Round 17 - DYNAFIT SKI TOURING COURCHEVEL - 27 March 2013

Naila Jornet and Mathéo Jacquemoud win the 17th Dynafit Ski Touring Courchevel.

To celebrate this last Dynafit Ski Touring Courchevel of the season, registration was free for participants in fancy dress, and after the race a meal prepared by the Hôtel Le Chabichou was offered to all competitors. A participation record with 172 runners present pleasantly surprised Guillaume Prin , chairman of the organising association “Courchevel Sports Alpinisme”, and his whole team, who did not expect such a success. Even the municipality’s elected officials did not want to miss this meeting at any price, asking for the municipal council scheduled at the same time to be postponed.

Before setting off on this 3.2 km course with 500 m of elevation gain, a “Harlem Shake” was improvised at the start area to create a crazy atmosphere. This brief moment when all the participants started dancing and wriggling in a wacky way, to the great delight of the spectators, was immortalised by a video that can be seen on the Facebook page of “Courchevel Sports Alpinisme”.

After this little warm-up, the competitors could take the start of this time trial. Many of the participants had dressed up for the occasion. Denis Megte , instructor at ESF Courchevel, had turned into a sumo wrestler, Philippe Mugnier , the deputy mayor, had dressed up as Sergeant Garcia, Dominique Chapuis , also a deputy mayor, had decided to get into the skin of Bob Marley and Eric Brèche, municipal councillor, into that of Elvis Presley, Mireille Bartnicki had once again managed to confuse the photographers with her cheerleader outfit, Jean-Marc Sullice was the clown of the evening among the nuns, a cowboy, a frog, a gorilla, a monk and plenty of other original outfits. Not forgetting the performance of Stéphane Henne , who climbed on skins dressed as a cyclist with a bike between his legs!

In this good atmosphere, the 2013 Pierra Menta winner, Mathéo Jacquemoud , won this final round of the season in 24min03s ahead of Florent Perrier in 24min26s and William Perrier in 26min30s.

Among the girls, Catalan Naila Jornet, Kilian’s sister, won in 34min20s ahead of super woman Gaëlle Martin in 35min51s and Caroline Freslon-Bette in 36min01s.

For the first time this season, the three ESF directors took part in the DSTC at the same time, and in the end Paul Richoux of ESF Courchevel 1650 won in 44min42s ahead of Christophe Normand of ESF Courchevel 1850 in 46min25s and Loic Lemoine of ESF Courchevel 1550 in 50min35s.

The season records go to Emelie Forsberg and Mathéo Jacquemoud.

This 3rd Dynafit Ski Touring Courchevel season, which began on 12 December, came to an end this Wednesday 27 March after 17 rounds and a participation record with 1,376 starts given and 785 different competitors.

Mathéo Jacquemoud took the record for this 2012-2013 season with a time of 22min40s ahead of Kilian Jornet Burgada in 22min48s and William Bon Mardion in 23min02s.

The women’s record was won by Swede Emelie Forsberg in 27min14s. Axelle Mollaret took second place in 27min53s ahead of Valentine Favre in 29min26s.

Both records were rewarded with a pair of Dynafit ‘Dy.N.A’ touring skis and €500 prize money in vouchers for the shop ‘Le Camp de Base’.

The deputy mayor, Fernand Mugnier, present for the prize-giving, had planned a surprise by contacting live by telephone the famous sports journalist Nelson Monfort who had come to take part in the climb on 26 December and who, as usual, congratulated all the participants.

While waiting for next winter and the 4th season of the DSTC, the association ‘Courchevel Sports Mountaineering’ will offer on 20 April a mountain triathlon, the ‘Dynafit X3 Courchevel’, linking three disciplines (cycling, trail running and ski touring) to discover an exceptional setting, from the lowest point of the Courchevel resort at Le Carrey (830 m) to the highest point at La Saulire (2,710 m). A fine challenge in prospect.