Round 6 - DYNAFIT SKI TOURING COURCHEVEL - 15 January 2014

Melanie Bernier and Yoann Sert win the 6th stage of the Dynafit Ski Touring Courchevel.

With 525 ski mountaineering enthusiasts ranked since the start of the “Dynafit Ski Touring Courchevel” (DSTC) season, this 4th season of the DSTC looks promising. The success of this ski touring climb of 3.2 km and 500 metres of elevation gain between Le Praz and Courchevel 1850 was again there at this 6th stage of the DSTC, with 121 participants on the start line. From 6 pm the competitors set off one by one on this time trial, lit for the occasion by the full moon.

With the Ski Mountaineering World Cup and the Open Millet French Cup only a few days away, to be held on 25 and 26 January, many athletes came to scout the course of the Sunday 26 January Vertical Race, which will be on the same course as the DSTC. After seeing Spaniard Kilian Jornet, Swede Emelie Forsberg, American Meredith Edwards, French athletes Mathéo Jacquemoud, Laetitia Roux and many others come through, it was the turn of Canadian Melanie Bernier to come and scout during this 6th stage.
With the first World Cup stage starting this weekend in Verbier, Switzerland, the best athletes in the world are at the peak of their form, and quite naturally Melanie Bernier of the Canadian national team won this Wednesday 15 January in 31min26s. Marion Mathieu took second place in 32min40s and Charlotte Le Roux of ESF Le Grand Bornand completed the podium in 34min17s, posting the best time of the evening in the ESF challenge among female instructors.

Posting the third best time in the provisional standings of the season in 23min52s behind Kilian Jornet and Mathéo Jacquemoud, Yoann Sert set a remarkable time and comfortably took the lead of this 6th stage of the DSTC. Rémi Berchet of the club Courchevel Sports Mountaineering finished second (26min49s) ahead of Tony Portanier of ESF Courchevel 1550, who set the best ESF challenge time of this climb in 27min01.

If the race for the record is now well and truly under way for the top names of the discipline and the instructors in the ESF Challenge, the same goes for the less seasoned. Indeed, while this race lets the best specialists come and fight for the season record or fine-tune their training, ski mountaineering amateurs also find what they are looking for by setting themselves different goals: improving their time, beating a friend, comparing themselves with others, trying to get under a certain time… A multitude of challenges are possible, and among the locals there is no shortage of them, like Jean-Marc Sullice (39min18s) and Philippe Mugnier (41min11s), who give their best every Wednesday to try to arrive first. But also Patrice Rey (52min08s), Dominique Chambard (31min36s) or Christophe Mongellaz (46min18s), who try every Wednesday to improve their own time. Without forgetting those who set themselves a time target, like Sébastien Figliolini , manager of the partner shop “Le Camp de Base”, who this time had decided to finish in under 29 minutes and achieved his goal in 28min26s.