Becoming the first runner to win four Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc (UTMB) on August 28, after his coronations in 2012, 2014 and 2017, should not be a big enough challenge for François D’Haene. The Rhone ultra-trail runner is indeed setting off this Friday (at 2 p.m. in France) on the Hardrock 100 (160 km and 10,000 m of elevation gain). From 2018 to 2020, the formidable American race was refused to him, having first not been drawn by the organization, then due to cancellations linked to snowfall and Covid-19.
Arrived in the legendary Colorado Rockies on July 1, in order to best digest the eight hours of jet lag and altitude, with several portions of the race beyond 4,000 m on the menu, the Beaujolais winegrower continues to track down. He traveled up to 50 km each day, while discovering Handies Peak, the summit of the race located at 4,285 m.
“You can quickly crash on the Hardrock 100”
With its minimalist indications and its systematic change of direction, from one edition to another, the Hardrock 100 can play sacred tricks on the very small field of 146 riders drawn at random. “There can be a feeling of isolation as rarely there, says Jean-Michel Faure-Vincent, manager of Team Salomon, in which François D’Haene is evolving. It happens to see absolutely no one for 40 terminals, which can be stressful in the middle of the night. We can therefore quickly crash. This is one of the rare ultra races in the world where it is necessary to enter all the mapping in your GPS watch. “
First French winner on the Hardrock 100 in 25h17, ten years ago, Julien chorier actually remembers a “summary markup”, which had even pushed him to “go out roadbook and map ”. But GPS watches have since simplified the situation for runners and the challenge will be elsewhere, according to the runner of Team Hoka One One, another tricolor competing this Friday: “It’s a mix between very fast passages and difficulties that we have to face almost 2,000 m higher than in our other races. This very high altitude complicates a lot of things. “
The precious advice of Kilian Jornet
How will François D’Haene react to this data, for his first race in the Rockies, at 35? “When it comes to adapting to the mountains and even sometimes improvising, François is monstrous,” says Jean-Michel Faure-Vincent. When he won his first UTMB in 2012, he discovered like all runners the new shortened course due to the bad weather. He had then adapted wonderfully to this hazard. “
To optimize his preparation, François D’Haene explained on social networks to have took advice with the other benchmark of the ultra Kilian Jornet, winner of the Hardrock 100 four years in a row (from 2014 to 2017) and not engaged in 2021. Until then, the Rhone will be accompanied by two pacers renowned Americans in the second half of the race, with Dakota Jones and Jim Walmsley, triple winner of the Western States, the other ultra-trail the most recognized across the Atlantic.
Two hours to cover 800 m in Cape Verde!
So many elements that place the 35-year-old athlete among the favorites of this edition of the Western 100, as Julien Chorier attests. Former partners at Salomon, they trained together on Tuesday for the first 15 km of the event. “François is in great shape, and on paper, he is the strongest for the Western 100,” explains the trail runner of Hoka One One. I’ve enjoyed him for a very long time and if he does a full race I wouldn’t be ashamed to finish two hours after him. This event has everything to suit him, I do not see a grain of sand concerning him. But an ultra is still hard for everyone, even for him… ”
François D’Haene is particularly well placed to know it, as he has experienced a painful recovery this year, after a blank season due to the Covid-19 pandemic. On May 11 in Cape Verde, on the island of San Antao displaying 40 ° C, the one who trained in the snow in Arêches-Beaufort (Savoie) a few days earlier suffered terribly to complete the 115 km (7,500 m of D +). Jean-Michel Faure-Vincent recounts this unexpected day without:
No one had ever seen Francois like this. It took more than double the expected time [près de 29 heures]. He was at the end of the dehydration end. At one point, he was suffering from so many cramps that it took him nearly two hours to reach a refreshment station located 800 m away! But out of respect for the organizers and for his sport, he insisted on finishing the event, where 99% of the riders would have let go. He may well be the world number one, it remains a human who, that day, dried up on the spot. “
“No rider has won the Hardrock and the UTMB back-to-back”
If he has not put on a bib since, as was planned in his season program, François D’Haene is not the type to doubt. He captured the benefits, “on the mental level”, of this mishap, which he concluded with humility more than three hours from the victorious female duo Sissi Cussot-Manon Bohard. What better rebound could he afford than a new prestigious line to his list, before trying to mark even more the history of his sport, at the end of August in Chamonix?
“No rider has won these two ultras who are linked in just six weeks so it’s a good little challenge,” smiles his manager at Salomon. He has now acquired a crazy experience and he knows how to avoid getting into the wall. After all, in 2014, François D’Haene had won in six months a hallucinating triptych of ultras, Mount Fuji, UTMB and Diagonale des Fous. It’s up to him to be again “ wild and tough ”, the eternal motto of this fascinating Hardrock 100.
The classification of the race can be followed live here from 2 p.m. this Friday.