ROUND 7 - DYNAFIT SKI TOURING COURCHEVEL - 19 January 2011

Perrier / Pellicier, a fine fight for the win.

On Wednesday 12 January, Florent Perrier, multiple ski mountaineering world champion, had taken the climb record of the Dynafit Ski Touring Courchevel by beating by 1 second Alexandre Pellicier, the event’s challenger, and had announced that he would return to improve his time.

Alexandre Pellicier, who won the World Cup “sprint” event on 9 January in Pelvoux in the Ecrins massif, returned to Courchevel for the 7th edition of the Dynafit Ski Touring to try to regain his place as leader.

At the start, 46 participants were present, including Robert Simon, who has taken part in every round, and of course our two champions, who were highly motivated to beat the record. Florent Perrier chose to start first in the time trial that begins at Le Praz and ends at Courchevel 1850, followed at 20-second intervals by Adelin Favre of the CAF Haut Giffre, Alexandre Pellicier and all the other competitors.

New record for Florent Perrier

After a fierce fight against the clock and difficult snow conditions, Florent Perrier set a new record in 24min17s ahead of Alexandre Pellicier, who stayed 4 seconds behind in 24min21, and Adelin Favre, who finished in 27min34s.

Among the women, no record, which remains with Gabrielle Magnanat in 30min44s, but a fine podium. Catherine Minary took the top step of the podium, finishing in 38min42s, followed by Sévrine Gonthier in 39min23s and Aude Joncquiert.

All the winners of this 7th edition were rewarded, as every Wednesday, in the Forum by the event’s partners, Jean-Jacques Delmau, director of the “Camp de Base”, Christophe Normand, director of the ESF of Courchevel 1850, and Laurent Setiey, director of the estate agency “Vallat Immobilier”.

As the record is becoming harder and harder to improve and seconds are starting to be precious for the final standings, the organising team of the Courchevel Sports Alpinisme association met to put into effect, for the next climbs, the rule that makes it compulsory to pass the bypass points marked on the course by flags, on pain of disqualification. This rule will not prevent the record from improving and dropping below the 24-minute mark.