale des Fous (165 km, 9,576 m of D +).

Despite a promising 5th place in the women's table in 32:10, her first ultra major remains strangely "a bad memory".

“It was very long, very hard, with a lot of hiking, describes the Ligérienne.

I was not ready.

I hadn't liked it at all and just wanted to end it.

Frankly, at the finish line, I announced that I would never do this distance again.

But now I know that I will come back to "the Diag" someday.

"

"It reminds me a little of François D'Haene in his early days"

In the meantime, Camille Bruyas is able to win reference races like the SaintéLyon 2019 (75 km in 6:54) and especially the Lavaredo (Italy, 120 km in 2:06 pm) last June, but also to sign the Top 10 last year on shorter formats (23 to 34 km) of the Golden Trail Series.

"We do not yet know its limits or its best format, analyzes Jean-Michel Faure-Vincent, his manager within Team Salomon.

In any case, I can see that after 14 hours of racing, she has no injuries and she rides without worry.

It reminds me a little of François D'Haene in his early days.

"

Not only because both share a professional physiotherapy training, before the reorientation of the Rhodanien as a winegrower in Beaujolais in 2012. No, Camille Bruyas' “free electron” has room for improvement and a “way of thinking” that have in the past made François D'Haene a triple winner of the UTMB.

The secrets of the young trail runner are numerous, between "a good balance of life" sport-physiotherapist (about thirty hours of work in three days each week as a liberal), an intense yoga practice helping her "for the recovery ”, and the omnipresence of his companion Antoine Relave.

(VW) "California love" with the physiotherapist of AG2R

She is able to do more than 350 km on her road bike in three days with this physiotherapist from AG2R and the French cycling team. "He's my boyfriend but he's also my brain," she laughs. He thinks of everything for me and he will ensure my assistance on the UTMB. It's a real job in its own right. “For life, the couple made the bet, on their return from Reunion in 2018, to live almost exclusively in a VW California van.

“It's a very good way to go and train as I wish with friends,” she appreciates. A month ago, Thibaut Baronian told me he was in Maurienne. Hop, I disembark and we run together. I am independent with my truck, I have everything in it, that's what I love. "A" coolness "that is felt in his approach to major trail events. "Camille is always very relaxed," confirms Germain Grangier, ultra-trail runner and companion of the American Katie Schide, Camille's great friend on the ultra-feminine circuit. All these loopholes allow him to let go of a certain pressure. Camille Bruyas has his explanation on this point.

During my medical studies, I was very stressed about life.

I believe those years changed me.

It was so stressful that since then I tell myself that nothing can be so stressful.

I choose to go run 170 terminals, no one is forcing that on me.

"

"So many adventures, and even magic in the ultra"

Her tropism for the queen distance of extreme trails has been formed over time, especially as the physiotherapist based in Annecy is aware of "peaking" on shorter formats. “There are so many adventures, and even ultra magic, beyond pure physical performance and limits to explore in your body,” she says. I love discovering places and staying there for a few days after the race, like recently the Dolomites, which I did not know at all before the Lavaredo. When you do 120 kiosks on site, you get a good overview of the region. "

3rd in August 2019 on the CCC (101 km and 6,100 m of D +), “little sister of the UTMB”, Camille Bruyas should have taken the start of the Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc last year, but the Covid-19 decided otherwise.

Can we speak of a virtual leap into the unknown, three years after its only identical distance completed in Reunion?

“A 171 terminals is not at all a 100 and I don't know if I'll be ready,” admits trail runner Salomon.

It's not in my temper to be sure of myself anyway.

"

"My goal is really to finish the race"

A character trait that the management of his team has clearly seen. “Camille has a permanent questioning, confirms Jean-Michel Faure-Vincent. So much so that before Lavaredo, she did not believe in victory and she kept telling me that she was not at the level of her friend Katie Schide. “With the outcome we know in Cortina d'Ampezzo, the American finishing 22 minutes behind her regular training partner.

Can she really dream of a coronation on Saturday from her first participation in the biggest ultra event of the year?

"I see it well placed," comments cautiously Jean-Michel Faure-Vincent.

Why would she be afraid of someone on the UTMB?

"Unsurprisingly, the speech is much more measured on the side of the person concerned:" It may seem silly but my goal is really to finish the race.

Why should she force her nature, exactly?

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