Act 2 - MILLET SKI TOURING COURCHEVEL - Wednesday 20 December 2023

The Millet Ski Touring Courchevel 2024 gets off to a flying start!

This 14th year of the MSTC is still full of surprises. 16 rounds are on the programme for this new season. It began last Saturday with the Vertical Race event of the French Championships. The bar is already high, with reference times set by Emily Harrop in 25min25s and Thibault Anselmet in 21min21s, but nothing is decided at this stage of the competition. The race for the Raymond and René Millet 2024 trophies, awarded on 20 March at the grand final, is only just beginning and promises exceptional performances.

Aurélien Dunand-Pallaz wins the second round of the MSTC 2024

Many internationally renowned sportspeople from all sports are expected to take on this 3.2 km course with 500 m of elevation gain. In this second round, ultra-trail runner Aurélien Dunand-Pallaz, 2023 winner of the Hardrock 100 in Colorado and of the Diagonale des Fous in La Réunion, came to put in his early-season performance. A member of the organising club Courchevel Sports Outdoor, whose main goal for 2024 is to win the UTMB, he won in 24min07s. “I’m very satisfied with this first timed benchmark. I’ve beaten my personal record that I set in 2019 in 24min26s.” He has decided to get into the timing game by coming regularly to the event to improve his performance while preparing for his next trail running season, like American Jim Walmsley, winner in 2023 of the MSTC and the UTMB.

16th overall in 2023 in 24min17s, Poland’s Sebastian Druszkiewicz, a former speed skater with 2 Olympic participations at Vancouver 2010 and Sochi 2014, completed his warm-up lap in 25min21s. On the 3rd step of the podium, Louis Cardoso, an elite cyclist in 2023 for Vélo Club Villefranche sur Saône, will try this winter to put what he has learned in the cycling world to use to break into the ski mountaineering hierarchy. With a time of 26min29s, he improved by 30 seconds on the one set last Saturday at the French championships. He left Olympic rowing gold medallist at Sydney 2000, Jean-Christophe Bette, credited with 27min36s, at the foot of the podium.

Winning return for Géraldine Bau

A loyal competitor with many victories to her name until 2018, Géraldine Bau had been unable to return to the event until today. She won without difficulty in 34min04s ahead of Lola Even Hibon (38min25s) and the ultra-loyal Pascale Gachet Mauroz of the ESF Courchevel Village (41min02s), record holder for the number of MSTC participations.

At the start and on the finish line of this second round, 1997 professional road cycling World Champion Laurent Brochard honoured us with his presence, coming to cheer on his wife Audrey, silver medal in 47min33s.

Plum special next week…

The full moon will be there for the 3rd round, which will take place on Wednesday 27 December on the official MSTC course. Two other “Full Moon” dates are scheduled for Wednesdays 24 January and 21 February 2024. For these 3 Plum specials, a pair of Plum bindings will be drawn by lot among all the participants. Next Wednesday, it will be a pair of R170 bindings that will be given to one of the valiant competitors.

Next date: Millet Ski Touring Courchevel on Wednesday 27 December 2023