It’s a bachelor party launch scenario that expects 180 runners on Sunday. At 6:30 a.m., they will in fact be loaded into buses from Lake Serre-Ponçon (Hautes-Alpes), without having the slightest idea where they will drop them off. They simply know that they will not be entitled to a premature aperitif but to a trail race of around thirty kilometers to reach Embrun, with quite a difference in altitude, between 1,600 and 2,400 m of elevation gain. Once installed in their adventure shuttle, the athletes will discover the profile of this astonishing event, with the refreshment points indicated. And a promise: 100% of the journey will be new.
We fully touch on the concept of “Rendezvous on an unknown trail”, which will have its second edition on the Grand Trail of Serre-Ponçon, while the Annecy Maxi-Race also offers a surprise marathon race similar to it. Last year, the 180 lucky people (the formula fills up very quickly each time) began their journey from Gourniers, a village of 14 inhabitants at the entrance to the Ecrins park. “They will again start from a completely lost place, in an area where no one will race,” smiles Jean-Michel Faure-Vincent, the race director born in Embrun. We are in a setting like on American trails, without sound system, with simply a big campfire and a coffee before attacking. »
Thibaut Baronian, professional athlete “in panic”
A minimalist scenario which clearly contrasts with the Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc (UTMB), whose 20th edition welcomed 10,000 runners two weeks ago, and which quickly obtained the support of the trail world. Gabriel Champigny, a 27-year-old Canadian living in Annecy, jumped at the opportunity this year: “I find this concept fun, I really want to adapt to an environment that I will completely discover. » The Haut-Savoyard Karl Sipos (43 years old) recognizes that it is clearly this atypical format which pushed him to take an interest in the Grand Trail of Serre-Ponçon (1,800 participants in total over six different races) from the year past: “Since we know absolutely nothing about the route, that leaves us with a wide range of possibilities. We really jump into a form of the unknown. » Which results in an event that he finds “less formatted” and “with a more jovial community”.
Dimensions that attract even elite trail runners like Thibaut Baronian (Salomon), winner in 2022 and present again on Sunday. “He was in panic the day before the race, Jean-Michel Faure-Vincent room. He wanted to scrape information to the end. We see how disturbing it is for an athlete not to know what type of shoes to choose and to have to be much more attentive to the running environment and intersections. Without the part of the unknown, Thibaut Baronian It would have taken less than 2 hours but at no point does he know where he is going to go. » He still “beat everyone up” (dixit Karl Sipos) by completing the 28 km and 1,650 m of D+ in 2h26 on this first edition. “It’s a change from classic formats, it’s fun and exciting, much more than stressful,” confides the 34-year-old professional trail runner. These additional constraints add spice. And in this sport, you have to work on your adaptability. »
“For ten years, there has been a NASA side to the trail”
In addition to Thibaut Baronian, two other elite athletes from Team Salomon, Julie Roux and Théo Detienne, will be there on Sunday. “The idea is to return to the sources of our sport, to the DNA of trail running: to go from point A to point B,” summarizes Jean-Michel Faure-Vincent, also team manager at Salomon. Participants do not have the track on their phone, and even if they cannot get lost, they must be attentive to spot flags at intersections. For ten years, we have been analyzing everything, there is a NASA side to the trail with all this data. We plan the time we have to spend on this or that portion. It feels good to break the codes. » Limited to 180, to avoid traffic jams on the trails around Lake Serre-Ponçon, trail runners share this idea of traveling through time, like Karl Sipos.
Personally, I study the GPX tracks before each event and I always set a time goal for any race I take part in. There, I don’t have to think about my passage times, the sections, the differences in altitude. No, I rediscover the desire to escape from the beginnings of trail running, before this discipline took shape and evolved with a real competitive dimension, whatever our level. »
There, the main objective is to let yourself be carried away by the dizzying landscapes of the Hautes-Alpes, while not missing the markings. Twentieth in the first edition of this “Rendezvous on an unknown trail”, which took place on the “magnificent” Mont Guillaume, Karl Sipos concludes: “It’s a breath of fresh air in a world that has become standardized. » Let him rest assured, with six completely different courses in mind for the next editions, and the desire to push the race to an 80 km formula, Jean-Michel Faure-Vincent has what it takes to guarantee him a package of “escapes” in the near future.