Act 2 - DYNAFIT MOONtain RACES COURCHEVEL - 23 July 2013

Julien Rancon takes back control of the Dynafit MOONtain Races Courchevel.

The full moon was hard to spot this Tuesday 23 July on the second stage of the Dynafit MOONtain Races Courchevel (DMRC) 2013, with stormy conditions and clouds building over the massifs. But despite everything, the weather stayed kind throughout the race. At 8.30 pm, the starting signal was given for this 9.3 km night trail (100 m of descent / 800 m of elevation gain) linking Courchevel Moriond to the Grand Plan Refuge, organised by the association “Courchevel Sports Alpinisme”.

At the start of this time trial, the competitors set off one by one every 20 seconds according to their estimated time, allowing the less trained to start at the front and the most experienced to leave last.

This time, the last to start was the DMRC 2012 winner in 47min59s, Julien Rancon. With a 3rd place at the trail running world championship on 6 July, Julien Rancon of the Adidas Aco Firminy team did not take long to overtake all his pursuers and take the new provisional record of the season in 48min22s, previously held by Erik Clavery in 49min57s. “I haven’t yet fully recovered from the world championship, which is perhaps why I couldn’t manage to improve on my record from last year, but I’m very happy with the result. 23 seconds off last year isn’t much, but to go under the 48-minute mark you have to be in top form,” Julien told us at the finish.
Arnaud Bonin of Team Scott Odlo Les Saisies, the only one not caught by Julien on the climb, took second place in 48min48s and Ludovic Pellé, French veteran mountain running champion and team winner of the Dynafit X2 Courchevel last Sunday, took third place in 51min13s.
Laurent Brochard, 1997 road cycling champion, was also there and finished just off the podium with a time of 54min40s.
Also worthy of note is the performance of Baptiste Blanc, son of refuge keeper Lionel Blanc, who at only 11 years old finished in 1h16min55s.

In the women’s race, the provisional record set by Stéphanie Duc on 25 June in 59min49s was not threatened by Aurélie Carlin, who won this second stage in 1h19min46s ahead of Oriane Miton of HTAC in 1h21min32s and Olga Albert in 1h22min28s.

Many spectators were there to cheer on the runners. Indeed, after the 3rd kilometre before the finish, the trail runners were treated to a concerto of bells from the cows posted along the course. At the refuge, the keeper Lionel Blanc and his whole team had once again done everything to give the participants a warm welcome and had prepared the mountain buffet with the soup from the cauldron, which delighted everyone.