“I felt like I was flying the whole race. “While even the quadruple winner of the Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc (171 km, 10,000 m of elevation gain) François d’Haene pitched across the line, on August 28 in Chamonix, Mathieu Blanchard delivered this first unlikely reaction just after his third place. “It was an easy day for me, confirms the person with a month of hindsight. I didn’t have any onset of cramps or even body aches two days later. It allowed me to have a smile from start to finish and to chat a little with the audience. Honestly, when I arrived, I could have made the way to the UTMB in the opposite direction. “
How could a runner who took part in his first trail only five years ago achieve such a level of performance on the most challenging ultra in the world, completed in 9:12 pm? “I know I surprised a lot of people,” smiles the 34-year-old athlete. Most of the participants had never heard of me before this UTMB because I was running mainly in Quebec or in the Tropics, where camera and sponsors are absent. The beautiful romance between Mathieu Blanchard and the running world dates back to his move to Montreal in the winter of 2014.
A first jog in 2014, and a first “catastrophic” trail in 2016
At the time, this former practitioner of “adrenaline-pumping sports” (BMX, snowboarding, kitesurfing, scuba diving) left several years as an engineer in Paris, which he summed up as follows: “the party in a nightclub every weekend and absolutely zero sport ”. “In Montreal, I saw lots of people running on the hill of Mont-Royal, with tights and a completely frozen beard, I found it stylish,” remembers the 30-something from Cavaillon (Vaucluse). I started running in March 2014, at -20 ° C, to try to get back in shape. So I wanted to go to Mount Royal, which was 3 km from my home, but I wasn’t even able to get there. I think it hit my ego. “
The reaction of his ego is immediate: a registration for the Montreal marathon (42 km) for September 2014. For six months, Mathieu Blanchard trains every day and learns about running. He completed the test in 3 hours, a performance of choice for a novice. On his way, he chained a dozen marathons on the American east coast, with a personal best at 2:32 in Chicago. The poutine enthusiast (“a good recovery dish”) took part in his first trail in Quebec in June 2016 on the advice of a friend.
I wasn’t even aware that you could run in the mountains. This first trail was catastrophic for me, I did not know how to go up or down. I was passed by grandmothers. “
A first “big turn” with Salomon in Utah in 2017
But from the following month, the Canadian grandmothers no longer had the chance to rub shoulders with Mathieu Blanchard on the races, since he completed the Quebec Méga Trail (48 km, 2,500 m of elevation gain) in second position, before winning the Ultra-Trail Harricana (80 km, 2,400 m of D +) in September. The first in a long series of successes for this UFO of the discipline, going from beginner on short distance to winner of an ultra in three months.
The first “big turning point” of his career came in March 2017, when he was selected for the Salomon Ultra-Trail running academy (SURA), namely a week in Utah with fifteen young runners identified as “with potential”. . “I selected him because he really had an atypical profile,” said Grégory Vollet, manager of Team Salomon international. He learns very quickly, when you see how he made his way from marathon to ultra-trail in accelerated mode. »As long as we do, Mathieu Blanchard ends this week of training in the ultra Behind the Rock (80 km, 2,200 m D +) in second position. What convince Grégory Vollet to integrate him into Team Salomon Canada.
Professional flexibility crucial in 2019
Winner of ever longer ultrasounds afterwards in Martinique (144 km), Guadeloupe (155 km), and even on the GoreTex Transalpine Run (280 km in seven stages), he tried the UTMB for the first time in 2018. , which he concluded in 13th place in 23:53 (more than 2h30 more than last August). So many significant perfs that prompted him to resign, in January 2019, from his position as an engineer in Montreal. He is now commercial director of the runner’s clinic, a training organization that has become a world reference in the prevention of running injuries.
“To take a step forward, I understood that I had to find a different way of life from my 8 am to 5 pm in the office all week, explains the person concerned. There, I am teleworking 100% and without a schedule. So I organize my ultra-traileur training load as I want. “A flexibility which encouraged this” nomad “to spend the six months preceding the UTMB 2021 in the Alps, with numerous training sessions of more than 6 hours above 2,000 m altitude.
He favors “Koh-Lanta” at the Diagonale des Fous in October 2019
A winning bet, just like its strategy implemented upstream with Gregory Vollet, namely “a constant acceleration so that my second part of the race is faster than the first”. A rarity in ultra-trail, where the physical ravages are often numerous from 80-100 km traveled. In October 2019, Mathieu Blanchard should have taken the start of another ultra monument, the Diagonale des Fous in Reunion Island (165 km and 9,576 m D +). Except that he was contacted three days before the start of the race by the production of
Koh Lanta, and that he decided in favor of the famous TF1 show. If his adventure on The 4 Lands came to an end, its popularity exploded from airing in September 2020.
“It was a great experience of my life which brought me a lot in terms of visibility on social networks,” he confirms. But I prefer to be recognized as Mathieu Blanchard ultra-trail runner, and not Mathieu Koh-Lanta [son pseudo actuel sur Instagram, Facebook et Twitter], a product of reality TV. “His podium at the UTMB clearly” made him gain credibility “in the world of ultra. Dauphin of François D’Haene, on August 28 in Chamonix, Aurélien Dunand-Pallaz sums up the vision of the trail world on Mathieu Blanchard.
Yes, his experience on “Koh-Lanta” sticks to him a little on the circuit. I still don’t know him much, but honestly, I didn’t take him for a funny guy from “Koh-Lanta”, far from it. I knew he had a very good level, even if I did not expect him at that level on the UTMB. “
“Mathieu has a bit of a celebrity status”
Since this amazing summer performance around Mont-Blanc, Mathieu Blanchard admits to having received “big financial proposals from several sponsors”. But Grégory Vollet confides in 20 minutes that this one will henceforth integrate the International Team Salomon, which counts only eight trail runners and eight trail runners of very high level, of which the absolute references Kilian Jornet and Courtney Dauwalter.
For Salomon, this “Koh-Lanta image” was not a hindrance, quite the contrary. “Mathieu has a status a little people, between his participation in the show and his relationship with Alix [coach sportive actuellement dans Koh-Lanta, La Légende], evokes Grégory Vollet. It will allow us to reach an audience that the brand had not previously had via the trail. “
“Confined” in Gaspésie, for a crazy 650 km “off” project
Its new challenge is also linked to Koh Lanta, since he will set off on the first Marathon des Sables of his life this Friday morning, alongside Alix, but also Dorian (ex-candidate of the 4 Lands) and his adventurer friend Loury Lag. On the menu 250 km in seven days, in food self-sufficiency, in the heat of the Moroccan desert. “I remain a competitor so why not go and titillate the Moroccans, who are a little intractable on their land,” he smiles.
This MDS would be almost a short format for Mathieu Blanchard, compared to his project off launched last year, due to Covid-19 and the cancellation of most races. The ultra-traileur had indeed completed the 650 km (30,000 m of D +!) Of the only GR in North America (the GR A1), in the Gaspé forest (Quebec), in seven days. The film Confined, the story of his XXL challenge, was a huge success in Canada last month, with some 20 sold-out screenings. Enough to reinforce Mathieu Blanchard in his desire to move towards a career “50% races, 50% adventurer’s challenges”. And 100% goofy.